Club Paradise (1945)

★★★★ · Innocence Lost · picfixer · 2010-05-30

A well-staged opening scene predicts the mood of this film noirish drama about an innocent working class girl with a grim home life, finding an escape that leads to a life of degradation. There is little on-screen violence, yet this is one of the early "toughies" that eventually would lead to starkly realistic films like "Detour" and "Pickup on South Street." In this instance, a well-crafted screenplay packs a hell of a lot of nearly filler-free plot into just 62 minutes. The only exception is a pointlessly added nightclub act. Doris Merrick is the innocent. Robert Lowery is the cad who lures…

★★★★ · Surprise! · DavidGarf · 2020-01-15

What a pleasant surprise this was. It started fast and kept going until around halfway when it became a little muddled and sticky but soon recovered and the pace continued to a very predictable and dissapointing ending ......but that said where else could it go? Robert Lowry's great disadvantage was in closely resembling Clark Gable, consequently, much more was expected of him than he was capable of delivering. But all that said still a very watchable film giving a good wide spectrum of the lives of people from kitchen sink, clubbing, dance bands and dancers and the drama of debt and double…

★★★ · Pretty good · jimelena · 2007-01-25

A good story noir. Sort of clumsy, some akward parts. But a very good story of three women that end up in sad situations centered aroung the Club Paradise. Acting is good, direction is not so good, production is good as is the film quality. Watch it just for the story.

★★ · Worth a watch · billbarstad · 2007-02-27

It's a fairly well written and produced film, but deserving of better acting. A better director could have punched up some scenes. Pacing is good. A minor triumph is that the makers kept the movie on the high side of the line between drama and moralistic melodrama, where stories like this usually wallow. This movie will never be confused with 'The Big Sleep' although a minor character looks somewhat like Lauren Bacall. I downloaded the mpeg1 file. Some frames are missing in a few spots which ruins dialog, but the audio and video are in good shape overall.

★★ · Tough to sit through · eggbone · 2016-03-22

It seemed to take two hours to view this one hour film. Thought the acting was barely up to par, the screenplay was poorly done. A good story with a terrible ending