Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen
Cast & Crew
Alexander Hall
Dorothea Wieck
Alice Brady
Baby Le Roy
William Frawley
George Barbier
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Miss Madeline Fane is a famous California screen star who has been devoted to her baby son Michael since her husband's death the previous year. One morning she awakens to find Michael has been kidnapped. After a day, she calls in the police, who instantly begin an all-out search. A ransom note convinces her to call off the police, but the kidnappers are scared off at the assigned meeting place by a motorcyclist. The kidnappers, Bert, Sam and Dotty, take Michael to a remote area in the hills, where they become the neighbors of Mrs. Molly Prentiss and her family. Despite her poverty, Molly, who is a devoted fan of Miss Fane's, offers the hostile new neighbors vegetables and milk. The kidnappers have darkened Michael's hair and skin and tell Molly he is a girl. Meanwhile, the search for Michael incites women's clubs to speak out all over the country, and Miss Fane broadcasts her plight from an airplane. After Molly hears Miss Fane's broadcast, she becomes suspicious of her neighbors and their evasive ways. She goes to their cabin and discovers the baby is a boy. When Sam catches Molly leaving the cabin with the baby, she makes an excuse, abandoning the child, after which Sam sends her to get more milk. Molly sabotages the kidnappers' car and takes Michael, running for home under fire from their machine guns. Molly is unharmed and races in her car for help. The police arrest the kidnappers, and Molly brings Michael to Miss Fane at her mansion. The kidnappers are sentenced to life imprisonment, while Molly and her family are given a new life by the grateful, generous Miss Fane.
Director
Alexander Hall
Cast
Dorothea Wieck
Alice Brady
Baby Le Roy
William Frawley
George Barbier
Alan Hale
Jack Larue
Dorothy Burgess
Florence Roberts
Irving Bacon
"spanky" Mcfarland
Edwin Maxwell
Charles Wilson
Adrian Rosley
Charles Mcavoy
Harrison Greene
Leslie Palmer
Marcelle Corday
Louis Natheaux
Cullen Johnston
Carmencita Johnson
Kay Lou Barnes
Hal Craig
Allen Pomeroy
Eddie Baker
George Baxter
Lillian Castle
Zoila Conan
Celeste Ford
Frances Morris
Jean Acker
Ruth Clifford
Edmund Burns
Arnold Gray
Jay Belasco
Sergeant A. L. Taylor
Officer A. H. Mcbain
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a news item in Daily Variety, the original script included an ending in which a group of outraged women lynch the kidnappers on their way to prison. Paramount officials felt this would be too unlikely, however, and were concerned that they could be responsible if lynchings occurred after the film was released. Paramount considered reshooting the ending after California Governor James Rolph condoned the lynching of Thurman and Holmes, who kidnapped and murdered Brooke Hart in San Jose that year. An article in Daily Variety notes that theatre business dropped by twenty-five percent after the lynching, and speculates that "the excitement of the lynching, which was largely attended by youngsters and women, provided more thrills than any picture could give the mob." News items in Hollywood Reporter indicate that Gloria Swanson was originally intended for the lead role and was replaced by Carole Lombard. Dorothea Wieck stepped in when Lombard was cast in Bolero. The pressbook notes that some scenes were filmed in Beverly Hills, CA, and that Sergeant A. L. Taylor and Officer A. H. McBain, who appear in the film, were Beverly Hills motorcycle police.
