This time around we have two Wisecracking Reporter flicks, starting with last night's "Man from Headquarters"(1942) which stars Frank Albertson as crime scribe "Larry Doyle", who as the movie opens is being recognised for his work at a ceremony hosted by his editor "Mr. Jonas" (Dick Elliott). Doyle's doggedness has recently led to the arrest of a major Mob boss, adding to a career of similar successes, so as a symbol of honor, Mr. Jonas presents him with a police-issue, 38. caliber revolver. It's his way (and the city's), of saying that when it comes to fighting crime, the press are as important as the cops.
Jonas is justifiably proud of his accomplishments, and his award, but he lets it go to his head that night while out celebrating with his cronies. After a few drinks, he starts spouting off and one of the things he says concerns Mr. Jonas. "Some editor he is. I gotta be honest with ya, boys; over the years I've found most of those stories myself. Jonas is a big blowhard, a do-nothing who likes to take credit after I bring in the glory."
Well, who should be walking in the restaurant at that exact moment but Mr. Jonas. He overhears every word Doyle says and confronts him at his table. "So, I'm a blowhard, am I? And after I honored you today with that award. Some thanks, Doyle. Guess what? You're fired!"
Wow. From hero to goat in five movie minutes. Doyle is stunned by the turn of events and bids his pals goodnight, then heads out, wondering what hit him. To sober up, he stops for a cup of coffee at a cafe, and while he's sitting there, he overhears the young lady sitting down the counter arguing with the owner about her check. It's clear she doesn't have the money to pay her bill, so Doyle quietly pays it for her. When she leaves he follows her, just out of curiosity and because she's pretty. She's still in a huff about the disputed bill and when she distractedly crosses the street, Doyle saves her from being hit by a car. Now the movie becomes a rom-com crime thriller. She thanks him for saving her life and introduces herself as "Ann Weston" (Joan Woodbury). Doyle offers to walk her the rest of the way home, but what he doesn't know is that he's being followed by two henchmen of the Mob boss he helped put in jail. The mobster's trial is coming up, and he's ordered his men to "get rid of" Doyle so he won't be able to testify. It's bad timing for Ann; since she's with him, they abduct her too. The henchmens' original plan is to shoot the pair and dump 'em in the harbor, but Doyle starts fast-talking them. "Don't you boys know it's bad news to shoot a reporter? Yep. My publisher won't rest until you're caught, and then you'll be fast-tracked to The Chair, double-time if you shoot the lady, too." The henchmen consider this, and one says: "You know, da boss just said 'get rid of him'. He didn't actually say 'kill him'. How 'bout we take him at da letter of his word"? So, to avoid the electric chair, they knock Doyle out, put him on a train to St. Louis, and tell Ann to beat it and keep her mouth shut "uddawise we'll come back."
Scared, Ann leaves for St. Louis herself, to find Doyle because only he knows what she's mixed up in. This leads to ten minutes of hijinx with the manager of a swanky Saint Looie hotel, who - when Ann finds Doyle there - thinks the two of them are shacking up. In those days, it was unheard of for an unmarried couple to inhabit the same room, so he tries to throw them out. It leads to Doyle needing money, and all he has left is the police-issue gun he was given as an award. He pawns it, which gives him and Ann enough dough to stay another week, and while they're in town, the headlines report a serial armed robber is on the loose. "That's it!" Doyle tells her. "That case'll resurrect my career! C'mon, grab your coat. You're gonna help me solve it." He's able to sweet-talk his way into a gig with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at a moment's notice, but later, when the editor is unable to verify his identity, this leads to criminal complications, because, well, I can't tell ya. What happens is that the Mob boss awaiting trial shows up in St. Louis, and to get rid of Doyle once and for all, he decides to frame him as the uncaught St. Louis robber.
"Man from Headquarters" works on all levels, as a light comedy, a romance and a multi-layered crime caper. Frank Albertson is particularly good at slingin' the newsie slang. He keeps the tight script hopping with extra zip. I've gotta tell ya, this movie drove me nuts for a while this afternoon, because I had a growing feeling I'd seen it before. It started when the movie ended, but at that point it was only about 5%. "Yeah, maybe not." But then today, the more I thought about it, the more I was certain I saw it, and by this evening before I started to write the blog, the feeling was up to 95%. It was so strong that I got out the notebook where I keep my gigantic movie list, and I started scanning the Youtube years (since March 2020, when Covid started), to see if I could find this title. And I couldn't find it, and it was driving me nuts. "I know I've seen this movie!" My certainty was based on the fact that Doyle pawned his awarded gun, which was then used in a crime to frame him. Long story short, it was bothering me so much that I started Googling search terms, like "1940s crime movies" + "gun" + "pawn shop". It got pretty involved, but I still wasn't getting a satisfactory answer, and then it came to me: Chester Morris as "Boston Blackie". I don't know which movie it was, but one of the Blackies had almost an exact same plot twist as the one that happens here. I double-checked it to make sure, and sure enough, that was the answer. So I hadn't seen "Man from Headquarters" after all.
Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Two Big Thumbs Up, then, and a very high recommendation. The picture is slightly soft. ////
The previous night we had "The Pay Off"(1942), another crime story styled after its star, Lee Tracy, who may have created the prototype of the Wisecracking Reporter in the early '30s. We've seen him several times over the years. He's older here, and his repartee doesn't have the snap of his earlier films, but he's still fun even at half-speed. This time, while shooting the breeze in the press room (in an opening scene that has him imagining the perfect murder mystery), his publisher calls him in to report that the DA has just been murdered. "I'll get right on it," says Lee, which he does, after five minutes of his standard Southern-accented patter. The DA's murder is first blamed on a gambler named Moroni, but he has an alibi: he was playing cards with Tracy on the night in question. Tracy's publisher is trying to turn his son into a reporter, so he sends him to tag along with Lee, and the son soon returns with a third ally, "Phyllis Walker" (Tina Thayer), the daughter of the DA who was murdered.
Lee puts the screws to Moroni, cause he knows he's keeping a secret. "You sat at my card table to create yourself an alibi!" Moroni tells him that the DA was killed to keep him quiet, because he was corrupt, taking payoffs to keep Jack LaRue's money laundering organisation out of the courtroom. LaRue, as always, runs a nightclub. He's another actor we love, he looks like he should be in The Godfather, but actually he had a lot of range and could play a variety of ethnic types of the era.
It's Lee Tracy's movie all the way, which earlier in his career would've been a good thing. Here, it's a mixed bag. 80 percent of the screentime and lines are his (for real), and when he starts doing his shtick it's almost like a solo performance, like he's a stand up comic or vaudevillian playing to the audience instead of to the other actors in the scene. When he was firing on all cylinders as a younger man, this worked well. Here, it makes the movie lag when it goes on too long, or when it distracts from the plot. The way it's done in "Man from Headquarters" is perfect. I actually chose "The Pay Off" for Jack LaRue, who I think is one of the best character actors of the genre. But LaRue's role turned out to be a lot smaller than I anticipated. I'm still gonna give "The Pay Off" Two Big Thumbs Up, for a very nice twist at the end, and because ya gotta love Lee Tracy no matter what. Tonight's flicks would make a great double bill, but if you choose only one, make it "Man from Headquarters." "The Pay Off" is still recommended, however, and the picture is very good. ////
That's all for tonight. I'm feeling better, thank goodness, after a full week of getting knocked sideways by this respiratory illness. I went for a half-walk, just to get back out there. Maybe tomorrow I can do the whole thing. How about that Baker Mayfield comeback drive for the Rams last night? Incredibly inspiring. My blogging music is Kempff playing Beethoven. Late night is "Die Meistersinger" by Wagner. Stay well and have a great weekend. I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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