Last night we found a top notch spy thriller from PRC, "The Dawn Express"(1942), in which a pair of chemical engineers working at a defense contractor fuel refinery are blackmailed by a gang of Nazi spies into selling the formula for a jet fuel booster. The spies operate out of the back room of a German restaurant called The Tavern, using a fake blind man who stands by the front door (cup in hand) as a go-between. The "blind" man doubles as the group's assassin; he's killed two prior chemists who wouldn't cooperate. This time, the gang tries persuasion because they need the jet fuel formula if Zee JARE-mons are to have any chance against the Allies in the air war. They want a carrot/stick approach, so head spy "Captain Gemmler" (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), who reminds one of Werner Klemperer with hair, comes up with the idea of pitting the refinery chemists against each other. To the one with no relatives, he offers 100,000 big ones. To the one with a mother and a sister, he threatens to hurt them if the guy won't talk. Both are ordered not to tell anyone about the meeting, which takes place when they are coerced into the restaurant's back room by a "Polish refugee" gal who is actually a plant for the spies.
When they leave the restaurant, chemist "Bob Norton" (Michael Whalen) calls the IBCurly and they set up an infiltration plan, to make it look like the two men are (alice) co-operating. Zee JARE-mons, needing the fuel booster, stat - take the bait, and send for their own top dog chemist ("zee best in za vorld!"), who high tails it to the States to test the stuff. Once here, he insists on performing the test on an airplane, as it is the only place he can be certain is secure against American agents. But the other chemist, "Tom Fielding" (William Bakewell) insists on going up with him because he doesn't trust the dude alone with the formula. Then there's a big surprise ending.
I had a nagging feeling all through this flick that we'd seen it before , then I'd think we hadn't, now I'm pretty sure we did, but if so it must've been early in the Youtube era, maybe right after the start of Covid. We've seen over 800 movies since then, so it's hard to remember every one of them, but you always get a feeling if you've seen one. Anyhow, this one is worth seeing twice or thrice (fourice? sice? nice? that would be nine times, so maybe not. but twice is okay.) Anyhow, it's most excellent stuff. PRC can deliver if you aren't hung up on production values. They succeed by concentrating on actors and story, like a stage play. You do get some extremely brief exterior refinery shots, and a minimal chemistry lab. There's also a subthread involving Tom Fielding's sister, a secretary at the refinery, who listens in on his telephone conversations with the spies. I'm gonna check the blog list to see if we reviewed this flick before. I remember Gene Siskel once saying that him and Ebert watched around 10,000 movies in their careers. That would be a movie a day for over 27 years. I started pounding films in 2003 when I lived with my Mom. She converted me to old movies, and I've averaged maybe 200 to 250 a year since then, and the last few years about 350, and if you add another 500-2000 in the first 42 years of my life, I've gotta be up to at least 6000. I've got a ways to go to catch S & E, but we're getting there. Anyhow, Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Dawn Express." I could've sworn Captain Gessler was Werner Klemperer with hair, and the picture is very good. ////
The previous night, The East Side Kids were back in "Boys of the City"(1940), a generic title for what is mainly another Kids Ghost Story. It begins in the city, where the boys are sittin' on da naybahood steps, lookin' for some relief from da heat. Scruno fans Muggsy; Danny pours a pitcher of water over his head. Skinny mentions a fire hydrant down the block: "we can twist it open and cool off". Muggsy declines, saying "da last time you suggested a fya hydrant, it was dab-smack in front of a police station." But Skinny swears this one is legit, so the boys go there and open it up, only to soak a vegetable merchant and his produce. Of course, they're hauled in front of a judge, who offers them a choice, jail or a detention camp in the mountains. "We don't wanna go to no camp," says "Simp" (Vince Barnett, an early Kid who was replaced by Huntz Hall) "Da woods is for sissies." "Okay, jail it is then," says the judge. "We'll take da camp," declares Muggsy, who always has the final say.
The camp is run by Danny's older brother "Knuckles Dolan" (Dave O'Brien), a reformed gang member who was once "destined for Da Chair" before he went straight and started helping other street kids, includin' his younga bruddah. Knuckles drives the kids to camp, but on the way, they get rear ended by another car carrying "Judge Malcom Parker" (Forrest Taylor, not the same judge who sentenced them), who is escaping with his bodyguard and lawyer to a mansion in the mountains, because his niece has just found out that he's been embezzling her fortune, a crime for which he's already framed and sentenced another man. The niece is traveling with him and his men, and knows nothing of his culpabilty in her affairs.
The car accident Converges All Their Lives, those of the Kids and the judge and his party. Knuckles' car is totaled. Scruno, sitting in the back seat says, "This car ain't the only one who got rear ended!" He has some great one liners in this movie that would not pass muster today (watermelon and fried chicken jokes), but what politically correct viewers might miss is that the filmmakers, through the Scruno character, were actually making fun of stereotypes rather than perpetuating them, so in that respect, Sammy Morrison and company were ahead of their time.
After the accident, the judge offers to let the Kids stay at his mountain mansion. Then, the movie becomes another haunted house ghost show with character actress Minerva Urecal playing a scary old crone determined to protect the honor of her departed matron Eleanor, the judge's late wife, who died through his neglect. Now, she haunts the manor at night, playing the organ and wandering the grounds in a sheet.
Danny accidentally discovers a rotating bookcase leading to tunnels and a dungeon, and Minerva scares the daylights out of Scruno, who gets trapped in the music room with the ghostly organ. This is an early entry for The East Side Kids and there's no Huntz Hall, but you get some classic Scruno, and Bobby Jordan, the most talented of the bunch as an actor, gets top billing. I loved "Boys of the City", another classic Kids Spookfest. Minerva Urecal does a good job in place of Bela Lugosi, and the movie gets Two Big Thumbs Up. If you haven't yet checked out The East Side Kids, do so immediately. The picture is very good. ////
That's all I know for tonight. My blogging music is "Not the Weapon but the Hand" by Steve Hogarth and Richard Barbieri, which I've never heard before but am enjoying, and my late night is Mahler's 4th. "Fairy Tale" by Stephen King is unputdownable. I've already read 100 pages. The Rams aren't playing tomorrow, so that's one less thing we have to worry about. I hope your weekend is going well, and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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