Janet Holman is suspicious of her fiancé, Allen Wells, after he kisses her best friend Gwen when the lights are turned out during a party. Allen leaves early, purportedly for business reasons, but in reality, he is going to visit his secret girl friend, seventeen-year-old Ruth Jarrett. When Ruth's neighbor and landlady, Mrs. Humphries, overhears her talking to Allen on the phone, she becomes morally outraged and calls the police. Ruth is taken away to juvenile hall, and when Ruth's older brother Nick comes home to celebrate Ruth's birthday, Mrs. Humphries explains that Ruth has been seeing an older, wealthy man who has been leading her astray, and that she sent her away for her own good. Nick is saddened that he has failed to keep Ruth on the right track, and when he returns to his apartment, he becomes enraged to see Allen there. When Allen claims ignorance of Ruth's age, Nick hits him, and they engage in a brawl.
Acting
Clara Kimball Young's scene-stealing moral outrage as Mrs. Humphries.
Production
Night court authenticity on a shoestring budget.
Writing
Dialogue that punches harder than the actual brawl.
Director
Richard Thorpe
Sally Blane
Janet Holman
John Darrow
Nick Jarrett
J. Farrell MacDonald
George Holman
Clara Kimball Young
Mrs. Humphries
Eddie Phillips
Allen Wells
David Rollins
Alec
Matty Kemp
Bert
David Durand
David
Betty Grable
Ruth Jarrett
Kenne Duncan
Wedding Rehearsal Attendant (uncredited)
Mary Jane Irving
Gwen (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon
Mrs. Meyers
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Richard Thorpe directed nearly 200 films; this was his pre-code practice round before MGM stardom.
Released months before the Hays Code enforcement, 'Probation' captures Hollywood's last gasp of sexual frankness about age-gap relationships and female sexual agency.
US
