CLUB PARADISE/SENSATION HUNTERS

US, 1945, 62 minutes, Black and white.
Robert Lowery, Doris Merrick, Eddie Quillan, Constance Worth, Isabel Jewell, Wanda Mc Kay, Nestor Paiva, Minerva Urecal.
Directed by Christie Cabanne.

This film was originally called Club Paradise but, for commercial purposes, became Sensation Hunters.

There is a phrase to describe the downfall of a character, especially a woman: The Primrose Path. This is definitely a Primrose Path film.

The film opens with a man arriving at a house at night, a woman on the balcony, the man going in, the audience hearing a shot. The rest of the film is flashback until we arrive again that scene.

This is war time, men and women working in factories. Doris Merrick portrays Julie, attractive young woman, often victim of a harsh father is also critical of his son who lives in the house with his wife pregnant. The mother is concerned but unable to intervene. Julie likes to go out, and has dates with a trumpet player, Eddie Quillan. There is also a girlfriend from factory.

While out nightclub, Julie encounters a man about town, Danny (Robert Lowery). She is immediately infatuated – but the audience can quickly see that he is more than a cad. He sponges on people, especially a sympathetic manager of a nightclub who does give him money (Constance Worth). At another time, out with Eddie Quillan, who has hopes of being the next Harry James, there is a raid and they go to court, Quillan to jail for a month, her father bailing out Julie but banning her from coming home.

While still infatuated with Danny who comes and goes, is a womaniser and clearly not to be trusted, she still believes in him, gets a job at the nightclub as part of the chorus, boards with a sympathetic singer and is supported by the manager.

The film explores Julie’s ups and downs, Eddie Quillan’s success, his invitation for her to become a singer at his club, the continued devotion to Danny until she is ditched and he goes off with her friend from work. Though she seems rather sweet, the screenplay requires Julie to become a woman scorned and certainly full of fury. It is she who is on the balcony at the beginning and end of the film – and it is she who shoots Danny.

A rather grim ending rather than a sweet romantic finale.