In the fast-moving The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958), Betsy Palmer plays Phyllis Carter, a Santa Ana, Calif., housewife who volunteers to go undercover for her local police department's narcotics division. Her nephew has been killed in a car crash while under the influence of drugs, and now she wants to infiltrate a drug ring in order to help expose and bring it down. The police chief is reluctant at first, but out of desperation he soon accepts. The police have Carter pretend to be Lynn Stuart, a real female crook with a federal prison record. Soon enough, Stuart catches the eye of hoodlum Jack Lord and enters his criminal gang as his "girlfriend." This all causes great strain on her family: her husband becomes troubled by the fact that she must pretend to have a new romantic involvement, and their son develops nightmares.

The story was drawn by screenwriter John Kneubuhl from a series of real newspaper articles, and the picture has a semidocumentary flavor. Fine night photography by ace cameraman Burnett Guffey adds tremendously to the effect. Guffey at the time was president of the American Society of Cinematographers. He had already won an Oscar® for From Here to Eternity (1953) and would win again for Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He was nominated three further times.

Betsy Palmer was very familiar to moviegoers in 1958 from numerous television appearances. She had also already acted in a few features, including the fine western The Tin Star (1957). Decades later she gained renewed fame when she played Pamela Voorhees in Friday the 13th (1980) and a sequel. As of 2010 she is still a working actress.

The True Story of Lynn Stuart was the final film from director Lewis Seiler, who directed nearly 100 movies in a career that began in 1923. The picture was produced by Bryan Foy, one of the "Seven Little Foys" who had started in vaudeville decades earlier. At this point he was a veteran producer and director with a long industry legacy. Most of his film work had involved producing hundreds of B films, but he also gained fame by directing the first 100% talking feature for Warner Brothers, Lights of New York (1928), and by producing the landmark 3-D horror film House of Wax (1953).

Look for an uncredited Gavin MacLeod -- the future "Capt. Stubing" on TV's The Love Boat -- in his film debut, in the role of "Turk."

Producer: Bryan Foy
Director: Lewis Seiler
Screenplay: John H. Kneubuhl (adaptation and screenplay); Pat Michaels (newspaper articles)
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Art Direction: Ross Bellah
Music: Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Film Editing: Saul A. Goodkind
Cast: Betsy Palmer (Phyllis Carter aka Lynn Stuart), Jack Lord (Willie Down), Barry Atwater (Lt. Jim Hagan), Lionel Ames (Salesman), John Anderson (Doc), Jimmy Bates (pin boy).
BW-78m.

by Jeremy Arnold