Abandoned

Just like his role in Woman on the Run the following year, Dennis O’Keefe plays a rogue newspaper reporter who just happens to show up when a pretty woman has mysteriously lost a loved one in Joseph M. Newman’s Abandoned. In this case, the woman is Paula Considine (Gale Storm), who arrives in the big city looking for her missing sister; while this setup may sound similar to The Seventh Victim (1943), Paula’s sister won’t be found trapped in a Satanic cult but will turn out to have been pregnant (and unmarried) and forced to give up her newborn to a dangerous baby smuggling syndicate operating under a fake Christian banner. Paula and reporter Mark Sitko (O’Keefe) follow a trail of clues until they secure enough evidence to convince police chief MacRae (Jeff Chandler) to take over, which involves sending in young Dottie Jensen (Meg Randall) undercover as a lonely mother-to-be in desperate need of assistance. Raymond Burr is on hand as “private eye” Kerric who’s on the syndicate’s payroll, and Marjorie Rambeau plays Mrs. Donner, matriarch of the syndicate whose headquarters could just as easily be an upscale brothel. Daniels’ camera captures some gorgeous noir compositions here and there, especially the final sequence, but much of the film is visually straightforward. Note the location shooting on the real streets of Los Angeles.