Last night's movie was an above average crime comedy from PRC, directed by our pal Sam Newfield, who you'll recall helmed a boatload of 60 minute Westerns and was the most prolific director in motion picture history. Entitled "Hold That Woman"(1940), we chose this flick after searching for Frances Gifford movies on Youtube, because we've very much enjoyed watching her in "Jungle Girl", one of the two chapter serials we're currently viewing. I also have a soft spot for Frances after reading her bio on IMDB. Following a promising start in B-movies at the age of 20, she was nearly killed in a car accident on New Year's Eve 1948 at the age of 28. The accident caused her to lose confidence in her abilities and changed her personality to the extent that she was eventually institutionalized and spent 25 years in Camarillo. When you watch her onscreen, she's so pretty (right up there with Frances Rafferty) vivacious and, most importantly, nice, that it's tragic and a doggone shame that such a fate could befall her. So when I found her in this movie, in which she stars along with her soon-to-be-husband James Dunn, there was no question that we had to pay tribute.
Dunn plays "Jimmy Parker", a skip tracer for a collection agency. He's lousy at it, though, and can't even repossess a radio from some broad who's missed a payment. She chases him out of her apartment, then calls the cops, and he's arrested for trespassing and petty larceny and a host of other charges, after the woman puts on an act and the cops believe her. His girlfriend "Mary Mulvaney" (Frances Gifford) also gets nabbed, just sitting in Jimmy's car. They were supposed to go on a date after his repo attempt, but now she goes to jail with him, even though she didn't do anything.
But when they get out on bail the next morning, Jimmy isn't about to give up, because his boss is gonna fire him if he doesn't bring back that radio, and he needs to keep his job if he's gonna marry Mary, who's Dad is a cop and hates Jimmy.
Some hoodlums enter the picture, because the woman's radio contains a bag of stolen diamonds, heisted from a European movie star. The star's boyfriend is the hood who stole them, and his real moll is the ordinary-seeming broad who got Jimmy Parker thrown in jail. So she's a jewel thief who's putting on an act, and when jimmy finds out that there's a 15K reward for the diamonds, he re-triples his effort to find the radio, but one of a skip tracer's woes is that defaulting targets are constantly on the move. He needs the radio but can't find the woman, who's relocated.
The plot is intricate for a PRC flick, as Jimmy eventually finds the radio and the diamonds inside it, but gets caught in the middle of a revenge war by the movie star against the hoods. We've seen James Dunn in several other films. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and is great at light comedy as we saw here. He has the kind of smile that would endear him to anyone, so it's no surprise that Frances Gifford would marry him in real life, even though he was twenty years her senior and didn't have leading man looks. A little bit more about Frances: when I started watching her in "Jungle Girl", her name reminded me of Frank Gifford, and I remembered a time in the late '80s or early '90s, when Frank was the commentator on Monday Night Football, that a rumor was in the news that Frank had a sister who was institutionalized. Because Frank was a TV star himself, and a big-money network personality, if I remember correctly they issued a statement on his behalf that Frances was not related to him. Perhaps this story emerged after she died in January 1994. I don't remember the exact date or year, but I do remember the rumor, and what is interesting is that the issue doesn't seem to have been definitively resolved. When you Google "Frances Gifford, Frank Gifford's sister", several links come back. Some say they weren't related (those are all generated from his autobiography), while other links say she was.
Could it be that Frank was ashamed to have a disabled sister? Or just wanted to keep it private? Who knows. All I know, and is evident, is that Frances Gifford was talented and as beautiful as they come, so God Bless Her. If you watch her in this movie you'll agree, so Two Big Thumbs Up for "Hold That Woman." Watch Frances in "Jungle Girl" too. The picture is razor sharp in both. ////
Now, concerning the previous night's picture, listen up you Wise Guys: We are now officially huge (pr. yooge) fans of The East Side Kids - that includes youse! -and the pronunciation is apt because "dat's da way dey tawk," especially Leo Gorcey, who has such a great face and schcreen presence that I think he'd be a Yooge Star even today. This time, in "Flying Wild"(1941), the kids have jobs at an airplane factory at Alhambra airport (thanks, IMDB. I thought it was Burbank). Muggsy (Gorcey) drives them to work every day. He doesn't want a job there, because, according to "Danny" (Bobby Jordan): "him and jobs don't get along too well."
He's also a lousy driver and almost kills the kids when he turns too sharply in the airport parking lot and their car flips over on it's side. According to IMDB, this was not planned, it was not a stunt, and judging from the severity of the accident, it's a wonder none of the kids were hurt.
While standing around, waiting for the others to punch out for the day, Muggsy happens to see a plane on the tarmac with "Air Ambulance" painted on the side. He's curious and knocks on the cabin door, and when "Nurse Helen Munson" answers, he's even more intrigued. Part of Muggy's charm is his attempts to infuse his vocabulary with mispronounced big words, and he tries this on Nurse Helen (Joan Barclay), who's impressed in a "who the hell is this joker" kind of way. But she lets Muggsy stay aboard the airplane, and tells him about her boyfriend to give him the "you have no chance" message. Her beau is a test pilot, and as she tells Muggsy about him, another test pilot crash lands on the runway and barely escapes with his life. In the investigation that follows, sabotage is strongly suspected.
Because of this, Danny - who's shown the most dedication to his aviation job out of all of the kids - is asked by the company president to help root out the saboteurs by casually making it known that he is the courier for the blueprints of the company's latest fighter plane. They hope this plan will draw the conspirators out of the woodwork, and at the same time, Muggsy overhears a conversation between the Air Ambulance doctor and a rival engineer in which they discuss crashing another test plane. Muggsy alerts Danny, then both of them are tied up and stuffed into barrels.
Meanwhile, hijinx is going on much of the time because the script is thin. Scruno enters the Air Ambulance and mistakes a nitrous oxide anesthesia respirator for a gas mask. He tries it on and gets a lungful of nitrous, and when the kids see him leaving the plane, he's floating in slo-mo, like The Skipper in the Gilligan episode where he "took a big sniff." You've gotta love The Kids; Danny is the second in command. This was before Huntz Hall joined up, so it's a two-Kid hierarchy between Muggsy and Danny. Scruno, Skinny and Algy are support only this time around. Joan Barclay is attractive in her nurses uniform, but hasn't much to do except act amused at the antics of the Kids. The sabotage plot is extremely thin, so the movie doesn't compare to the two Ghost Flicks with they made with Bela Lugosi, but it still has a ton of funny moments and is worth seeing just for the impromptu car accident. Two Bigs! It's highly "re-commended, ya mooks"! And, "da pikcha is rayza shahp."
That's all I know for tonight. I'm sorry to report that didn't make it to the Edwards Air Show. I admit I'm a complete Lame-O for missing it, but it would've been 50 bucks in gas, and waiting in a massive traffic jam with a chance of being turned away if the parking lot reached capacity before I got in. And, it sucks going everywhere by myself. But I did watch a lot of the live feed on the Edwards Facebook page, and got to see the Thunderbirds performance, which was amazing and was filmed with Hollywood-level camerawork. So that was my consolation prize, and it was a darn good one. But next year I will attend for sure.
The Rams finally won a game, we won't talk about the Dodgers, it's only sports anyhow, and I hope you had a nice weekend. My blogging music is "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape" by Porcupine Tree, my late night is still "Lohengrin" by Wagner, and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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