Review of Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen

A movie that is less successful than we might expect from its credits is Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen (1933). This weird bad-taste picture was hastily cobbled together to cash in on the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnap. Unfortunately, the treatment of that tragic event is 90% farcical and only 10% dramatic. William Frawley plays his police captain for laughs, while Alice Brady commendably but unsuccessfully tries to steer a middle course between the script's intensive concentration on rub-your-nose-in-it slapstick elements and the horror of the real-life Lindbergh situation. The role of the distraught mother is sympathetically played by Dorothea Wieck, but she receives little support from director Alexander Hall, who can be seen playing himself in the film. Adrian Rosley was originally cast in this role but Hall objected to Rosley's clowning. A pity Hall didn't put his foot down regarding other aspects of the objectionable script. Cameraman Al Gilks (sitting beside the camera, and then walking off the set with Hall) also plays himself in the movie shoot within the movie.