GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

mark.waltz Leading young actress wannabees on the road to ruin is the name of the game in this expose of white slavery in the sex trade, going on around the world even back in the 1940's (and way before that), and police captain H.B. Warner is determined to prevent the vice trade from expanding anymore and prevent any more innocent young girls from having their lives ruined. Philip Van Zandt is the head of this racket, given the obvious criminal name of King Peterson, head of a nightclub who treats the accusations made against him like a total joke, laughing at the law, knowing that they just don't have the evidence on him for being the scum of the earth that he is. He's secret partners with wealthy Boyd Irwin and slimy Herb Vigran (a veteran of many T.V. episodes and especially remembered for commercials), and he threatens them with the fact that if he goes down, he's taking them as well.Astrid Allwyn is Irwin's daughter, an ace reporter who is unaware of her father's protectives and is determined to expose the racket for what it is, even if it means sneaking in as one of the possible girls they utilize for their nefarious intentions. John Archer plays a young assistant D.A. whom Allwyn harasses to get information, and he steps right into the middle of the investigation by answering the phone call from one of Van Zandt's molls who promises to give him the information that he's been searching for. Of course, it's a trap, and all that happens in his attempts to question her is the discovery of a dead body and evidence which will ultimately bring the bad guys down. This of course results in a cowardly act of one of the villains to save their own neck, but the only thing that ends up being saved is the noose to go around it. The end for this nefariously evil character will obviously be in the electric chair! Somewhat shady and exploitive in its pursuit of one of the most low-life of big city rackets, this is cheaply made and sometimes pretty tacky in the way it laughs at the law through the villains. Warner's character, in particular, is so decent and moralistic that this comes off more as a warning for the young girls who have yet to have left their homes and head to big entertainment metropolises like New York or Los Angeles. Patricia Knox, playing the moll, seems to be an unknown variation of similar actresses playing characters which Marian Martin, Veda Ann Borg, Barbara Pepper and Adele Jergens were experts in. This has some enjoyable moments that are pretty heated, but overall, the film just seems to be major exploitation with a few familiar names involved in, amongst them a very young Gale Storm.

dougdoepke An assistant DA tries to track the whereabouts of missing girls, leading into a tangled web of corruption.With that suggestive title and sleaze director Elmer Clifton, I was expecting maximum titillation. Well, there is some peek-a-boo at The Crescent School of Fine Art, where the half-clad dancers somehow manage to all be female. No doubt, if it weren't for the censors, the "school" would be called Gateway to Hookerland, but then this is a commercial product. Not surprisingly, it is a cheap undertaking by quick-buck producers. Still, the cast is much better than the material, especially the sparkly Allwyn and the smoothly slick Van Zandt, who's especially impressive as an egotistical gangster. His sarcastic exchanges with DA Horton (Archer) may well be the film's dramatic highlight. These main players may not be exactly household names but they do lend edge to what could have been merely a listless payday. Impressive too is old-timer HB Warner who's about as relaxed before the camera as anyone I've seen. Still, it's a long way from Jesus in King of Kings (1927), a silent screen classic. I imagine he was added for marquee value. Then too, catch malt-shop Gale Storm in a small but appealing part.Anyway, it's a rather complex plot so you may need to keep notes. Still, the large cast does about as well with the tacky material as can be expected, and is not without points of interest.

catherine yronwode Having seen H. B. Warner as a character player in dozens of films, i was pleasantly surprised to see him starring in this crime-exploitation film about the white slave trade. I was also deeply impressed with his ability to carry the complex role of a poetic, philosophical police captain on the verge of retirement with such presence during the course of what otherwise would seem to have been destined to be a routine crime drama. Alas, being a post-code movie, the white slave trade aspect of the plot is only understandable as a subtext, but there are plenty of other intriguing moments in the movie that will make B-film enthusiasts sit up and say, "Wow." For me, the gymnastic dance featuring a pair of uncredited twin teen girls was one such moment. Where did they FIND such unusual talent? Who were those young, incredibly athletic, giggling twins? We'll probably never know. And then there was the scene in which H. B. Warner, previously seeming to be frail, distracted, and ready for the scrap heap of life, suddenly LEAPED INTO THE AIR and jumped into his bed feet first! What the heck!? That was truly replay-worthy. This is not a great film, of course, but since it is available at bargain prices, old film buffs will certainly get their money's worth if they take the time to seek it out and watch it.

sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** A number of young women have disappeared or have been found murdered in and around town. The one connection being that they all have in common with each other is that they attended or are attending the Crescent School for the Fine Arts. The local police department as well as the up and coming assistant DA James Horton,John Archer,as well as John's good friend and mentor police Captain McVeigh,H.B. Warner, have been trying with interest to find out who's behind these missing and dead young women. D.A Horton starts to put the heat on the schools owner Joseph Thompson, Boyd Irwin,who's a front-man for the cities top mobster King Peterson, Philip Van Zandt. Thompson has no idea of what the school that he's running is all about, Peterson's prostitution and call-girl racket. Peterson tries to pay off assistant DA Horton with $10,000.00 to stop his investigation but the incorruptible Horton tells Peterson to take a walk with Capt. McVeigh listening in on the office inter-con. Peterson later comes up with the idea to frame and blackmail Horton in order to get him off his back. Later Tompson panics when it turns up in the newspaper that a student Pauline Randolph in the Crescent School was connected with with one of the murdered girls Thaila Arnold. Thompson wants out of the whole dirty business but Peterson won't let him in fear that Thompson would go to and tell the police in order to save his hide. Pauleine is later also found murdered and the police now have enough evidence to make a case against the Crescent School and it's owner and administrators, the Peterson mob. Peterson then sets up assistant DA Horton by having one of his girls Kate Nelson,Patrkia Knox, to call him over to her hotel room with information on the Randolph murder.Having Horton secretly photographed with her in a somewhat intimate pose Kate later gets into a fight with Peterson who kills her. Horton having himself photographed with Kate in her hotel room and later Kate being found murdered in that same room is now in no position to handle the case. He may very well be indited for murdering Kate! Two things then unexpectedly happen that saves the day for Horton and the forces of law and order. The photographer who took the photo gets scared when he finds Kate's body and is later kidnapped by the Peterson mob only to be rescued by the police and then spills the beans on him, Peterson. Later Thompson's daughter Nora, Astrid Allwyn,who's a newspaper reporter goes undercover in the Crescent School as a student. Nora is recognized by Peterson and in a fit of disgust and outrage goes to call the police on him. the police and assistant DA break into his office and catch him red handed. Peterson is later convicted of murder and sentenced to the electric chair and at last the mystery of the missing and murdered girls is finally solved."City of Missing Girls" is a mostly typical crime drama with the exception of touching on a very taboo subject back in those days, the 1940's, in Hollywood: prostitution. It's interesting to see how the film makers avoided to even mention that word even though the movie plot was all about it, prostitution and call-girls, as if that subject and those very words were off-limits by the moral majority of that day which they were.