Last night, we watched an early sound, pre-Code crime flick from Universal, "For the Defense"(1930), starring, William Powell (before he was The Thin Man) and the great Kay Francis. Powell is "William Foster", a defense attorney who not only never loses a case, he specialises in retrials of lost-cause cases where the defendant is thought to have no chance. This is because Foster doesn't miss a trick, and thinks of evidentiary angles the cops and the D.A. always miss. He's cleared five convictions attributed to one detective, who hates his guts and is looking for payback, thinking that Foster is soft on criminals. But Foster points out that the cops send a lot of innocent guys to the pen. "I'm just doing my job" he says. "And it looks like I do it better than you guys". He loves his young girlfriend Kay Francis (we all do) but she wants to get married and he doesn't. "Listen baby, it'll be bad for my career and you won't like it cause I'll never be at home. Lets keep things the way they are." Foster knows though, that Kay has a young pup after her named "Jack DeFoe" (Scott Kolk), and he's a rich kid too. Jack does want to marry her, and she agrees, but asks to break the news to Foster on her own time. "After all, he's done so much for me. I'd be nobody without him." What she was before, or how they met is never specified.
While Jack and Kay are deciding this, they are at a bar, and he gets hammered. William Foster has a drinking problem, too. Kay doesn't like this in either man, and tonight Jack is very drunk, so she decides to drive him home. But on the way, a car is pulled over on the side of the road. Kay is distracted by Jack in the passenger seat and she plows into the driver of the broken down car, who was outside checking his engine. He dies, and a witness is on scene, but he pulled up too late to see who was driving.
Jack doesn't want Kay to go to prison, cause he'll lose her, so he takes the rap when the cops show up. He says he was driving and gets charged with manslaughter. Now things get complicated, because he wants to hire Foster as his attorney, thinking that - between his family money and Foster's legal reputation - he'll surely be acquitted. This time, however, Foster tells him that's not a likely outcome: "Look son, this is drunk driving, and juries hate rich people." Jack didn't figure on that, but even more, Foster doesn't believe his story that he was out driving by himself at 5 am. He knows Jack's in love with Kay, and he confronts her about it. The kicker is this : if Kay admits she was driving the car, and was out with Jack that night, will a jealous William Foster deliberately tank Jack's case? Man this is one tight script, layered and puzzle-pieced. Kay Francis wants to admit the truth, that she was driving the car, but both Jack and lawyer Foster won't let her. Foster wants to make a deal to preserve his acquittal record, so he bribes a juror........or does he? It's rare to see a plot twist that's purposely left ambiguous. There's also a subtheme involving the sly detective and a jewel thief. It's one of those scripts where a Ton of Stuff is jam packed into 63 minutes. Also, I think Universal Studios jumped out of the pack when sound started, as far as production values went. As for the technology itself, we've encountered sound problems or unusual "tics" in other 1930 movies, like slow and/or paused dialogue, which we've encountered in many films. But in this flick its as modern as today in all aspects. There was a cynical edge to many pre-Code stories that is present here (though I won't say how) and the glamour is emphasized in both the diction and dress of actors Powell and Francis. I don't think you'd see an ending like this in a movie made five or six years later, but again I'll give no hints. Two Big Thumbs Up for "For the Defense". William Powell was one of the great actors of any cinematic age, and Kay Francis (ravishing here in an ultra-short hairdo) was the unsung star who should've been as big as any of her contemporaries. Don't miss them in this movie, the picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night, we had more laughs with the kids from "Curley", in "Who Killed Doc Robbin?"(1948), a Hal Roach Streamliner in which the gang are trying to prove an adult friend innocent of the murder of "Dr. Hugo Robbin" (George Zucco), a local physician. The movie opens in a courtroom, where "'Fix-it' Dan Cameron" (Whitford Kane) is being tried for the crime. Various witnesses are called to testify, but the judge can't keep order because five-year-old "Ardda" (Ardda Lynwood) crawls through the window, followed by the rest of the gang, and interrupts the proceedings to tell all present that Fix-it Dan is innocent. The judge pounds his gavel, but its bangs are overruled by those from a roll of caps, being hammered on the sidewalk outside by "Dis" and "Dat" (Rene Beard and Donald King). Fix-it stays in jail while the trial continues, but the kids overhear evidence about a "trigger mechanism" for a nuclear device that was used as the murder weapon. So, they set out to find it in the ruins of Doc Robbins' mansion, which has been partially destroyed by the blast in which he was killed.
In flashback, we see that Fix-it Dan is more than a handyman. In fact, he's an atomic scientist, working out of a garage lab, who builds his trigger mechanism in a partnership with Doc Robbin, the project's financier. Dan thinks that the trigger, when integrated with it's radiation device, will be going to further the cause of medicine. He makes Doc promise never to use it for nefarious purposes, but because Doc is played by George Zucco, it's like asking the scorpion not to sting the frog. George Zucco can't not do evil. Not only is it in his contract, the world would spin off its axis if he did otherwise. So, Zucco, I mean Doc Robbin, steals the trigger mechanism, but then Ka-Blammo!, there's an explosion in his laboratory and Doc is presumed dead. His glasses are found, Fix-it Dan is blamed, and Curley's kids think "Ann Loring" (Virginia Grey) did it. She was Doc Robbin's nurse. The gang's search for clues causes them to become trapped in Doc's mansion, where they are toyed with by a chimp and terrorised by a killer ape. "Speck" (Dale Belding) the freckled geeky kid does a lot of high-pitched screaming. Dis and Dat fall through a trap door and end up in the mansion's industrial-strength laundry room, where Dat gets trapped in the washer.
Curley, as usual, leads the gang in their search, but its a spooky one, and from the half-hour mark onwards, the film is a haunted house movie. Joe the dog is back too (from last week's "The Fabulous Joe"). Little Ardda Lynwood is cute when she gives the judge a lecture on right and wrong. The only problem is the print, which is dark and quite soft. It's watchable but you've gotta hang in there. The effort is worth it though, because the cast is so lovable, and again, as we say so often, they just don't make movies like this anymore. They should, but they don't. Two Bigs Thumbs Up and a high recommendation for "Who Killed Doc Robbin?" I hope we can find more movies with the Curley gang. ////
That's all for tonight. As for today's sad news, what can even be said about Queen Elizabeth? She was there for our whole lives. I think the world needed her more than it needs any ridiculous politician of any stripe. She was one of the handful of great leaders in world history, as much for what she didn't do (talk a lot, display a huge ego, make endless proclamations) as what she did do (lead quietly, with unmatched dignity and strength). For someone my age, it's hard to imagine a world without The Queen in it (and when you said The Queen, no one had to say "which Queen?"). My Mom loved her, so did Pearl (she got a kick out of The Queen fixing her own car), and that alone means a lot to me. God Bless Queen Elizabeth, I'm sure we all agree.
My blogging music is "Third" by Soft Machine. That Rams game was a joke that I'm trying hard to forget, my late night music is "Das Rheingold" by Wagner, and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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