Check your pockets!

MAIN STREET AFTER DARK (1945)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I don't think there is a moral to "Main Street After Dark" other than if you are a sailor, avoid ritzy clubs where women take can advantage with their feminine wiles and swipe your wallet. A burly police lieutenant named Lorrigan (Edward Arnold) finds a way to catch these women thieves - plant sailors with wallets carrying a detectable fluorescent powder. The Lieutenant figures that if any of the suspected women identified by the victims are caught, he can check their palms with a fluorescent light! Nifty.

A criminal named Lefty (Tom Trout), known for armed robbery, is just out of the slammer and returns to home to his mother (Selena Royle); his devoted, sneaky wife, Jessie Belle (Audrey Totter, her film debut), and his young sister Rosalie (Dorothy Ruth Morris). The sister is something of a pickpocket due to her stealing watches, which the mother disapproves of! Ultimately, the mother has no problem with her son leading a criminal life with no ambition to work a regular job. Lefty's wife, much to the chagrin of Lefty, is pickpocketing sailors downtown. There is also Lefty's brother, Posey (Dan Duryea), who has taught the women how to lure men and take their wallets which initially makes Lefty angry - Posey was supposed to be the man of the house earning money! One inventive method of robbing sailors involves a hotel room scenario where Posey pretends to be a hotel clerk, thus convincing the naive sailors to pay for their rooms and place the money in a box for safekeeping!

 

"Main Street After Dark" is more of a lark and often very funny, with a few explosive and unexpected moments of violence. The actors flourish on screen giving it as much pizazz to separate the film's somewhat undernourished screenplay from the rest of the mediocre crime pictures at the time. Of course, we get a "Crime Doesn't Pay" epilogue that feels tacked on since these movies were made during the Hays Code days. Still, for 57 minutes you get your money's worth - just check your pockets after it is over.