Wife Wanted is an American crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

 film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 directed by Phil Karlson

Phil Karlson

Phil Karlson was a film director known for his no-nonsense film noirs. Karlson directed 99 River Street, Kansas City Confidential and Hell's Island all with actor John Payne in the early 1950s...

. The drama features Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh and Robert Shayne. This was Francis' last film.

Plot

Carole Raymond (Francis) is a film star whose best years are behind her so she decides to buy in a real estate plan with Jeff Caldwell (Cavanagh), who's really running a illegitimate matrimonial service.

Cast

• Kay Francis
  Kay Francis
  Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
  
   as Carole Raymond
• Paul Cavanagh
  Paul Cavanagh
  Paul Cavanagh was an English film actor. He appeared in over 100 films between 1928 and 1959. He was born in Chislehurst and died in London from a heart attack....
  
   as Jeffrey Caldwell
• Robert Shayne
  Robert Shayne
  Robert Shayne , born Robert Shaen Dawe, was an American actor.-Career:Shayne played many character roles in movies and television, such as a 1943 movie entitled Wagon Wheels West, but he is best remembered for his portrayal of the recurring character Police Inspector William "Bill" Henderson on the...
  
   as Bill Tyler
• Veda Ann Borg
  Veda Ann Borg
  Veda Ann Borg was an American film actress.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Borg was the daughter of Gottfried Borg, a Swedish immigrant and Minna Noble. She became a model in 1936 before winning a contract at Paramount Pictures. A car crash in 1939 necessitated drastic reconstruction of her face by...
  
   as Nola Reed
• Teala Loring
  Teala Loring
  Teala Loring was an American actress who appeared in over thirty films during the 1940s. Born Marcia Griffin in Denver, Colorado, she was the sister of actors Debra Paget, Lisa Gaye, and Reull Shayne...
  
   as Mildred Kayes
• Jonathan Hale
  Jonathan Hale
  Jonathan Hale was a Canadian-born film and television actor.-Career:Born Jonathan Hatley in Ontario, Canada, Hale was well known as Dagwood Bumstead's boss, Julius Caesar Dithers, in the Blondie film series in the 1940s. He is also notable for playing Inspector Farnack in various The Saint films...
  
   as Philip Conway
• Tim Ryan
  Tim Ryan (actor)
  Tim Ryan was an American performer who is probably best known today as a film actor. Ryan and his wife, Irene who later played Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, were a show business team that performed on Broadway, film and radio...
  
   as Bartender
• Barton Yarborough
  Barton Yarborough
  William Barton Yarborough was an American actor who worked extensively in radio drama.As a youth, Yarborough ran away from home, attracted by the vaudeville stages, and he first worked in radio during the 1920s...
  
  as Walter Desmond

Production

Kay Francis was unhappy with the first script, so she and director Phil Karlson went to work on obtaining a re-write, and became a producer on the film.