Last night's movie was "Delinquent Parents"(1938), a somewhat deceptive title regarding the story of an adopted young woman (Doris Weston) who, after moving out on her own, takes a job as a nightclub singer, in part as an affront to her mother and father. The movie opens before she is born, on Armistice Day 1918. A soldier is being given a party that was intended as his send off Europe, but now that the war is over (on that very day), he's free to live his life, and he celebrates by asking his girfriend if she'll marry him. They do tie the knot, but his wealthy folks don't approve. His dad's an influential publisher and pals with the Mayor, who flaunts prohibition law by purchasing bootleg whiskey from his own personal supplier. These are the delinquent parents the title refers to, and their son is ashamed of them. They think his girlfriend is beneath him (and them), and they don't approve of the marriage, but it happens anyway, and then he's killed in an auto accident.
His new wife is pregnant at the time, and because she's a poor girl with no family, she chooses to give the baby up for adoption. Now we flash forward to the present time, 1938. That baby is all grown up, a young adult of about 19 or 20. The first twenty minutes of the film are confusing, because it's just a lot of scenes of Roaring 20s kids partying, intended to show the lifestyle the girl is surrounded by. Then, when she grows up, a snotty friend tries to humiliate her by telling her she's adopted. When the girl asks her parents about it, her Mom admits its true.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asks. Now she hates her adoptive parents, who respond by telling her that love is what counts. "You are even more special than a birth child to us, because we chose you." But she won't hear it. She wonders who her biological parents are: "What if my real father was a murderer, and my mother a.....". Fill in the blank.
Because she's so disillusioned, and angry, she leaves home and takes a job as a nightclub singer, in a very shady joint run by another bootlegger. But all this time she's been in contact with a family court judge, a woman known for counseling adopted children. The judge tells the girl that she'll try to find information about her birth parents, but can't guarantee results. But the judge has a secret, and the nightclub owner/bootlegger the girl sings for is trying to blackmail her for it, backed by the now much older newspaper publisher who's soldier son was killed at the beginning of the movie.
The plot turns on the judge's secret, which she must keep hidden if she is to reconcile the girl with her parents. She explains that her adoptive parents are her real parents and that, in her courtroom experience, there is always a good reason why birth mothers give a child up. The story was very touching for me because my Mom was adopted, and I only recently found the cemetery where her parents are buried. They died long before I was born; in my lifetime, I've never had any grandparents, or uncles, aunts, or any relatives outside my immediate family, because both of my parents were only children. So I am a big supporter of adoption, and my take on the subject is that parents are the ones who raised you, but also that a birth mother, who gives up a child for adoption is a hero of heroes because she has made the ultimate sacrifice. Two Big Thumbs Up, then, for "Delinquent Parents." Through the production values are Poverty Row, it has a worthwhile story that applies to any era, and I give it a high recommendation. The picture is soft but watchable. ////
The previous night we had an early Darro/Moreland pairing, "Irish Luck"(1939), in which the boys are hotel workers: Frankie as bellhop "Buzzy O'Brien", Mantan as handyman "Jefferson", who works mostly in the laundry room. He's supposed to stay in the basement but he doesn't, or can't, because as usual, he's at Frankie's (jeff) beck and call. As the movie opens, police are called to the hotel in response to a suicide jumper. When they get there, a crowd has gathered to look at the woman on the roof. She's walking the ledge, back and forth, and could jump or fall at any moment, but there's something strange about her gait, and when the cops get up there, they see she's only a mannequin, being pushed back and forth on wheels by Mantan Moreland, who - when confronted with arrest - spills the beans to the police captain that Buzzy put him up to it. We learn that Buzzy's dad was a cop who was killed on the job, and ever since, Buzzy wants to play detective, much to the chagrin of "Detective Steve Lanahan" (Dick Purcell), a family friend. Buzzy's interference keeps messing up his cases, but that doesn't stop Buzzy. His room at home is all set up with a chain-of-evidence wall, complete with pin map and index cards, post-it notes, the lot.
When Detective Lanahan finds Buzzy after the mannequin stunt, he reads him the riot act for tricking the police to the hotel. But Buzzy also nabbed two notorious robbers in the process, who he correctly assumed would use the "suicide" distraction as a chance to burgle some rooms, so Lanahan is forced to concede he did some good. But he still tells Buzzy to knock it off in the future. "Just because you got lucky don't mean you won't roll snake eyes next time."
But then Buzzy is called by the manager to take some bags to the eighth floo-ah, where one "Kitty Manahan" (Sheila Darcy) is staying. She answers the door wearing a striped dress (pronounced "stripe-ed", as in Edward), and Buzzy learns that she's in distress over her brother's involvement in a bond scheme. Kitty tips him for listening to her tale of woe, and he leaves, only to see her sneak out a moment later. Then, a dead banker is found in a bathtub down the hall. Mantan Moreland saw a woman leave that room and she was wearing a stripe-ed (as in Edward) dress. Mantan gets chewed out for leaving the basement again, but he's an important witness because the woman is Kitty Monahan. What was she doing in the dead man's room?
Buzzy finds out from Mantan that the cops are after Kitty, and he decides to protect her, believing she's innocent of the bathtub murder. He thinks someone's framing her because of her brother's involvement in the bond scheme, so he tells her to ditch the stripe-ed dress, then hides her at his house, and when Detective Lanahan and the cops pay a visit, Buzzy's Irish mom covers for him and Kitty, who is several inches taller and looks like a swan to his shrimp. He does have great hair, though, and a James Cagnian moxie. Buzzy has to keep Kitty hidden at home for the rest of the movie while he and Mantan solve the case before the cops do. Mantan is a bit subdued in this early role, but Sheila Darcy's screen time makes up for the lack of it in the Zorro serial. "Irish Luck" was the first Darro/Moreland movie, and as many IMDB fans have noted, they were the first interracial "buddy comedy" team in motion pictures, almost fifty years before Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Irish Luck". The picture is razor sharp. ////
And that's all for tonight. A quick writing update: things are going swimmingly on the final edit of one of my two upcoming books. This one should be done before the end of the year. My blogging music tonight is "Fear of a Blank Planet" by Porcupine Tree, late night is "Wozzeck", a must-hear opera by Alban Berg. Listen and you're guaranteed to become a fan. I hope you are enjoying your weekend; do you think there's any hope for the Rams tomorrow against the Cowboys? On second thought, don't answer that!
I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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