Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935) User Reviews

Her pluck and her luck save her

[ecaulfield · 8/10 · 24 August 2008]

It's only 1935, but Mary Burns appears to be a self-sufficient woman. She manages her own business, the Coffee Cup, "one hundred miles from nowhere," way out where the eggs come from a nearby farm and where they still have church socials. How can this independent woman become a victim? Well, no one is really independent of all the world, are they? Her great sin is to trust. She lets herself rely on a man who will likely never have any character witnesses if he is ever brought before a court of justice. Then, once accused of aiding and abetting his criminal acts (a false charge), her next human mistake is to fail to adequately defend herself before an aggressive prosecutor.

But she does have nerve, which leads to a freedom of sorts. Of course, now she's "Mary Burns, Fugitive" so she isn't completely free. She has shadows: the law, and the man she never really knew. He's a fugitive, too, and even a killer. But wouldn't you know, he seems to genuinely care about Mary and comes out of hiding several times to try to link up with her. Thus, Mary is an innocent, she never knew "her man" was a felon, and she has no use for him now. But the police are determined to use his undying soft spot – his weakness for her – to track him down.

This film is a product of Hollywood and it's no gritty film noir. But it has some 1930's gangster-film touches (wisecracking dames and lock-jawed tough guys). Anyway, it's nice to be reassured. And I never mind seeing Melvyn Douglas play a hero.

mary takes on the gangsters

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 5 August 2019]

Sylvia Sidney is Mary, who runs a coffee shop. Her mysterious boyfriend shows up, and says he has to be in Canada that night. She agreees to marry him, but then there's a big shootout, and Mary is off to jail. Brian Donlevy (way before Beau Geste or Glass Key) is in here as Spike. When Mary breaks out of jail, the gang thinks it's a trap to catch the thugs. and maybe it is... Melvyn Douglas is a grouchy patient in the hospital where Mary gets a job. The gangsters and the cops catch up with her, so its a race to see who can catch who first. Sidney was married to bigshot publisher Bennett Cerf (for a whole six months) and starred in Hitchcock's Sabotage the year after this one. Directed by Bill Howard. he started in the silents, and continued into the 1940s. This one is pretty good. some typical gangster movie bits, but it all works.

True Innocent

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 5 August 2019]

When she was young and in her salad days Sylvia Sidney seemed to be cast as innocents with lives buffeted by time and circumstance. In the title role of Mary Burns, Fugitive rural girl Sylvia who works in a coffee shop has fallen for smooth talking city guy Alan Baxter.

She learns the hard way that he's one of the FBI's public enemies when she gets brought in on a holdup and Baxter escapes and she's caught. After trial and conviction she's sent to women's prison for 15 years.

In this film everybody manipulates Sylvia, her cellmate brassy Pert Kelton, G-man Wallace Ford, and the rest of law enforcement as an 'escape' is arranged hoping she'll lead the cops to Baxter. But she really doesn't know anything and can't convince anyone of that fact.

There are some real good performances here from Sidney and from Baxter as one cold villain with one weakness, the hots for Sylvia. Just as cold and villainous but without the libido problems is Brian Donlevy in one of his earliest roles. He meets quite an end.

With the part of the arranged escape that doesn't go quite as planned some elements of White Heat are here.

This one is a crackerjack sleeper from Paramount.

Excellent Sidney, Surprising Donlevy

[johnaquino · 5 August 2019]

Forgotten, well written and acted, gritty crime drama. Sidney is excellent as usual. The big surprise is Brian Donlevy, soon to be typecast as western villains until attaining bigger starring or co-starring roles in the 40s, playing Spike, a soft=spoken gangster, devoted to his boss Alan Baxter, menacing in his quiet.

Doesn't quite burn

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 20 March 2020]

Other than the premise, which sounded very interesting if not original, Sylvia Sidney was my main reason for wanting to see 'Mary Burns, Fugitive'. Such an expressive and sincere actress with eyes and expressions that told so much in a nuanced way. Melvyn Douglas also gave plenty of great performances, whether in suave roles or paternal ones. Brian Donlevy was a bit hit and miss for me and it did depend on the role, as cliched as that sounds.

'Mary Burns, Fugitive' turned out to be a solid film with a lot of notable things in a good way. Sidney certainly being one of them, not surprising as she was one of the best things of pretty much every film she starred in, and was pleasantly surprised by Donlevy. 'Mary Burns, Fugitive' is not a perfect film and its full potential is not followed all the way through. It could have done with more grit and there is one performance that was rather weak for my tastes.

That weak performance coming from a very bland Alan Baxter, who is neither sympathetic or formidable (didn't really detect much of anything really) and has little chemistry with Sidney. Which should have smoldered but instead doesn't even achieve lukewarm level.

As said, 'Mary Burns, Fugitive' could have done with a little more grit and thrills, not going for the full punch enough and not quite giving enough freshness to familiar elements. It starts a touch slow as well, before picking up quite quickly.

Sidney however is her usual expressive and easy to root for self and Douglas shows that he can do cantankerous just as well as he can do suave and fatherly, although his role is smaller than his billing indicates. Most surprising is the quietly menacing Donlevy. The rest of the cast also fare well, namely Pert Kelton, excelling in a role that one might think on paper wouldn't fit her. William K. Howard keeps the intrigue up and does generate some suspense.

It's stylishly and atmospherically shot, not looking too studio-bound or cheap. The script doesn't blow the mind, but it has energy at least, it's cohesive and the dialogue flows. The story likewise, complete with some neat twists and it entertained and intrigued me enough.

On the whole, solid but not spectacular. 7/10

Let's See How Long We Can Torment Sylvia Sidney Before She Cries

[boblipton · 6/10 · 5 August 2019]

Sylvia Sidney is a dope who falls for a city slicker only to find out he's a crook. She gets convicted for aiding and abetting. After her prison break, the cops use her to ferret out the boyfriend she now hates. She lands a job washing dishes in a hospital and meets snowblind explorer Melvyn Douglas.

Maybe I've seen Sylvia Sidney suffering in far too many low-class weepers, demonstrating that the Shomin-Gekim was not a Japanese genre. Here's proof that there were lower-class people in the American audiences, and they liked to think their lives were as interesting and worthy of making ridiculous stories about as snoots on Park Avenue. Even the occasional swell might take off his top hat to look at a shop girl, were she pretty as Miss Sidney. Miss Sidney is a dope, the guys on the side of the law are as heartless to the poor girl as gangsters, and it's so obvious that she's a good girl that Melvyn Douglas can tell it with his eyes bandaged.

Miss Sidney needed to make more comedies. Alas, she didn't get to do that for many years in the movies. She was too good at being sad, and shy and oppressed, and making the audience wait to hear her break down and cry out at the unfairness of it all, which she finally does here about eight minutes before the end of this one.

Director William K. Howard tells the movie in a straightforward manner, and it isn't until about 50 minutes into it that he unleashes his quick-cut Dutch Angle style to let you know something exciting is about to happen. It's an awful burden that Miss Sidney has to carry this whole movie, but she does so.

good crime story

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 7 August 2019]

Nice girl Mary Burns (Sylvia Sidney) runs a little rural coffee shop. Her boyfriend Babe Wilson from the big city suggests getting married and moving to Canada. She doesn't know that he's actually a gangster. Babe escapes a police shoot out and Mary is captured. She is sentenced to 15 years as Babe goes on a crime spree. She joins her cellmate Goldie Gordon in a prison escape. Goldie pushes her to track down her rampaging ex Babe. It turns out that Goldie is working with the police. Mary works in a hospital kitchen and befriends angry patient Barton Powell (Melvyn Douglas). He's an explorer suffering from snow blindness.

The story is good. The twists are good but it could told better. It needs more from Barton. Some of Mary's story can be told in flashbacks. All in all, it's a compelling story. It could use more thrills.

The title character here is the sort of weak-kneed wimp . . .

[cricket30 · 6/10 · 14 August 2020]

. . . who brings eggs to machine gun fights. Hardly a Master Chef, MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE has but one talent in Life: She's able to heat up a drinkable cup of coffee. But it takes her about an hour and a half of screen time to work up the nerve to actually fire one of the Peacemakers surrounding her, and plug her inept fiance four times. Why not make an overly long story short, skip this tedious MARY BURNS, and then spend five minutes of the time you've saved in making a generous donation to your local chapter of BANGS (Broke Americans Need Gun Stamps)?

Stunning Sylvia - On the Run Again!!!

[kidboots · 9/10 · 19 January 2012]

Sylvia Sidney was in trouble with the law again, branded a "gun moll" because the man she thought was so nice was really a desperate gangster. This top notch gripping thriller was so strongly written by Gene Towne and directed by the under-rated William K. Howard that you are with Sylvia every inch of the way when as a law abiding cafe owner she becomes infatuated with a gangster and is soon dragged down to his criminal level.

This is a superlative film and I can't understand why it is not better known. Lovely Mary is the darling of the neighbourhood but she only has eyes for "Babe". The only time the movie falls down is in it's casting of Alan Baxter - he was so quiet and un-animated that it was completely believable that Mary was innocent of his real identity. It was his film debut but he almost sleepwalked through his part. Anyway, he wants her to go to Canada with him but before Mary has time to think, the police surround the diner and she is branded a "gun moll" by the newspapers. Mary breaks down under pressure and "confesses" her role in his criminal activities - even though she didn't do it!!!

Looking at 15 years in prison she makes a break with fellow cell mate Goldie (Pert Kelton), but Goldie is in league with a policeman (Wallace Ford) who hopes that, now free, Mary will lead them to Babe. Mary is determined to lead a decent life and gets a job as a hospital kitchen hand where she makes the acquaintance of explorer, Barton Powell (Melvyn Douglas). When Babe's henchman (Brian Donlevy) tries to "convince" her (as only Donlevy can) to see Babe, Mary slips out of a window and she is soon on the run again, finding a job as a dance hostess in a small town. The pace never lets up as all the players meet again for an explosive climax at Powell's lakeside cottage.

Obviously Sidney carried the whole show with her desperate emotion and her beautiful face, ready to smile through her tears. A far more dynamic personality than Baxter's was Brian Donlevy who should have been snapped up by Paramount. He had performed a number of different roles on Broadway, even though in films he was being typecast as grim faced thugs but it was left to 20th Century Fox to bring out his personality.

The Public Enemy's Girl

[lugonian · 8/10 · 17 August 2019]

MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE (Paramount, 1935), directed by William K. Howard, ranks one of the finer prison related themed crime stories from the 1930s. Not as intense as the more famous I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (Warner Brothers, 1932) starring Paul Muni, nor one taken from a stage play as THE LAST MILE (Tiffany, 1932) featuring Preston Foster, MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE stars Sylvia Sidney in the title role of an innocent girl who becomes a victim of circumstance through no fault of her own.

Mary Burns (Sylvia Sidney), owner of a roadside coffee cup shop next door to a garage/gas station in the country, awaits the arrival of Babe Wilson (Alan Baxter), an oil salesman whom she sees every three or four weeks. Upon his arrival, Babe, a man Mary knows little about, proposes marriage to her and wants her to immediately leave everything behind and accompany him to Canada. Minutes later, police arrive to arrest Babe, exposed as a wanted gangster and cold-blooded killer. Shooting his partner, Joe (Norman Willis), so not to reveal the location of the stolen bonds, Babe makes his daring escape, leaving Mary to face arrest. During her trial by jury, Mary is cross-examined by an attorney, revealing she knew nothing about Babe Wilson except that she loved him. Because of poor sufficient evidence, Mary is found guilty and sentenced to serve 15 years in the penitentiary. Unable to get parole for disclosing Wilson's whereabouts to Harper (Wallace Ford) from the parole board, Mary, not wanting to spend any more time behind bars, talks Goldie Gordon (Pert Kelton), her cellmate, into joining her in a well-planned prison break. Now living in a tenement apartment somewhere in the city with Goldie, and flat broke, Mary, alias Alice Brown, takes a chance in obtaining a night job as dishwasher at the Mercy Hospital. While there, Mary meets patient, Barton Powell (Melvyn Douglas), an noted explorer with bandaged eyes due to snow blindness he got in Tibet. He not only likes the sound of her voice, but her coffee as well. When Spike (Brian Donlevy), locates Mary with intentions of taking her back to Babe, Mary escapes to Kansas, only to be pursued by Harper, hoping she will lead him to Babe before any further hold-ups and killings occur. Others in the cast include: Esther Dale (Kate); Daniel L. Haynes (Jeremiah, Powell's butler); Cora Sue Collins (Dorothy); and George Chandler, among others.

An exciting story that keeps viewers interest for its entire 84 minutes. Alan Baxter, in his motion picture debut, gives a promising start to his movie career playing a hooded gangster. Unlike movie tough guys as James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, George Raft and later Humphrey Bogart who all achieved popularity through their wide-range of performances, Baxter never became a top-rated actor in the Alan Ladd mode. Though he did a distinctive way of talking as well as some leading roles, mostly in second-rate features, Baxter appeared mainly in either supporting or minor parts throughout his movie or TV career. Baxter worked again opposite Sylvia Sidney in THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936), but had little to do, especially when the major male co-stars were Henry Fonda and Fred MacMurray. Melvyn Douglas, who appears 39 minutes into the start of the story, gives a fine performance as a bickering hospital patient who softens himself to his new assistant, Mary, unaware of her troubled past. Pert Kelton, better known as a sassy blonde in comedies, is surprisingly cast as a tough prison inmate, and does it so well. A pity she didn't get enough stronger roles like this to display her acting ability than just a secondary comedienne. Like many movies of the type, MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE doesn't disappoint. The car radio playing to the tune, "I'm in the Mood for Love" introduced from EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT (1935), is vocalized by Frances Langford.

Though MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE did have enough commercial television exposure through much of the 1960s and 70s, like Sylvia Sidney's other Paramount film releases of the 1930s, this film remains overlooked and forgotten. Never distributed on video cassette, MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE got its long overdue broadcast on cable television's Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: August 5, 2019). (***)

She was a moll and didn't even know it.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 16 September 2015]

Poor Sylvia Sidney. Always in love with the wrong guy, whether it be Spencer Tracy in "Fury" (as a man wrongly accused of kidnapping/murder) or Henry Fonda in "You Only Live Once" (as an ex- con who can't get a break and ends up on the run due to trumped up charges), or in this film, with Alan Baxter. If it wasn't that, she was a girl from the slums, dealing with murder in the family in "Street Scene", crime elements in her neighborhood in "Dead End", or dealing with rotting tenements in "One Third of a Nation". Tiring of these roles, Sidney took to the stage for several decades, returning in character parts and becoming Tim Burton's favorite little old lady in "Beetlejuice" and "Mars Attacks!", wrapping up her career after more than 70 years on stage and screen.

Under contract to Paramount for much of the 1930's, Sidney was an early talkie version of Lillian Gish, playing all sorts of long- suffering waif's, and here she is no exception. She is happy at the beginning, running a country diner and befriending all the locales. She's thrilled by the arrival of boyfriend Baxter whom she only sees every few weeks, unaware that he's a gangster on the lam. A shoot- out in her diner results in her put on trial for supposedly being his accessory, and in prison, she finds the favor of the D.A. and a matron who wonder if she is indeed innocent. But the restlessness of the innocent brings on temptation, and when cellmate Pert Kelton ("The Music Man") makes a break for it, Sidney follows, which leads on a chase for the law to try and find the still at large Baxter. Sidney is unaware that their room is being bugged and that Kelton is being paid off by the fed's to trap Baxter into coming out of hiding.

Melvyn Douglas has the thankless role of a cantankerous hospital patient whom Sidney encounters while working as a dishwasher apparently under an assumed name. Other than having some great lines in his few scenes and offering Sidney a job as his secretary when he gets better, he really has nothing to do but give Sidney hope in finding a new life outside being associated with Baxter. Just as everything seems to be getting better for her (in spite of still being observed by the fed's), Baxter comes back into her life, basically taking her against her will and getting her deeper into trouble. This of course leads to a violent chase scene and a very dramatic conclusion.

While this is basically enjoyable, it's all nonsense as far as reality is concerned. Sidney gives a realistic performance, and gains sympathy for the predicament that she's in. Kelton, as far from her Mother Paroo role in "The Music Man", actually slaps her in one scene after revealing her anger towards her for getting them into a difficult situation. Baxter gains absolutely no sympathy for his thug character, totally selfish in spite of his supposed love for Sidney. Had they concentrated on creating a more believable script with less pathos and more realism, this could have been a decent crime picture with a woman as the lead character rather than the mediocre let-down it turns out to be.