Confessions of a Vice Baron
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
John Melville
Willy Costello
Constance Worth
Betty Compson
Mary Ainslee
Noel Madison
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
On the eve of his execution, crime lord James "Lucky" Lombardo recounts the story of his career as a lesson to those tempted by "easy money": Born in a Balkan state, Lucky, who has been indoctrinated with the idea that he must marry a wealthy woman, is sent to the United States to find a bride. Once his money runs out, Lucky, posing as Count De Koven, is hired by an escort bureau and assigned to squire wealthy socialite Mrs. Lola Morgan. When Mrs. Morgan presses Lucky to have a love affair, he quarrels with his manager and quits. Lucky's next foray into the underworld occurs when, posing as Rudolph Von Hertsen, he becomes involved in a syndicate of maternity homes run by Dr. J. M. Randall. Under the auspices of the phony Medical Acceptance Corporation, Lucky performs abortions and aids Randall in selling the babies of unmarried mothers. After Randall tricks one mother into unwittingly signing the rights away to her infant, the police come to investigate and Lucky moves into the business of procuring young women for prostitution. One day after promising Judy, a gullible young woman, that he will marry her, Lucky compromises her virtue and then sells her to a house of prostitution. Upon seizing control of the white slave racket, Lucky, now a hardened criminal, sees his profits falling and exhorts his procurers to find new faces. Meanwhile, Nick, Lucky's second in command, kidnaps teenaged girls from the local high school and snatches Dorothy, an unsuspecting young blonde, during a ruckus at a local nightclub. When a new district attorney is elected on a reform platform, Lucky's lawyer advises him to keep a low profile, but Lucky defiantly underestimates his enemy. One day, Lucky meets a young woman named Lois and falls in love, but she does not return his feelings. Harry, one of Lucky's minions and an old schoolmate of Lois', helps her escape the gang lord's clutches. When Harry refuses to disclose Lois' whereabouts, Lucky kills him and is arrested for murder, and the persuasive district attorney convinces the jury to sentence Lucky to death. Returning to the present, Lucky admonishes that crime does not pay and warns that no one can outsmart the law.
Director
John Melville
Cast
Willy Costello
Constance Worth
Betty Compson
Mary Ainslee
Noel Madison
Lona Andre
Clara Kimball Young
Erma Deen
Eddie Phillips
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Except for the prison framing story, this film is composed solely of clips from at least five films produced in the 1930s. The clips are strung together by Willy Costello's narration as crime boss "Lucky Lombardo." The escort bureau sequences are from the 1939 film Mad Youth, and the portion dealing with maternity homes is excerpted from the 1937 film Race Suicide. Lucky's betrayal of "Judy" appears in the 1938 film Wages of Sin, and the sequences dealing with the kidnapping of school girls and "Lois'" escape are from the 1937 film Smashing the Vice Trust. The portions that include "Nick" are from the 1935 film The Pace That Kills, which did not have Costello in the cast (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.2644, F3.3588, F3.4935, F3.4155 and F3.3336). Although the Copyright Catalog lists the film's running time as 62 minutes, the viewed print was only 47 minutes. No reviews of this picture were located. Although no confirmed release date has been found, evidence indicates that the film May have been released in 1943.
