Night Waitress (1936)

You won't be disappointed!

Absolutely Fantastic

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film opens on a line of "night waitresses" at Torre's Fish Palace as Torre (Billy Gilbert) does a last minute inspection. Then they march out to work. It is immediately obvious that this restaurant is a dive not a palace. Helen Roberts (Margot Grahame) is the titular night waitress, and from hushed conversation from patrons the audience discovers that Helen is out on probation because of something her roommate did. She claimed innocence, and the court obviously split the difference between imprisonment and exoneration by giving her probation, which means one wrong move and she is back in jail.One customer after another gives her a pick up line, but one is particularly persistent- the guy in booth five, Martin Rhodes (Gordon Jones). He is actually there waiting to make a phone call at precisely 10PM. The call is about an old partner of his who has stashed a fortune and the man on the phone wants to tell Martin how to get it. The guy on the other end of the phone is the younger brother of the actual thief who was tortured to death by some gangsters trying to find the fortune, but the thief never talked. So now the gangsters are following the younger brother.This is where the film breaks down as far as making much sense. We learn that Martin ran liquor on his boat during prohibition, and now runs guns. Getting a job has apparently never occurred to him. But when he finds out what the secret cargo actually is he suddenly becomes a moralist? Martin is a guy completely without charm and loaded with swarm and yet Helen, who knows this guy is up to his neck in illegal activities lets herself fall for him knowing she could go to prison just for being around him? The police take Helen "downtown" to try and sweat a confession out of her (for what?) because she is a "probationer" after a patron at the Fish Palace is shot, ignoring everybody else who was there just based on their say so when she obviously is not armed? Martin ties up a bad guy on his boat and just leaves him alone and unguarded while he eats breakfast next door? I could go on, but you get the picture. The film has good atmosphere and competent acting, but the plot is just goofy. Probably worthwhile if only to see Billy Gilbert in an unusual role and Anthony Quinn in a bit part as a gangster.

Passable crime movie from RKO featuring two actors who didn't quite make the grade. At least in her home country Margot Grahame was known as Britain's answer to Jean Harlow and dubbed the "Aluminium Blonde" as well as being their highest paid star but Hollywood didn't really want to know, even after her sterling performance in "The Informer". Besides her looks had more in common with Lucille Ball or Barbara Pepper. And Gordon Jones, even though he worked solidly from 1932 until 1963 (the year he died), was destined to have a very familiar face even if you couldn't remember his name.Helen Roberts (Grahame) is back at her waitressing job after a brush with the law and with the full support of Papa Torres (Billy Gilbert) who just wants to see her make good. How anyone could have cast Grahame as a probation girl is amazing - her posh tones seemed more at home in Buckingham Palace than Tony's Fish Palace!!! When not brushing off unwanted suitors she also has to put up with the whispered innuendos about her past which makes her particularly hardened to breezy sea Captain Marty Rhodes (Jones) who wants to get to know her better. He seems to be mixed up with some pretty shady characters who feel he can lead them to a gold shipment but, like Helen, he is really just an innocent bystander who doesn't know what the mysterious shipment he has been hired to deliver, is!!!The most interesting thing about this movie is the number of familiar faces in smaller roles, forget about the two leads. Don "Red" Barry of later "Red Ryder" fame is Rigo who is organising the gold cargo, Marc Lawrence (here billed as Laurence) is Dorne, a thug (what else!!), another thug is played by Anthony Quinn who happened to get a couple of good close-ups. There was also Willie Best as a bystander and the always good Frank Faylen, he of the thousand bit parts and Dobie Gillis's always exasperated father, playing a policeman in the crowd.

... But the movie is pure Lew Landers.Margot Graham is exotic as the title character. Her acting, at least here, isn't very interesting. But she has a tough yet intelligent look.Graham is a woman on parole. She is working as -- yes: a waitress. And in a waterfront dive.The rest is stock criminals. We have a stock romance. We have a boat and an Asian helper. None of the actors in these roles made much impression on me.It isn't really bad. (And some Landers films reality ARE bad.) It's just routine. We've seen essentially the same movie many, many times. But Graham makes this one stand out.

Minor effort with Edward Hopper-like waterfront setting. Margot Grahame and Gordon Jones (did I get the names right?) are interesting leads. Routine crime story has nice touches, its heroine is lower-class and depicted without condescension (quite a rarity for Hollywood). Low budget, interesting art direction, short and sharp action scenes, above average for its type. Anthony Quinn (unbilled) has a few scenes as a gangster.