Trouble Preferred
Cast & Crew
James Tinling
Peggy Knudsen
Lynne Roberts
Charles Russell
Paul Langton
Marcia Mae Jones
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
At the Los Angeles Police Academy, Dale Kent and Madge Walker are undergoing six weeks of intensive instruction as part of their training to become police officers. Lieutenant Rod Brooks handles classroom instruction as well as advising them on the firing range. Sergeant Hazel Craine finds the women an apartment in her building and they move in together so that they can help each other make it through the course. Eventually, Dale and Madge are among seven who graduate, but must serve a further probationary period before they are fully accepted as officers. Rod and Hazel are reassigned to accompany the new recruits to Juvenile Division, and Dale and Madge, who had been expecting exciting assignments, are soon bored by the office routine. At lunch one day, the women attempt to foil a pickpocket but end up arresting the victim instead of the thief, prompting Sgt. Craine to warn them that they are "on borrowed time." Later, Rod takes them along to interview a woman, Virginia Evans, who appears to have attempted suicide, but Virginia resists their offers of help. Marge suspects that Virginia may have a baby somewhere and, when they go to her rooming house, they find a six-month-old boy being looked after by the male apartment manager. After the women establish that Virginia had mistakenly taken roach powder instead of calcium powder and therefore had not attempted suicide, Rod instructs them to take the baby to a hospital. Instead, they take him home with them, and when Hazel discovers the boy, they convince her to let them try to find the baby's father. They attempt to trick Virginia into revealing the father's name, but all they learn is that his name may be "Ed" and that he works for a trucking company. After Rod and Hazel allow Dale and Madge to interview various "Eds," they find Ed Poole, for whom Virginia had worked as a secretary until she met boxer Hal "Tuffy" Tucker, whom she married. Ed has not seen Virginia for several months, but when the women take him to see Virginia at the hospital, he tells her that he will find a place for her and the baby. Virginia informs the women that she broke up with Tuffy over a year before but he did not show up for the divorce hearing and does not know about their baby. Rod and Dale trace Tuffy to a gym, where he is training and encounter his manager, Charlie, and girl friend Hilary. To trap Tuffy, Dale poses as a potential manager but Hilary and Tuffy become involved in a fight over her attentions. Later, Dale tricks Tuffy into coming to their apartment, and Rod tips off Hilary that Tuffy is "breaking training" with Dale. Hilary goes to the apartment, and after causing a big scene, breaks up with Tuffy. Ed, posing as Dale's boy friend, then arrives and threatens Tuffy. Dale shouts for the police, who arrive in the persons of Roy and Madge. They all adjourn to the gym so that Ed can fight Tuffy in the ring. Between rounds, both groups exhort their fighters, and Hazel shows up with Virginia and the baby. Eventually, Ed knocks Tuffy out, the first fight he has ever lost. Manager Charlie then advises Tuffy to retire and he reunites with Virginia and the baby. Dale and Madge look forward to a long career on the force.
Director
James Tinling
Cast
Peggy Knudsen
Lynne Roberts
Charles Russell
Paul Langton
Marcia Mae Jones
Mary Bear
James Cardwell
June Storey
Paul Guilfoyle
J. Farrell Macdonald
Grandon Rhodes
Alvin Hammer
Leo Kaye
Douglas Walton
Byron Foulger
Tom Kennedy
Grayce Hampton
Tom Daly
Jimmy Magill
Marlyn Gladstone
Jimmy Casino
Harvey Parry
Annetta Baldridge
Lillian Porter
Maxine Greenwood
Crew
Fay Babcock
Arnold Belgard
Irene Beshon
Lucien Cailliet
David Chudnow
Cliff R. Gans
Eddie Imazu
Benjamin Kline
Roy Livingston
Ray Lopez
Maurice Vaccarino
Frank Webster
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although this film was not viewed, the above credits and summary were taken from a cutting continuity in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library.
