Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

HotToastyRag When sweet Jane Bryan strikes up a friendship with Sheila Bromley, she gets caught up in a whirlwind of trouble. Sheila's a bad girl, and even Jane's overprotective parents, Elisabeth Risdon and Sig Ruman, can't stop her influence over their little girl. Soon, Jane and Sheila get arrested!Girls on Probation reminds me of the really old films of 1930 when Hollywood was just getting the hang of talking pictures. There's nothing original about the story or characters, and the acting is pretty hammy-which you might expect by seeing Ronald Reagan in the opening credits. Yes, he has a beautiful smile, but that doesn't mean he's a good actor. I only rented this movie because it was one of Susan Hayward's early flicks. She's in the movie for the first five minutes, and while it's cute to see her during the years where she was taking elocution lessons, once her scene is done, she's doesn't come back.

JohnHowardReid Director: WILLIAM C. McGANN. Screenplay: Crane Wilbur. Photography: Arthur L. Todd. Film editor: Frederick Richards. Art director: Hugh Reticker. Costumes designed by Howard Shoup. Music: Howard Jackson. Dialogue director: Harry Seymour. Sound recording: Leslie G. Hewitt. Producer: Bryan Foy.Copyright 3 August 1938 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. A Warner Brothers-First National Picture. New York opening at the Criterion: 19 October 1938. U.S. release: 22 October 1938. 7 reels. 63 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Innocent girl becomes involved in a bank robbery.COMMENT: Early film of Susan Hayward (not her first, however, that was Hollywood Hotel) proves of more than passing interest even to non-Hayward fans. (She has two great scenes, looks terrific, and is her usual fiery, argumentative self). The lead role (despite the billing in the ads for the 1956 re-release) is most skilfully and very sympathetically rendered by Jane Bryan, with an able assist from Sheila Bromley as the no-good Hilda. Ronald Reagan comes over ably enough, though he disappears from the action for long spells and his role is really no more than a support for the Bryan-Bromley plot. Some fine character studies are provided by Rumann (a believable tyrant) and Risdon (her farewell scene at the bus staion is quite touching), Dale and Peterson. McGann has directed with plenty of pace and verve. All told, a fast-movingly suspenseful 63 minutes.

kidboots This movie, Susan Hayward's first credited feature, was re-released in 1956, after "I'll Cry Tomorrow", and not only billed her name above the title but in misleading advertising depicted her as a gun moll - "Nice Kid Today - Jail Bird Tomorrow"!!! It must have really thrilled Miss Hayward, I don't think!! As it was, reviewers of the day didn't even notice her. The real bad girl, Hilda, was played by Sheila Bromley, who until the year before had been Sheila Mannors, unfortunately the new name didn't give her career a boost and she remained in obscurity. The star was Jane Bryan, a discovery of Bette Davis, who proved she had a real future in films, until she decided to retire in 1939 for marriage.The title "Girls on Probation" sounds up to the minute, plucked from today's headlines etc but it wasn't, just another innocent girl who gets into a heap of trouble. Connie (Jane Bryan) borrows a dress from "friend" Hilda, not realising that she has "borrowed" it from the dry cleaning shop where they both work. At a party, the real owner of the dress, socialite, Gloria (Susan Hayward) recognises her dress and reports it to the dry cleaners the next day. As luck would have it, the dress (who may be the real star of the movie) has been torn and to cut a long story short, Connie, who is completely in the dark about her friend's activities, eventually has to leave town to make a fresh start.One day Connie sees Hilda sitting in a car and decides to have it out with her, but Hilda, along with her ne'er do well boyfriend, Tony, are in the middle of a bank robbery and Connie, who is bundled into the car, is caught up in the crime. When the law catches up with her, rather than tell her real name and have her parents (her father (Sig Rumann) is a bully) learn of her shame, she keeps silent and is eventually put on probation while Hilda goes to prison. Connie goes back home and eventually gets a job with Neil Dillon (Ronald Reagan) the assistant district attorney, who has never stopped believing in her. Hilda now reappears and threatens Connie with exposure but Connie, determined now to be law abiding, informs the police and the movie ends in an exciting gun battle between the police and Tony, who has escaped from prison. Hilda is hit in the crossfire but manages to have a complete change of personality on the way to the hospital as she wishes Connie and Neill all the best.Even further down the cast list than Susan, was Peggy Shannon, "the girl with the heart shaped face", once an exquisitely beautiful actress who was now almost unemployable due to chronic alcoholism. She played Ruth, who seemed to be head girl in the prison where Connie and Hilda were sent.Recommended.

bkoganbing The only significance that Girls On Probation has in cinema history is that it was the first role of significance for Susan Hayward who plays Ronald Reagan's date at a party. Susan was dropped by Warner Brothers after this film and her contract picked up with Paramount who saw what Jack Warner missed. Despite Girls On Probation Hayward went on to a great career.The subject of the film however is Jane Bryan who borrows a dress that friend Sheila Bromley who 'borrowed' it from the dry cleaner she works at. Fine, but at the party that Bryan goes to Hayward spots the dress and identifies it as her's and Bryan is arrested. She tells her story, but no one believes her but Reagan who is taken with Bryan. He's a lawyer and defends her and she's let off with a first offense.Not good enough for her strict father Sig Ruman who throws her out of the house. She moves to another town, but who does she run into but Bromley and gets whisked into a getaway car from a bank robbery driven by Bromley's boyfriend Anthony Averill. They all get arrested and Jane's now in a real jackpot.The girl just can't catch a break until a sympathetic probation officer Dorothy Peterson convinces Judge Henry O'Neill to grant her probation. Back she goes to her home town and takes up with Reagan who is now an Assistant District Attorney.Of course trouble follows and I won't say more because the story gets more clichéd as it goes on. Let's say it all conveniently works out in the end.Two things connected with this film. Jane met and later wed Justin Dart of Rexall Drugs and retired from the screen. When Ronald Reagan started a political career she got her husband behind him and he became part of the unofficial Reagan kitchen cabinet.Also when Susan Hayward was at the height of her career in the mid Fifties, Warner Brothers re-released Girls On Probation to take advantage of that. It was inflicted on the public again after Hayward scored in I'll Cry Tomorrow, an infinitely better film than this. I'm not sure she appreciated Warner Brothers gesture.She survived Girls On Probation and if you see you will too.