Tonight I watched a Screwball Mystery called "The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt", which was part of a long running series of movies featuring the title character - the Lone Wolf - a former jewel thief who is now a private eye. I had never heard of the Lone Wolf before he popped up on Youtube, but if "Spy Hunt" is any indication, we're gonna have to watch the whole series. Warren William (of Charlie Chan fame) plays the Wolf as suave and easygoing, until he has to work his way out of a jam. Then he can kick some major league bootation. Ida Lupino is his gal. Boy was she a beautiful young woman with a satchel-full of screen charisma. I didn't know until I checked her IMDB that she became a raging alcoholic and an on-set diva to rival Bette Davis......(yikes).
At any rate, the movie's a breezy programmer (i.e. the opener in a double feature), so it's more about the snappy dialogue than a tangled plot, but such as it is, the story revolves around the attempts of a spy ring to steal the plans for an anti-aircraft gun. The bad guys are all Americans, no foreign attachment is mentioned, but I assume they must be working for the Nazis as the film was released in 1939. The blueprints for the gun are kept in a safe at the lab of the inventor. At first, the spies, headed up by Frank Morgan (who played The Wizard of Oz the same year), try to recruit the Lone Wolf, who in addition to being a jewel thief was also an expert safecracker during his criminal career. When he refuses to help, they resort to doing the job themselves and framing Wolf in the process. Fortunately, the cops are on his side. Now they've gotta get the blueprints back and arrest the spies, but first they've gotta locate Frank Morgan's hideout.
To do that, the Lone Wolf cozies up to a young Rita Hayworth, playing Morgan's moll. Ida Lupino thinks Hayworth is moving in on her territory, and does some great comedic slow burns and face-pulling/foot stamping tantrums in protest. In addition to her other cinematic talents, most notably as one of the first female directors, she was an excellent comedienne. She and Hayworth are both only 21 here, and it's a riot to watch them sit across from each other at a restaurant table, doing the " forced politeness" routine, while Lupino wishes death on Hayworth with her eyes.
There's not a lot of story but it's all about the fun, and some of the hijinx is downright knee-slappin', such as a car chase that goes around the block several times at high speed, so that the Wolf and Lupino can get the attention of the cops. When the chase by itself doesn't do the trick, Lupino throws a baseball bat through the window of the coffee shop in which the cops are sitting (with coffee and doughnuts, haha). It's gags like this that give this flick an extra jolt of pizzaz, which makes me want to watch the entire series.
In a side note about the actors, 12 year old Virginia Weidler plays the Lone Wolf's daughter Pat. In yet another depiction of "sophisticated '40s youth", she calls her Dad by his first name - "Mike" - which was also the Dad's name in "Tomorrow, the World!", which we watched the other night. Coincidentally, Weidler's character and Joan Carroll's in TTW are both daughters named Pat. In both movies the daughters call their fathers by their first name. So you have a "Pat and Mike" thing happening, and then there was a movie called "Pat and Mike" starring Tracy and Hepburn. So maybe Hollywood had a "Pat and Mike" fixation, or maybe it was an inside joke, or just something Irish. Me, I'm still trying to figure out the portrayal of daughters in films of the 30s and 40s who call their fathers "darling" or by their first names. What I'm wondering is "was that a Hollywood invention" or an actual trend among adolescent girls of the time?
Well, no matter. It's cute in any event, and so is "The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt", which gets Two Big Thumbs Up for being cool. ////
The previous night's picture was "Adventure in Iraq", a pleasant little surprise of a movie that plays like a Saturday Matinee, the kind of foreign escapade George Lucas might've been influenced by when he created "Indiana Jones".
An estranged couple and their Air Force pilot are flying over Iraq when their small plane develops engine trouble. With no choice but to make an emergency landing, they end up stranded in the middle of the desert, until a Mysterious Sheik comes to their rescue.
I have to stop for a second to note that no premise is given for the couple's trip, nor why they're together if they're about to divorce. We don't know why their Air Force friend is in uniform, either. The movie just starts with the three of them in the air, we hear they're gonna crash land, and then the Sheik comes along.
Boy, is he One Debonair Son of a Gun. You know when Dennis Hopper tells Dean Stockwell how suave he is, in "Blue Velvet"? Stockwell's got nothin' on this guy. He is Sheik Amid Bel Nor, ruler of a tribe of devil worshipers (no kidding). He even looks like Satan hmself, with his many-pointed Van Dyke beard. And man, does he have a silver tongue! As played by Paul Cavanaugh, the Sheik is a loquacious mixture of charm and threat. But that part comes later; at first he's the courteous host. He provides the trio with food, drink and bath, and invites them to stay awhile. When the pilot says "thanks, but we've gotta get the plane fixed and leave", that's when the dark side comes out. The Sheik informs the Americans that they have little choice but to stay.
"You see, my friends, it just so happens that your government is holding three of my brothers as spies. You have arrived at a most fortunate time, for they are just about to be executed. Therefore, you are now my bargaining chips. You may leave when my brothers are released".
"But what if they aren't"? asks the pilot.
"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves", replies the Sheik. "Why should we delve into unpleasant possibilities when we've been enjoying such a wonderful evening"?
See what I mean? He can't help but be Suave and Charming, even when he's threatening them. :)
The Sheik has one final Donald Trump card. "Should your Armed Forces attempt a rescue, or should I be harmed in any way, my followers will destroy the palace and whomever is left inside it. They are very superstitious and uneducated. I am the only one who can keep them at bay. The outcome, therefore, is entirely in your hands, or should I say the hands of your judicial system".
Our heroes realise they're gonna have to come up with an escape plan, but in the meantime, the Sheik returns to his gracious ways. While waiting for word on his brothers' fate, he attempts to romance the female hostage (Ruth Ford, one of Orson Welles' stock players). She tells him it would be nice if his righteousness matched his charm. But that's what is driving the movie: The enigmatic morality of the Exotic Middle Eastern Potentate. He's highly educated ("at the best European schools"), has impeccable manners, and genuinely seeks to please. But he'll throw you to the Satan Worshippers in a hot second if he doesn't get what he wants.
The movie was based on a play, inspired I suppose by Iraq's support of Hitler in WW2. There is some dialogue indicating as such, but at any rate, like our Lone Wolf movie above, it's all in good fun. It comes off almost like a Val Lewton horror movie at times, but above all the drawing card is Paul Cavanaugh's Sheik, who even gives you a wink and a nod at the end, as if to say "I hope I didn't scare you. Please come back again sometime".
Two Big Thumbs Up for "Adventure in Iraq". If you've got 65 minutes to spare, watch it tonight. /////
That's all for the moment. Have a great evening. Tons and tons of love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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