I wanted to but couldn't!

Good movie but grossly overrated

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It seems incredible that any man would prefer dowdy Jane Greer to stylish Lizabeth Scott, yet that is precisely O'Keefe's choice in this oddly miscast movie! Miss Scott seems a natural for the parolee part and Miss Greer would not have disgraced the role of parole officer. Yet the casting director has reversed this natural order of succession! Director John Cromwell is below form too. Admittedly, he was not helped by the soap opera script, though he does display some occasional flashes of brilliance in such scenes as the brutal police line-up, and the sequence in which O'Keefe describes the things two can do on the town, illustrated by brief snippets of O'Keefe and Greer in the action. Production values are otherwise up to standard.Some critics complained that the plot and its characters were novelettish and that the movie never came to grips with its subject matter. But personally I feel that's what movies are all about. They're not documentaries about real life. They present characters with which audiences can identify in a fictional world which seems realistic enough to engage viewers' attention. My quarrel is that in this case neither the characters nor plot developments seem quite credible.

SPOILERSWhen the movie begins ,we side with Diane/Mildred ,we pity her lack of luck,her miserable childhood;and we think that THAT lady (Mrs Wilburn) will tear her to pieces when she knows the truth about her love affair .The unfortunate ex-convict has fallen in love with her parole officer's squeeze!But it's not what you expect;in fact ,as the movie progresses,the parole officer's morale stature and dignity constantly grows and Lizabeth Scott ,in the second part ,really steals the show from talented Jane Greer.Dennis O'Keefe,on the other hand ,seems too old for the part of a young suitor.This is nonetheless a moving absorbing movie,with a subject which is still topical,even though it simplifies the matters.Recommanded

Lizabeth Scott is OK here, & I'm a big fan of hers, but I would have liked her better in the role of Diane (played by Greer). Scott is just too sugary sweet in her role as a Parole Officer Angel. On the other hand, I kept waiting for Greer's character to wake up & smell the coffee, but she really never did, & that's what makes this film a cut above similar soapers of this kind. Greer is excellent as a sneering, eye-rolling bad girl who just doesn't care about those trying to help her or society, & really doesn't even care about herself. I rate it 6/10. I would have rated it higher if not for Scott's too sweet character & the happy pat en

The Company She Keeps might be viewed as John Cromwell's soft-hearted "sequel" to his great Caged of the same year (some of the same cast members reappear in small parts in both). Taking over the Eleanor Parker role -- the embittered parolee with a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude -- Jane Greer finally goes "freeside." Lizabeth Scott meets her at the train, not as a mentor into the world of vice but wasted as Greer's saintly parole officer. Greer makes it plain that she's none too happy with the constraints (a night-shift job, frumpy clothes, no drinking) imposed upon her, and promptly sets her hat for Scott's fiance Dennis O'Keefe, who tumbles right into it.And this is where Ketti Frings' script loses whatever edge it had. The hard, manipulative Greer goes soft around the edges, conflicted and vacillating. Scott, meanwhile, magnanimously cedes O'Keefe to her rival and continues to advocate on her behalf with redoubled passion (an opposite change of heart would have furnished welcome friction).Luckily, a few goblins still hover in the shadows, and, in a brief scene set in Los Angeles' municipal lockup, Cromwell manages to reprise some of the black magic of Caged. But the syrupy social messages and Frings' earnest kind-heartedness almost sink the movie, which nonetheless preserves one of Greer's rare appearances in the noir cycle, particularly savory at the movie's start and near its end. Just don't expect another Kathie Moffat from Out of the Past.