Last night's movie was "X Marks the Spot"(1942), a 55 minute early Noir that packs enough plot for a movie twice its length. America has entered WW2. "Eddie Delaney" (Damian O'Flynn), having completed officer's training school with the rank of lieutenant, has some downtime while waiting to be shipped overseas. He's been hanging out at a local cafe in town, getting friendly with the "record girl" on the other end of what I'll call a live action jukebox. There's a phone on it that you use to call and request your song. Eddie's Dad is a beat cop in the neighborhood. One day he comes into the cafe and the two have a chat over a cup of coffee. Eddie tells him that he's thinking about becoming a private eye when the war is over. "What, the police force ain't good enough for ya?" Dad jokes. They share a few more laughs, then Dad heads back out on his beat. Down the block, he comes across a group of men hanging out in front of a brewery warehouse. Several trucks have just driven in and the roll-up doors closed quickly. Dad recognises "Marty Clark" (Jack LaRue), a former bootlegger gone "legit" since the 18th amendment was repealed. Observing the haste with which the trucks entered, he figures Clark is up to something. Once a smuggler always a smuggler. Dad sees the name of a tire manufacturer on the side of the trucks and thinks Clark may have moved onto a new racket, one that is even more profitable than running booze. Rubber was a precious commodity during the war; tires were rationed and brought more on the black market than alcohol during Prohibition.
Dad starts to enter the warehouse. "I think I'll just have a look inside those trucks, if you boys don't mind." Marty Clark shoots him in the back and he dies.
Eddie hears about his Dad's murder and storms down to the police station, vowing revenge. "Lt. Decker" (Dick Purcell) is sympathetic but tells him, "Let us handle it, Eddie." Then he says, "Hey, you're planning to be a private eye when you get out of the service. Why don't we work together? We'll catch whoever killed your Dad."
Eddie then gets a call from "John J. Underwood" (Neil Hamilton), the man who owns the trucking company. He's also heard that Eddie's an aspiring PI, and wants to hire him for his first case. "But I only have a few days before I'm shipped out," Eddie says. Underwood offers him a thousand dollars which convinces him. "I want you to find out who stole my trucks the other night. I know it was the same night your father was killed, and I think there might be a connection." Now, Marty Clark and his men got away unidentified in the murder of Eddie's Dad, but Clark, being a former bootlegger, is one suspect who comes to mind with the police concerning the tire robbery.
After okaying it with Lt. Decker, Eddie goes to Clark's nightclub "The One Spot". He's supposed to lay low, just observe who comes and goes, but he becomes furious at the sight of Clark dancing with a blonde bimbo as if he hadn't a care in the world. He's sure that Clark is not only behind the tire theft but is also responsible for his Dad's murder. He can't control his anger, but just when he's about to approach and accost Clark, the jukebox phone rings. These live jukeboxes are popular, apparently. The bartender picks it up, listens for a minute to the gal on the other end, then he announces a war-mandated blackout. "Do it, Joe. Hit the lights," Clark says, and all goes dark in the club. Next we hear gunshots and screaming, and when Joe turns the lights back on, Marty Clark has been shot dead. Joe happens to glance out the window and sees lights on in nearby buildings. "Hey, there ain't no blackout! That call was a fake!" Lt. Decker arrives and Eddie is unfortunately his one and only suspect. "I asked you not to pick any fights. Looks like ya went a lot further than that, Eddie. You shoulda let us build our case." Eddie has once chance to get out of this predicament, so he decks Lt. Decker and in the ongoing confusion, he runs out the back door of the nightclub. Now he's on the lam, and his detective instinct tells him to go straight to the building that houses the jukebox service. After all, the fake blackout call came from the gal on the other end. It was obviously a setup to kill Marty Clark. It he can find her, it can lead to the real killer which will clear his name. And all of it may lead to Mr. Big, whoever Marty Clark was working for in the tire smuggling operation.
I told ya it was a good plot, and this ain't the half of it, because, once Eddie locates the jukebox gal "Linda" (Helen Parrish), the movie takes a romantic turn as they become a dynamic duo to solve the case. Linda tells Eddie that she had no part in planning the fake blackout call. "Some man said he was from the government, and I was to announce it over all our lines." She swears to Eddie that she'd recognise the man's voice again, and the last twenty minutes becomes a wild ride as they drive helter skelter all over town to find out who it belongs to.
"X Marks the Spot" has the kind of top-drawer script we rave about when we talk about packing A Ton of Stuff into an hour or less. It moves like a freight train with no downtime and never a dull moment, so once again we have Two Huge Thumbs Up and a very high recommendation. The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night, we had a serious East Side Kids movie, "Bowery Blitzkrieg"(1941), in which a kindly police officer tries to turn a delinquent "Muggs" (Leo Gorcey) into a boxer to get him off the street. Muggs' pal "Danny" (Bobby Jordan) is already on the straight and narrow, going to school and living with his sister. But then Danny is knocked off course by a sweet talking hoodlum who drives a fancy car. He tricks Danny into being the getaway driver on his robberies. Now, Danny has a connection with Muggs' police sponsor, "Tom Brady" (Warren Hull). Officer Brady is engaged to Danny's sister (Charlotte Henry).
"Monk" (Bobby Stone), the slick-suited hood with the fancy car, puts a wedge between Danny and Muggs by implying that Muggs said some uncalled for things about Danny's sister, that she was pregnant by Tom Brady before marriage. Danny believes the gossip (which is false) and this leads him to confront Muggs and challenge him to a fistfight, which Muggs wins because he's an amateur boxer. But he also pays the price for beating Danny up by getting sent away to reform school. Monk has thus achieved his aim; he's gotten Muggs out of the way as Danny's old and trusted friend, and he's gotten Danny to hate the cops for arresting Muggs. So now he hates and doesn't trust Tom Brady (lol), the cop who's engaged to his sister. This leaves the door wide open for Monk to walk through and fill the void. Now he's the leader in Danny's life. He lets Danny drive his car while he rides along, but Danny has no idea, until his sister shows him a newspaper headline, that there have been a string of assault robberies at the exact date and time of those drives. Danny finds out too late that Monk is bad news, and Monk has him over a barrel as an accomplice in his robberies. It's the usual deal: "If I go down, so do you".
Suddenly, the once straight-arrow schoolboy Danny is headed for a life of crime, seduced by Monk, while Muggs the former street punk, who's been released from reform school and is living with Tom Brady and his mother, is headed in an uphill direction, training for the amateur lightweight boxing championship, sponsored by the policeman's association. Muggs works his way up the ladder, winning his bouts, and then one day a low level mob goon sees him in the gym (Huntz Hall is his trainer) and offers him a thousand bucks to throw the championship match. Muggs tells him to stick it, but this guy "Slats" (Eddie Foster), is in debt to local Mafiosi "Dorgan" (Dennis Moore). Dorgan doesn't fool around; he's the kind of guy who'll "put ya in a bag and float ya down the East River." Slats knows this, so he tricks Muggs into throwing the fight. Or so he thinks.
Then a crisis happens on Monk's final strong arm robbery. Danny is driving the car, as usual, but right as Monk is leaving the store, Tom Brady happens to be across the street. He stops their car with the help of a delivery truck driver, then chases the two on foot. Monk tries to shoot Officer Brady but Danny yanks his arm away, and ends up taking a bullet in the process. Tom Brady shoots Monk dead, but Danny is near death, in the hospital needing a transfusion. Word gets back to Muggs that his old friend Danny has been shot and may not make it, and even though Muggs has a championship fight coming up in three hours, with the mob on his back to throw it, he stops everything to visit Danny in the hospital, then he volunteers to be his blood donor. It turns out he's the right blood type, and he finishes the transfusion with 30 minutes to go.
Then he heads straight back to the boxing arena, to go through with the fight even though it's dangerous for him to do so, as he's missing a pint of blood. But now that he's saved Danny's life, he also wants to show the mob that he can't be pushed around as he's sponsored by the police league. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Bowery Blitzkrieg". There's next to no funny business in this one, and the other Kids, including Huntz Hall and Sunshine Sammy Morrison (Scruno) play minimal roles. It's all Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan and their dual plot threads, tied together by Tom Brady who stages a two-minute drill in the fourth quarter, as usual. The East Side Kids take a dramatic turn and it's highly recommended. The picture is very good. ////
That's all for tonight. I'm still dealing with the aftereffects of whatever that was, flu or Covid. It began last Friday afternoon, and as of now (five and a half days later), I've still got some respiratory tightness, congestion, and (worse), some dizziness. I haven't been on a walk since Friday, which is major for me. Don't know the last time in 25 years that I've missed five days in a row (maybe never), but this thing was very powerful and godawful. It does feel like it's coming to an end, though it's taking its doggone time. I can't wait to feel like myself again. My blogging music was Gong's "Flying Teapot". Late night is more Sofronitsky, playing Schubert. I hope your week is going well. Take no chances and mask up when you're out and about this crowded Christmas season. I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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