Tonight I watched a cheapie from Monogram Pictures called "I Killed That Man". Yep, you read that right. This is one title you'd have a hard time explaining if you mentioned it in passing and the other person didn't know you were referring to a movie. Yikes! Well anyhow, as you may know, Monogram was one of the low-budget motion picture studios operating during the Golden Era that were collectively known as Poverty Row. Another well known one was Republic Pictures. These studios were located mostly on small lots in East Hollywood, and they cranked out B, C, and even D grade films that could be snapped up by theater chains as the lower half of double features. Consequently, the films that came from Poverty Row came to be known as "programmers", because they filled out a theater's screening program of perhaps two movies, the A-grade major studio release being the main feature, with the Poverty Row flick as the opener and maybe a cartoon or newsreel to round out the bill.
Kinda like the way they do rock concerts. So if you've gotta sit through an opening act, you hope it is at least not terrible.
I haven't seen a lot of films from Monogram Pictures, but the few I've watched have been entertaining on a basic level. You know going in that it's Monogram and you accept the pictures for what they are. I've seen worse from other low budget studios and independent filmmakers working on a shoestring. Take Roger Corman for example. I know I pick on him a lot, but his movies are, for the most part, truly awful, without even the quality of charm to redeem them. Corman worked in the 1960s, though, which was the absolute worst period ever for B-Movies, so that factor should possibly be noted in his defense.
Or maybe he caused the demise of the B-Movie in the 1960s by making such crummy films.
But let us back off from Roger for a moment to proclaim a Rule Of Thumb :
B-Movies from the 1930s = So-So. This was a time when sound had just transformed the moviegoing experience. The Major Studios were really cranking up. Top quality sound movies were a huge deal, and as a result, there was not the preponderance of lower budget films that would proliferate a decade later. The B-films that you will find from the '30s generally fall under the salacious, "pre-Code" umbrella, made to titillate audiences and put adult butts in seats. I own several dvd sets from this period, labeled as part of the "Forbidden Hollywood" collection.
B-Movies from the 1940s and 1950s = Really Good. The 40s and 50s were the peak decades for the Hollywood Studio System. Studios were so flush with cash that they could give their B-Movies the deluxe treatment. B-Pictures were often made using the same sets the A-Grade filmmakers had vacated. Acting stables were overfilled with quality talent, so the casts of the Bs were loaded with good actors, some of whom also worked on the A-List in supporting roles. I know we aren't supposed to say this nowdays, but the B-Movie lineups also featured some of the best looking actresses in the business. Film Noir was a specialty genre of the 1940s/50s Bs, so was Horror and later Sci-Fi. Serial mysteries were popular too, like the Charlie Chan films, and Westerns had always been a staple from the beginning.
So Hollywood owes at least some of it's success to it's B-Movies, and for a while, the cheapest of the Bs, but by no means the worst, were cranked out by the studios on Poverty Row.
"I Killed That Man" has a preposterous plot. As a Death Row inmate awaits execution, he addresses the warden and witnesses with his last words. He is finally going to name the "bog shot" who put him up to killing the man in the movie's title. But just before he can name that man, he himself is killed instantaneously by a miniature poison dart, which has been fired into his neck by someone in the room.
Of course, no one knows who did it, even though they were all sitting right next to one another. :)
So, the search is on for the assassin. Who would want the killer dead? Why, perhaps the still unnamed "big shot" the condemned man was about to blow the whistle on.
Luckily, the District Attorney is in the room to prevent anyone from leaving. Luckily for us, this is not one of those "everyone is stuck in a room" movies whose budget is so low that they only use a single location.
The plot may not amount to much, but what the film lacks in story it makes up for with energetic screwball comedy and "in on the joke" performances from it's quirky cast of characters, including a wise-guy kid who works as the D.As assistant. He goofs around reading detective manuals and listening in on private phone calls, trying to solve the case himself, and has the type of 1940s fast talking smart aleck delivery that makes him the default comic relief.
The camerawork is mostly static and flat, but the director keeps the story moving, and the actors make it fun.
"I Killed That Man" gets a Thumb and Half Up, but when you factor in that it's from Monogram, that really equals Two Thumbs. You could do a lot worse with your 70 minutes of viewing time (see Roger Corman), so if you're ever running low on your queue of regularly scheduled flicks, give something from Poverty Row a chance. /////
That's all for now. See you tonight, and I think we might have another one from Monogram lined up. I'm heading off to the store, then back to Pearl's. See you at the Usual Time.
Tons of love, naturally. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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