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Runaway Girls was the first directorial credit for Mark Sandrich, who would still have to serve a long apprenticeship in short subjects before regaining his stride at RKO in the mid-1930s. An unabashed exploitationer, this 1928 release was redeemed somewhat by virtue of its professional Columbia Pictures trappings. Shirley Mason stars as Sue Hartley, the mixed-up product of a broken home. Sue heads to the Big City in hopes of finding success as a model; instead, she falls into the clutches of white slavers. Clean-limned Jim Grey (Arthur Rankin) rescues the girl from evil vice lord Varden (Edward Earle), only to be accused of Varden's murder. But the actual killer is a grief-stricken father whose own wayward daughter wasn't quite as lucky as Sue.