Last night we had Lloyd Bridges in "Secret Service Investigator"(1948), a variation on our recent Inspector theme, and at 59 minutes, another Paul Shortino (who's now more famous as a Movie Category than he was as a singer, which is no slight on his musical career, but just sayin'....). Bridges plays "Steve Mallory", a war hero returning to the big city. In need of a job, he goes to the local paper. There he meets pretty "Susan Lane" (Lynne Roberts), the want ad clerk, who knows all about his WW2 exploits. This foreshadows romance later on. Mallory places an ad, which gets a quick response from a guy named "Joe". Joe turns out to be a Fed, or so he tells Mallory. "I'm with with the Secret Service". He shows Steve a man who's unconscious and lying on a couch. The man looks exactly like Steve. "That's why we need you, Captain Mallory", Joe says. "It's why I answered your ad. This man is a counterfeiter. You look just like him. We need you to go undercover in his place, to catch the brains behind the operation".
Mallory takes the job. But before he can track down Mr. Big, he's corralled into another office. "Who are you guys and what do you want with me"?, he asks. "You're Steve Mallory, are you not"?, says a serious looking man. "Yes I am, but what of it"? "You were supposed to come and see me about that ad you placed in the paper". "What do you mean? I just met the guy who responded! What the hell is this, a setup"? "No, Mr. Mallory, I'm afraid you've already been set up. Who is the man you met with"? "He said his name was 'Joe'. He replied to my ad about a job. He was six feet tall, dark hair, moustache. He said he was with the Secret Service. Hey what are you, a cop"?
"No, Mr. Mallory. My name is 'Joe'. Well, at least that's the alias I used. You see, I am the man who actually responded to your ad. I am in fact with the Secret Service. The other man you met is an impostor, and I have a feeling I know who he is".
Ahh, the old Impostor Ploy again. We've dealt with it a lot recently. We also just saw a movie called "The Counterfeiters". Once again, someone's stolen a set of high-grade plates. The unconscious man in the first Joe's office is the forger who designed them. The first Joe is a hoodlum named "Henry Witzel" (Trevor Bardette). He's hoping Steve Mallory will lead him to the thief.
Steve goes back to the paper to talk to Susan Lane. "Do you remember the man who responded to my ad"? She describes him, but it doesn't match Henry Witzel. "He was old and rather odd looking, with a weak voice and dirty fingernails". Using his ingenious powers of perception, Steve figures he must either be a mechanic or a printer. He and Susan are now a team (you knew that was coming). Together they scour the city, going to every print shop in the phone book, until they find the man in question. His name is "Miller" (Milton Parsons), a mealy-mouthed squealer who gives up the guy he's really working for, a big shot named "Otto Dagoff" (George Zucco).
Now that George Zucco's on board, we can start to work through the confusion. He never plays second fiddle, so when he shows up you know you've got the Boss Man. Zucco, as "Dagoff", wants the plates and he's none too happy, considering he's shelled out 30 Grand and hasn't received a doggone thing. Henry Witzel, i.e. the first Joe, is the guy who screwed him over. Zucco wants payback. So, he tells the screenwriter, "Look pal, I know you've got a clever gimmick here with the dueling Joes. You've got Lloyd Bridges, in his first starring role, chewing up the scenery. But I'm taking over because we need an end to this picture. You've got us going round in circles". Zucco cuts to the chase, playing hardball. He mows people down to get his freakin' plates back. This is the kind of Noir you wish you were watching all along. The last fifteen minutes of "Secret Service Investigator" is top notch. It also makes you wish for a restoration, because if the picture quality was better, all of the early plot flummery might not be so distracting. A razor sharp picture works wonders for viewer concentration. It still rates Two Solid Thumbs Up, however, and is recommended especially for the performances of George Zucco and Milton Parsons. ////
The previous night's film was a screwball crime caper called "Half a Sinner"(1940), about a prim young schoolteacher who decides to kick out the jams (i.e damn the torpedoes, take a chance, rock the boat, etc.) "Anne Gladden" (Heather Angel) is dedicated to her job, you could call her a cheerful disciplinarian. "You can't make your own rules", she tells a young miscreant at the beginning of the movie, who she's detained after school to write "I won't misbehave" (or something of that nature) 100 times on the blackboard. Miss Gladden pins her hair down and wears no makeup. She wears frumpy clothes. A colleague, "Margaret Reed" (Fern Emmett), tells her she should enhance her looks. "Listen honey, you're pretty. You could be homely like me. I'm forty now and over the hill, but when I was your age, I'd have given anything for a chance to live it up"! Miss Reed encourages Anne to get out there and break the rules. On her next day off, she does just that. Now she's all dressed up with her hair styled, eyes highlighted; she's a knockout. She heads out the door to the astonishment of her mother. "I'm going to live this day my way. I'm even going to get a little reckless".
She goes to a park where she sits on a bench, presumably to attract a man. It works, except he's not the kind of man she bargained for. He's big and he's a thug. He puts the make on Anne, then grabs her arm. She fights back and pushes him over the park bench. She jumps in a nearby car (which conveniently has the keys in the ignition) and drives off. What she doesn't know is that there's a dead body in the back seat. The car was initially stolen by the thug and his partner and they set out to get it back. The cops are looking for it, too.
As Anne is driving down the road, which looks to be somewhere on the coast of California, she encounters a man, "Larry Cameron" (John "Dusty" King) whose car has broken down. He talks her into giving him a lift to the nearest service station, and the escapade is on. If the cops catch Anne with the car, they'll inevitably find the body. Then she'll charged with murder. Worse than that, if the thugs catch her first, she's liable to get murdered. Well, she wanted an exciting day, didn't she? At the gas station, the attendant recognizes the car's licence plate number, which has been broadcast over the radio. He tries phoning the cops, but Larry Cameron ties him up. Now Larry's involved as a fugitive also.
Before they can leave the station, another car pulls in, belonging to "Mrs. Jefferson Breckenridge" (Constance Collier), a wealthy widow. Seeing an opportunity, Larry switches licence plates with her. She turns out to be a feisty old dame who likes being involved in a caper. To hide from both the police and the bad guys, Anne and Larry break into an empty house, and that's all I'm going to tell you.
"Half a Sinner" works well on the charms of it's cast. Heather Angel (yes that's her real name) is delightful as Anne, who's equal parts thrilled and afraid at what she's gotten herself into, and of course the dead body is played for laughs. John "Dusty" King, a tall, good-natured and very handsome gent, makes a gentlemanly foil to Anne's uncharacteristic criminal ditziness. She's not used to living outside the law. Criminal behavior, or at least cheering it on, seems to come naturally to Mrs. Breckenridge, however. Constance Collier plays her as the kind of opinionated, down-to-earth rich lady who loves to let the hot air out of stuffed shirts. These three, along with the inept thugs, deliver the character contrasts in this fast paced screwball comedy. It gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and also runs 59 minutes. ////
I know I'm a day late with this one, but I'll get back on schedule with the next blog or two. I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Eve, and I wish you a very Merry Christmas tomorrow. Don't forget to check the NORAD Santa Tracker and put out the milk and cookies!
I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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