AllMovie

Alias Mary Smith might have been completely forgotten were it not for the diligent efforts of "B"-picture aficionado John Cocchi, who in such books as Second Feature has elevated this unintentionally hilarious cheapie to near-classic status. John Darrow plays a bibulous playboy who rescues put-upon heroine Blanche Mehaffey from a purse-snatcher. Their subsequent romance is complicated by Mehaffey's efforts to prove gangster boss Matthew Betz guilty of murder, a trick she pulls off with the help of a squeezed lemon (no kidding!) The tightness of the film's budget is never more obvious than in the obligatory newspaper-headline close-ups; all of these headlines have been obviously plastered over a single copy of the trade paper Variety (sharp-eyed viewers will note that each news story begins with a report from the Culver City kennel club). The film reaches a giddy high point when the heroine, threatened with a jail sentence by DA Henry B. Walthall, asks plaintively, "Is it a nice jail?"