It was a non-Western weekend this time around, beginning with last night's film, "The Witching Hour"(1934) and I must preface it by saying wow, what a find! I stumbled on it by chance, after searching Youtube for old black and white mysteries. "Jack Brookfield" (John Halliday), a wealthy and refined gentleman, runs a casino out of the parlor in his mansion. Young "Clay Thorne" (Tom Brown) is there every night, and as the movie opens we see Mr. Brookfield's servant asking Clay to bet a dollar for him, as Clay is having a run of luck. The servant rubs his lucky rabbit's foot, and it pays off as Clay wins big at the dice table. Luck is then dispensed with as we get to know Mr. Brookfield, whose psychic powers allow him to preempt a police raid on his establishment. He clears out the gamblers before the cops arrive, and when his best friend asks him how he knew they were coming, he says he can't explain it. The friend then asks him is he's ever heard of the phenomenon of thought transfer, or esp as we now call it. Mr. Brookfield says he's never heard of it, but he's glad it worked to help him trick the cops.
As for Clay Thorne, Brookfield knows he's is not really there for the gambling. Clay's in love with Brookfield's daughter "Nancy" (Judith Allen) and wants to marry her, but when Clay goes to ask Mr. Brookfield for her hand, he becomes terrified of Brookfield's cat's eye ring. It seems an irrational fear, so Brookfield hypnotises Clay by thought transfer, to lose his fear of cat's eye rings, and when Clay comes to, the fear is gone. But in the interim, another suitor has come to the house to demand a meeting with Nancy. He wants to marry her, too. Mr. Brookfield doesn't like this chap and has his servant throw him out of the house. He threatens to kill the guy if he ever comes back.
The next thing we know, Nancy Brookfield comes to her Dad in tears, saying that Clay has just been arrested in the murder of the other suitor. Clay says he can't remember what happened, or even how he got to the man's house. Mr. Brookfield surmises that Clay was influenced by hypnotic suggestion, because while he was hypnotised, he overheard Brookfield threaten to kill the other man (for reference, think of Gilligan turning into Mary Ann when the Professor hypnotises her.) As for Clay Thorne, he's charged with murder, and no lawyer will take his case, because they think his excuse is a lot of hooey. But finally, Mr. Brookfield, who likes Clay and wants him to marry Nancy, convinces his friend "Martin Prentice" (Guy Standing), a retired judge, to take the case. Judge Prentice won't do it at first, but agrees after being visited by the ghost of his late paramour, who happens to be Clay's grandmother. When the case goes to trial, the prosecutor mocks the hypnosis theory. The jury foreman is Fred Mertz, so you can imagine what he thinks of it. But Judge Prentice, acting as Clay's lawyer, has an ace up his sleeve to prove Clay's innocence and that's all I can tell you about the plot, but man, it's a humdinger.
If you are know the story of September 1989, or are a student of the RFK assassination, you are going to love this movie. The way in which thought transfer is presented is right on the money, as is the power of hypnosis to make people forget their actions (or things that have happened to them). The movie originated with a play in 1901, when the Spirituist movement was popular in America. But it predicts everything that happened with RFK, except in that case it was deliberately done to Sirhan by an evil person named Louis Jolyon West. This is a must see film, one of those weird little gems like "Portrait of Jennie" or "The Enchanted Cottage" that you come across once in a while. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Witching Hour". The picture is very good. ////
The previous night, Chester Morris returned as Boston Blackie in "One Mysterious Night"(1944). When the priceless Blue Star of the Nile diamond is stolen from a ladies-club exhibition, "Inspector Faraday" (Richard Lane) suspects an inside job, but he names Blackie as the suspect so the newspapers will print the headline. The only way Faraday can get Blackie to contact him is by accusing him of a crime he didn't commit. When Blackie shows up at headquarters, with sidekick "Runt" (George E. Stone) in tow, Faraday deputizes him to help solve the crime. The first thing Blackie does is visit the exhibition, in disguise as an elderly geologist (yeah, I know; what's with all the geologists lately?). He talks to the gallery's assistant manager, and suspects him of being in on the job. A hotshot female reporter (Janice Carter), recognizes Blackie under the wig and outs him. Now the manager is worried about being busted, and enlists his sister (Dorothy Malone) to help hide the diamond, which he stole on behalf of some hoodlums. Blackie ends up stealing the diamond from the manager, who's shot dead when the crooks come back to claim it. One weird aspect of the script is that, after he dies, he's never mentioned again, and the Dorothy Malone character disappears.
When the diamond goes missing, Inspector Faraday is in hot wattah with the Chief, for hiring Blackie in the first place, because rule #1 is: whenever a diamond is involved, suspect #1 is always Blackie. In this case, the crooks know he stole it, and they want it back, but he only stole it to lead them to his pal "Jumbo Madigan" (Joseph Crehan), who owns a pawn shop. Jumbo is gonna tell the crooks that the diamond is a fake, which will enable Blackie to escape with the real one.
The jokes fly fast and loose in this installment of the series, and while the slapstick doesn't match our last Blackie outing ("A Close Call For Boston Blackie"), there is a great scene where Blackie and Runt are tied upside down to a bedframe and have to right themselves. Chester Morris would be a huge comedy star in the SNL tradition if he were alive today. There's also a great scene in that regard about a women's rooming house, where no men are allowed to enter. It's really weird how Dorothy Malone is listed 29th in the IMDB credits (and uncredited in the film itself) when she's the fourth or fifth major character in the movie. A small disappointment is that the doofus Sgt. Matthews character is played by someone other than Frank Sully this time. The actor in this movie was okay, but Sully, for me, is the one-and-only Sgt. Matthews, a dumbbell extraordinaire. The director was Tarantino favorite Budd Boetticher, making his debut. The bottom line, as always, is that Boston Blackie rules. They could've made a hundred of these flicks and we'd never get tired of watching 'em. Two Big Thumbs Up for "One Mysterious Night". The picture is close to razor sharp. ////
That's all for tonight. I hope your week is off to a good start. I'm listening to Egg "The Polite Force" and I send you Tons of Love as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment