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Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The "Crime Does Not Pay" series at MGM was a fast-moving collection of shorts, a variety of different situations of the law battling less than law-abiding citizens. Graff, murder, robbery, jail breaks and even an illegal baby racket were amongst the plot lines in this long-running part of MGM's shorts division. What is noticeable about these shorts is the fact that many of them couldn't be expanded past their 20 minute running time, and when MGM did get on the crime racket in their feature films, they weren't as successful as what Warner Brothers had done the decade before with Cagney and Robinson. Even then, Warners was the king of the gangster film, with those two still in the running and Bogart, John Garfield and George Raft more adept than the second stringers at MGM who were given on-screen screen tests in "B" features like this in order to prove their meddle.Here, it is young Robert Sterling playing the lead, and he tries to prove his toughness in prison by kicking his seemingly tired bunkmate out of the lower berth. A violent but comical scene follows, but there's more to Sterling than meets the machine gun. Before you know it, he's on the run after a prison escape with a very young (and non-dancing) Dan Dailey and by some accident encounters Dailey's worried sister (Donna Reed) who has been searching for him. Charles Winninger offers comic relief as a doctor who appears to be bedridden and dying but is most likely recovering from cirrhosis of the liver.Typical plot twists include one of the characters actually a federal investigator in disguise and another character being revealed to be "Mister Big" even though they have been providing comedy all along. "Auntie Em" Clara Blandick shows up briefly as a comic landlady, and there's some amusing dialog exchanges between Sterling and Reed. But a lot of the script features lines of speech which are senseless, as if the whole thing was rushed together. A lot longer than most "B" crime movies which MGM made during this time, and being six times longer than one of the "Crime Doesn't Pay Series" makes this seem stretched out to a needless length, ultimately making this one a major disappointment.

****SPOILERS**** Re-make of the 1935 gangster movie "Public Hero" this new and updated version has a 20 year old Donna Reed in her film debut as Terry O'Reilly-a fine Irish lass-who's brother Johnny "Dinkie" Black played by future song & dance man Dan Dailey had crashed out of prison. With a bullet in his chest and fellow convict Jeff Crane, Robert Sterling,the two head out to Chicago to lay low until the heat, law, cools off. Its then that we learn that convict Crane is really an undercover FBI Agent who got into prison and close to Dinkie so he can lead him to the notorious "River Gang" that he's the leader of. Hold out at a flophouse run by fellow but now released convict Moose Jones, Ernie Whitman, Dinkie makes more trouble for himself when in a spur of the moment he guns Moose down when he shows some interest in the $5,000.00 reward he can earn for himself in turning Dinkie in.It's when Dinkie together with Crane get back to his home, a mansion with a Chinese butler, in Scottsford Wisconsin that Crane runs into Terry who at first he didn't know was Dinkie's kid sister, small world isn't it, and falls in love with her. With Dinkie on the mend due to him being treated by part time mob doctor and full time drunk Josiah Glass, Charles Winninger, he now plans to reunite with his gang and get back into business of payrolls robberies which the gang specializes in. That's unless Crane get the word out to his boss in the FBI Jim Duff, Donald Douglas, the gangs future plans and where their hideout is located!Not all the believable in that Doc. Glass who's drunk every minute he's on the screen being able to preform a delicate and dangerous as well as successful, without anesthetic, operation on the near dead Dinkie and bring him back to health better then he ever was before he got shot. What also wasn't at all convincing is Terry who loved her gangster brother would fall and still be in love with Crane even after she find out that he's out to get Dinkie and put him behind bars or, in Dinkie knocking off Moose, even strapped into the state of Illinois electric chair!***SPOILERS*** In the end it was Terry who lead the Feds, or FBI, straight to Dinkie by having him,in disguise, meet her at her job as as a cashier at the Place Ballroom to get some hard needed cash. With the place staked out by some 30 G-Men and Dinkie taking time to have a last dance with a hot looking blond, Vanda, Ann Borg that he met there it didn't take that long for the Boys in the FBI to get the drop on him.***MAJOR SPOILER*** The ultra surgery Hollywood type ending spoiled the entire movie with Terry smooching with Crane after him breaking into her passenger train compartment just moments before she, outraged at him for setting up and having Dinkie gunned down, was going to have him thrown out of it!

This is a B-movie from MGM and is interesting for several reasons. Most importantly, it's Donna Reed's first film and I liked how she played a rather tough character--a nice departure from her TV mom role of the 50s and 60s. She also was incredibly beautiful and I can see how this film led to better roles. Also, it's interesting to see Dan Daily playing in a non-musical role--and a very gritty role as well. Frankly, I always preferred Daily as the actor versus him as the song and dance man he usually played.As for the star of the film, Robert Serling, he's a guy who kind of fell off the face of the earth--going from some nice films at MGM to obscurity so quickly. Despite making some nice films and appearing in quite a few films and shows over his long life, real stardom eluded this handsome guy. In 1941, you would have undoubtedly predicted more of a starring career--as he'd been in films opposite the likes of Clark Gable! This is an interesting prison film where Sterling plays an incredibly nasty and obnoxious young hood. He is definitely no shrinking violet during his stay in "the big house"! Eventually, he is able to orchestrate a breakout with his cell-mate (Daily) and this leads to some very, very interesting and somewhat unexpected results. The film is somewhat reminiscent of "White Heat" and other noir films from the later 40s, though I am not in any way suggesting it's the same plot or quite as gritty. A very good B movie that kept my interest due to a very good script, good acting and a nice MGM polish that makes this film so much nicer and well made than the typical B. The only sour note is near the end--smart Sterling behaves rather stupidly and his actions seemed pretty inconsistent. But, it didn't ruin the film and can be ignored--though it did make the film a little less edgy.While I have learned from one of the other reviews that this film is a close remake of "Public Hero #1", I still enjoyed it--so much so that I hope to also see the original--especially since I really like Chester Morris, Jean Arthur and Lionel Barrymore and would love to see what they did with this material.UPDATE (10/10): I just saw the original film ("Public Hero #1") and the other reviews were right--it's practically the exact same film throughout. Because of this, "The Getaway" must lose a point for lacking originality and have adjusted my review accordingly.

Not a bad little film in many ways when you consider when it was made by MGM - clearly as the opener in a Double Feature Bill. The cast is surprisingly good with perhaps Dan Dailey as the standout, and playing the brother of Donna Reed and never able to go straight despite all her efforts. Robert Sterling goes over the top in his early scenes, but settles down as the story progresses. Charles Winninger as the drunken Doctor has some fine and not-so-fine moments in a major role, and it was great to see one of the good old B-players in Veda Ann Borg. The shoot-out near the end was ideal for a programmer and would have left audiences in those days in a good frame of mind for the Main Attraction