Petticoat Larceny
1943 film by Ben Holmes
Petticoat Larceny is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Ben Holmes from an original screenplay by Jack Townley and Stuart Palmer. The film stars Ruth Warrick, Joan Carroll, and Walter Reed, and was released by RKO Radio Pictures (who also produced the film) on July 7, 1943.
Plot
Radio child star Joan Mitchell appears on a popular crime series called "Undercover Angel," but she's fed up with what she believes are the corny scripts, complaining that real children don't speak like that. She decides to "research" her role by investigating actual criminals. She's discovered snooping in their home by a trio of goofy, small time crooks, who, believing she's an orphan, take her in and agree to teach her some tricks of the trade. Meanwhile, her sudden disappearance has everyone naturally assuming she's been kidnapped, and things take a turn for the worse when she's recognized and snatched for real—so her new guardians take it upon themselves to rescue her.
Cast
Ruth Warrick as Pat Mitchell
Joan Carroll as Joan Mitchell/Small Change
Walter Reed as Bill Morgan
Wally Brown as Sam Colfax
Tom Kennedy as Pinky
Jimmy Conlin as Jitters
Vince Barnett as Stogie
Paul Guilfoyle as Joe 'Tinhorn' Foster
Grant Withers as Detective Hogan
Earl S. Dewey as Mr.
The public source identifies “Petticoat Larceny” as 1943 film by Ben Holmes. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Petticoat, Larceny and film.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18153145. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943.
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This entry incorporates text from “Petticoat Larceny” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.