Nancy Steele is Missing!

Unusually dark, both visually and thematically, for a Poverty Row film from the 1930’s, George Marshall’s Nancy Steele is Missing! is a proto-noir crime drama whose sentimental moments conflict with Victor McLaglen’s growling persona. McLaglen plays Dannie O’Neill, a disillusioned employee of a munitions manufacturer who, in a misguided effort to prevent America from entering World War I, kidnaps the infant daughter of the company’s CEO, Michael Steele (Walter Connolly). Years later, having left the baby with his sister as his own, O’Neill is falsely convicted of crimes and sent to prison for a 20-year sentence, where he befriends cellmate Professor Sturm (the always gripping Peter Lorre) in whom he confides a few too many details about his past life. When O’Neill is released two decades later, he tracks down his former hostage (June Lang), which launches a new period of drama, secrecy, and blackmail. For an early, low-budget flick, Marshall and crew infuse plenty of visual innovation, especially the thick shadows, oblique angles, and deep focus that would become hallmarks of noir. The entire prison sequence, culminating in a mass riot instigated by fellow inmate Harry Wilkins (the always immediately recognizable John Carradine) is a highlight.