By Violet LeVoit
Millie
Brief Synopsis
A prostitute turns to murder to protect her teenage daughters honor.
Cast & Crew
Read More
John Francis Dillon
Director
Helen Twelvetrees
Millie Blake Maitland
Lilyan Tashman
Helen
Robert Ames
Tommy Rock
John Halliday
Jimmy Damier
Joan Blondell
Angie Wickerstaff
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Feb
8,
1931
Premiere Information
New York opening: 6 Feb 1931
Production Company
Charles R. Rogers Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Millie by Donald Henderson Clarke (New York, 1930).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 25m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,606ft
(9 reels)
Synopsis
Soon after her father dies, young Millie Blake leaves college to elope with businessman Jack Maitland and move to New York. Three years later, Millie, now the mother of baby Connie, frets over her wealthy husband's frequent absences and his suddenly indifferent manner. After Jack leaves on a business trip, a lonely Millie agrees to meet Angie Wickerstaff, a hometown friend, at a cabaret. There, Angie and Millie, who have been joined by Helen, Angie's gold-digging roommate, spot Jack dancing with an attractive blonde. Millie confronts Jack with his infidelity and then files for divorce, leaving Connie to be raised in prosperity by Jack and his mother. Embittered by her experience, Millie vows to be self-supporting and gets a job as a clerk at a hotel tobacco shop, where she meets newspaper reporter Tommy Rock. Although she rejects the advances of rich banker Jimmy Damier in favor of Tommy, Millie, determined to remain independent, refuses Tommy's proposals. Eventually, Millie is named the manager of all of the hotel's concessions, and Jimmy, as a favor to Millie, offers Tommy a lucrative position in his bank. To celebrate, Millie throws a nightclub party in Tommy's honor, but learns through gossip that Tommy is spending the evening with another woman. Exposed, Tommy is dumped by a heartbroken Millie, who then finds solace in the arms of Jimmy and many other men. Eight years later, Millie hears that Jimmy has been spending time with her ex-husband and ingratiating himself with the beautiful seventeen-year-old Connie. After Millie threatens him, Jimmy assures her that he will stop seeing Connie, but later sneaks the innocent girl to his country lodge. When Millie is informed by Jimmy's chauffeur that Connie is with Jimmy, she rushes to the lodge with a gun and shoots her former lover in front of her daughter. While testifying at her trial, Millie refuses to mention her daughter, but at the behest of Tommy, Connie steps forward and provides her mother with the motive that saves her life.
Director
John Francis Dillon
Director
Cast
Helen Twelvetrees
Millie Blake Maitland
Lilyan Tashman
Helen
Robert Ames
Tommy Rock
John Halliday
Jimmy Damier
Joan Blondell
Angie Wickerstaff
Anita Louise
Connie Maitland
Edmund Breese
Attorney
Frank Mchugh
John Holmes
Charlotte Walker
Mrs. Maitland
Franklin Parker
Spring
Charles Delaney
Mike
Harry Stubbs
Mark
Harvey Clark
Hawksworth
Carmelita Geraghty
Miss Vall
Geneva Mitchell
Clara Roscoe
Otis Harlan
Luke
Marie Astaire
Bobby
Aggie Herring
Landlady
Hooper Atchley
Crew
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Feb
8,
1931
Premiere Information
New York opening: 6 Feb 1931
Production Company
Charles R. Rogers Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Millie by Donald Henderson Clarke (New York, 1930).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 25m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,606ft
(9 reels)
Articles
Millie
Few fallen women in '30s films fell as attractively as Helen Twelvetrees. It helped that the petite blonde seemed somehow too innocent to understand all the sin that surrounded her, particularly in the pre-Code films that made her a star. She defined her type as "the perpetually pure-at-heart street-walker, always drooping over bars while some director says, "Now, Helen, you must be very sweet about this naughty line. Remember, you haven't the faintest idea what it means!" She fell precipitously playing the title role in this 1931 weepie. First she discovers husband James Hall is cheating on her, so she divorces him but leaves their daughter in his wealthy mother's care. As she builds a career in business, she pins her hopes on young reporter Robert Ames only to find out he, too, is a cheat. That leads to a series of empty flings until, years later, she discovers an ex-lover about to deflower her daughter (Anita Louise, the only actress pretty enough to pass as Twelvetrees's child) and shoots him. It all had Depression-era audiences eagerly reaching for their handkerchiefs, with only Lilyan Tashman and Joan Blondell, as her gold-digging girlfriends, on hand for comic relief.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Millie
Few fallen women in '30s films fell as attractively as Helen Twelvetrees. It helped that the petite blonde seemed somehow too innocent to understand all the sin that surrounded her, particularly in the pre-Code films that made her a star. She defined her type as "the perpetually pure-at-heart street-walker, always drooping over bars while some director says, "Now, Helen, you must be very sweet about this naughty line. Remember, you haven't the faintest idea what it means!" She fell precipitously playing the title role in this 1931 weepie. First she discovers husband James Hall is cheating on her, so she divorces him but leaves their daughter in his wealthy mother's care. As she builds a career in business, she pins her hopes on young reporter Robert Ames only to find out he, too, is a cheat. That leads to a series of empty flings until, years later, she discovers an ex-lover about to deflower her daughter (Anita Louise, the only actress pretty enough to pass as Twelvetrees's child) and shoots him. It all had Depression-era audiences eagerly reaching for their handkerchiefs, with only Lilyan Tashman and Joan Blondell, as her gold-digging girlfriends, on hand for comic relief.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Charles R. Rogers produced this as an independent film, but sold the distribution rights to RKO after he was made chief executive of RKO-Pathe in January 1931.
Notes
Sound technician Robert Pritchard's surname was misspelled in the onscreen credits as "Prichard." According to modern sources, Charles R. Rogers produced Millie as an independent film but sold the distribution rights to RKO Radio Pictures after he was made chief executive of RKO-Pathé Studios in January 1931.
