Parole, Inc. (1948)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

I, the jury, pardon all the usual suspects for this interesting expose of an illegal parole racket where the narrative hooks you right away. The sound of a man's voice closes in on the speaker who is revealed to be the badly bruised Michael O'Shea, a federal investigator telling his story of exposing the racket, headed by ruthless Turhan Hey and aided by sassy same Evelyn Ankers, giving up her title as scream queen to go down Ann Savage/Barbara Payton territory. Smartly written, this exposes what is right about the parole system and what is definitely wrong with it. Starting off with the allegation that parolees are likely to commit more crimes when out, it uses that hook to make you mad enough to see what it has to say. As O'Shea is warned, he has a lot to watch out for, considering that his predecessors were either found filled with bullets, or not found period.Ankers makes a fine vixen, pretending to get drunk on a date with O'Shea to find out who he really is, while Virginia Lee is quite good as the wife if a decent man paroled who pays for betraying the racket. Tight editing and fast pacing make this one of the better racket films that has enough elements of film noir to be lightly categorized in that genre.

Filmed by a Poverty Row studio with a largely unknown cast, augmented by former Universal stalwarts Evelyn Ankers and Turhan Bey, PAROLE INC., is a good example of a so-called "problem picture" designed to draw attention to one of the iniquities blighting late Forties American society.In this case it is the corrupt parole system whereby habitual criminals are let out of jail on the promise of reform and promptly resume their nefarious habits. This is chiefly due to a corrupt system headed by lawyer Barney Rodescu (Turhan Bey), who bribes two of the five- person Parole Board to vote in the prisoners' favor while trusting in the Board's ability to return positive verdicts. Intrepid federal agent Hendricks (Michael O'Shea) volunteers to expose this racket by posing as a master criminal, infiltrating the racket at its lowest level and discovering how it works. He frequents The Pastime Club, a seedy joint run by Barney's fiancée Jojo (Ankers), and peopled by a clutch of hoodlums all in baggy suits and snap-brimmed hats. The rest of the story is predictable.For an action thriller PAROLE INC. is remarkably static with too much time devoted to lengthy voice-overs from Hendricks as he tells what happened to a tape recorder from his hospital bed. The two nominal stars do what they can with the material: Bey looks immaculate in his tailored suits, but shows a tendency towards sadism, even though he assaults no one. He has a good line in dialogue delivery, describing one of his unfortunate minions as "a jackass," and vowing to get rid of any double-dealers daring to cross him.On the whole, however, Alfred Zeisler's B-Movie is rather too moral for its own good, even though it dramatizes a scenario common to late Forties movies, suggesting that corruption is so rife in American institutions that no one knows how to separate friends from enemies.

I really didn't expect much from this film, I thought it would be a cute film since Turhan Bey and Evelyn Ankers was in it but I never thought it would be as serious and good of a film as it turned out to be.Lyle Talbot is FBI agent Richard Hendricks- one of the Feds. He out to bust a parole ring. It's up to Hendricks alone to keep from getting caught as he is surrounded by a gang of criminals while trying to find out how they are doing it, which gang members are involved and which parole board members are involved.The film actually engrossed me from the very start - there are a couple of cute moments as the film is in it's conclusion but it is a drama - a good crime drama.8/10

There's nothing like a movie made in the 40s. There is a simplicity of perspective that is utterly refreshing when compared to the rubbish that passes for entertainment these days. The entire cast is excellent, the plot clean and easy to understand. Well before the half point of the film, I was rooting for the undercover agent to succeed. I like the fact that the crooks were't so smarmy as to be stereotypes. They were rotters but somehow still seemed human. The end of the film has a strong build up. I really enjoyed this forgotten movie. I wonder how many other B movies are so good. Working my way down IMDb list of available films online, I may soon know.