Last night we were back with The East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi, in the spooktacular "Ghosts on the Loose"(1943). This time, the Kids are getting ready to sing at Glimpy's sister's wedding. "Muggs" (Leo Gorcey) has organised a quartet; he's conducting, "Danny" (Bobby Jordan) is the lead tenor. The first ten minutes of the movie is hijinx about getting the song right, among other things, then Muggsy sends "Scruno" (Sammy Morrison) and "Glimpy" (Huntz Hall) out to get flowers, and we cut to the happy couple, "Jack" (Rick Vallin) and "Betty" (Ava Gardner in her first credited role). They're already making plans to move into their new house after the wedding, but then there's a knock on the door, and an associate of Jack's offers him double the price for the house he just bought. He doesn't wanna sell, but the guy schweetens the deal by hinting that "it's a good idea" for him to cooperate.
We already know that Bela Lugosi wants the house. He's the one who sent the go-between to talk to Jack. But what's the deal with him and moving into other people's houses, anyway? He did it in "Spooks Run Wild" too. We never learn why it has to be Jack's house, but he sure does want it, so the newlyweds agree to move into the "haunted" house next door. They don't believe in spooks anyway, but then everything (and everyone) gets confused when Muggsy and the boys decide to do something nice for Jack and Betty by fixing up their house while they're on their honeymoon. They wallpaper it, clean it, paint it, the works, but what they don't know - because they didn't get the word about the House Switcheroo - is that Bela and his henchman have already moved in, and are living in a secret basement. When they hear the kids making a racket (fixing the house at ground level), they decide to scare them away, by peeking out from the eyes of paintings, making ghostly noises, etc.
What are they doing there? Is Bela a vampire, or a Monster Killer? And who are the weird old couple who live next door, in the so-called "haunted house" Jack and Betty are gonna move into? You might be asking these questions, because the schcreenwriter doesn't clarify a lot of this schtuff. He's too busy writing schtick for Leo Gorcey, who this time is doing a fair impersonation of Moe of the Three Stooges, berating and threatening the other East Siders while talking in a "youse guys" Brooklyn accent.
Well, anyhow, we finally find out what Bela is up to, 40 minutes into the 65 minute movie. He's a Nazi spy, and with his henchman, he's printing up propaganda pamphlets for a group called "The New Order" in the haunted house basement. There's a tunnel in the backyard to access the print shop. Danny and Glimpy find it, but then they get tied up by Lugosi. Scruno doesn't get as much to do this time because it's Gorcey's movie and he's very funny. Ava Gardner is only 21 here and a good sport, running around incredulous at the numbskull antics of the Kids. The cops are finally notified about the Nazi propaganda print shop by the weird oldsters next door. I think they'd been covering for them (or just afraid of them) all this time, but again it's never exschplained.
But you don't have to do much splainin' (or complainin') when the kids are cracking wise, because that's what these movies are all about. Bela Lugosi is the best sport of all. He looks like he's having fun, and at one point, when he's standing frozen in a painting frame, to look like a portrait, Scruno dusts him off with a feather duster and you can see Bela stifle a laugh. I think he liked working with The East Side Kids, and showing that he had a great sense of humor. There aren't really any ghosts in "Ghosts on the Loose," and the story doesn't have the twists and jumps of "Spooks Run Wild" (nor as creepy a haunted house), but it does have Ava Gardner and Bela, and The Kids are a fun bunch of knuckleheads. Therefore, it gets Two Big Thumbs Up and a high recommendation. The picture is very good. ////
The night before, we had a crime flick with some cultural/historic significance, as it starred Sally Rand, the legendary "Fan Dancer" of the '20s and '30s. In "Sunset Murder Case" (1938), she plays nightclub singer "Kathy O'Connor", whose police captain father is shot dead while investigating a blackmail and insurance racket. Sunset Strip club owner "Bapti Stephani" (can't make this stuff up) is running a scheme in which he or his waiters slip mickeys to wealthy, well-connected patrons of his establishment. Then, when the marks are good and wasted, they see them to their cars, saying "you've had too much to drink, you'd better go home". The cars have had their brakes fixed, so when the drugged guys leave, they run into one of the showgirls, who've been planted in the parking lot. Broken bones and other injuries are faked, and then Stephani tells the blackmail targets, "it looks like she'll recover but right now its touch and go." Or he'll say "she may not make it, but I can keep your name out of the papers if you pay me x amount of dollars. You were drunk at the time, you know."
These are total frame jobs and the cops know it. The trouble is, they can't prove it, so they lean on a showgirl named Nina at the beginning of the movie, and she agrees to talk. But before she can tell them about the details of the scheme, she and Sally Rand's Dad are shot dead in a hotel room by two of Bapti's thugs. Rand is devastated when she gets the news, but her reporter boyfriend (Dennis Moore) is working on the story with an undercover Fed (Reed Hadley), who's been called in because the cops can't solve the case. Hadley asks Sally if she'll help, and she agrees to infiltrate Bapti's club, after undergoing an identity change and reemerging as "Valerie", a famous expatriate dancer who's become a sensation in England but is now returning to the States. When Bapti hears about Valerie, of course he wants to hire her for his club, and the infiltration is complete. This sets up a special dancing performance that was likely in Sally Rand's contract.
Though she isn't well-known anymore, I heard about Sally Rand from my Mom, who actually saw her perform when, as a teenager, she went to stay with her Uncle Dave in Chicago and they saw her at the World's Fair. Mom said it was risque but also artistic, and the scene in the movie bears this out. Rand dances in a skimpy, Romanesque skirt, leaving little to the imagination, but her dance is balletic, lit in spotlight like an art photograph, and she flicks lightly at a big inflated "bubble" six feet in diameter. The bubble appears to float. Rand steps around and beneath it while Moonlight Sonata plays. It really is quite artistic, and then at the end, the light dims just as she strips away her gown, and she's completely naked in shadow. You can see this in the film but only for a couple seconds. Then she's gone offstage. As for Rand's character Valerie, her show is an instant hit and she successfully infiltrates Bapti's blackmail operation.
He ends up going to prison for the murders of Captain O'Connor and Nina, and Sally ends up with Reed Hadley, who was very dashing as Zorro in our recent chapter serial. Dennis Moore gets paired with a singer named "Penny" (Sugar Kane), the prototypical dumb blonde, who spills the beans about the undercover op to Bapti without meaning to, just because she's an airhead. Penny gets to sing a few numbers, though it must be noted that the lengthy nightclub performances, while fun to watch, distract from the plot, so that the viewer's mind strays and is forced to re-engage. You might find yourself saying: "oh yeah....where were we?"
Still, it's good overall, and the historical record of having Sally Rand's bubble dance on film is significant. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Sunset Murder Case". The picture is slightly soft. ////
And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is "Signify" by Porcupine Tree, late night is "Lohengrin" by Wagner. I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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