Bonita Granville, Ted Nickerson and John Litel in "Nancy Drew...Trouble Shooter", and "The Murder in the Museum" starring Henry Walthall

We officially love Nancy Drew, and last night's movie was the third in the series, "Nancy Drew, Trouble Shooter" (1939). In this one, Nancy's Dad (John Litel) is asked by a friend to defend him on a murder charge. The friend - a rural gent named "Matt" (Aldrich Bowker) - is accused of killing his farm neighbor over a what the Sheriff thinks was a land dispute. When Mr. Drew gets the telegram, he asks his maid "Effie" (Renie Riano) not to mention the case to Nancy "because she'll do everything in her power to get involved. Instead, just tell her we're going to the country on vacation." A lot of hijinx is then expended on Effie's aversion to country life (bugs and snakes! poison ivy!), and when they arrive at Matt's house, there's a lengthy set piece with Nancy trying to cook dinner on an old-fashioned wood stove, with predictable results.

Dad has a love interest this time, in the form of "Edna Gregory" (Charlotte Wynters), a pretty neighbor of Matt's, who also serves as an object for Nancy's resentment because Nancy wants Dad's attention all to herself; she shows it with with miffed consternation. Willie Best plays the Black handyman "Apollo", as only Willie Best can. He tries to inform Dad about the "haints" in the barn. "Oh....you mean ghosts," says Dad. Then Nancy chimes in: "Oh, c'mon, Apollo. You don't believe in ghosts, do you?" But Apollo's right; they're in there. At the twenty minute mark, Ted Nickerson shows up as "Frankie", Nancy's reluctant but perpetual sidekick. Frankie just so happens to be out in the country, too, building a boat he plans to launch in the lake. Or he was going to launch it, before getting sidetracked by Nancy's need for an assistant in her murder investigation. Frankie rues the day she arrived, and Dad is mad at Effie for spilling the beans about the murder, but Effie pleads no contest: "You know I can't match wits with your daughter."

Dad gets Matt out of jail on a corpus delicti and habeas corpus, because the Sheriff has never found the victim's body. But then Nancy discovers a rare tropical plant in Matt's field, and asks Apollo to dig it up for her. "It's native to New Zealand,", she mentions, "What's it doing here?" When Apollo digs it up, he discovers the body of the murdalised farmer, and Matt is arrested all over again. Now Nancy's investigation begins in earnest. She thinks the exotic plant must be a clue, and learns about a retail greenhouse nearby that sells rare plant seeds. She and Frankie quiz the owner, who says he has no such plant or seed, but his catalogue and nursery show otherwise. He and his horticulturist act suspicious when Nancy and Frankie leave, and you start wondering if they are the murderers.

Since Nancy is a crack detective, I thought we were gonna get thrown a curveball, and that the culprit would be someone entirely unexpected. I won't reveal if that happens or not, but the investigation this time takes a back seat to the comedy, which verges on screwball at times. The energy with which the whole thing is presented makes this maybe the best Nancy Drew yet. From the moment the movie starts, Bonita Granville is in high gear, running into the house from her car: "Dad! I won second prize in the flower contest! Ialmostwonfirstprizebutthenanothergirlentereda...." She talks so fast her words run together, and Dad listens semi-patiently because daughters rule Dads. Nancy drives like a wild woman, though fences, into other cars and trees. She's a human tornado. Poor Frankie always ends up as collateral damage in her wake. Still, you get the feeling he's glad she asked for his help yet again, even as he's trapped in a burning building. Sleuthing with Nancy is never boring, and you have to be on the ball to write a script that stays one step ahead of the constantly changing action. Two Big Thumbs Up, Two Huge for the energy, and three cheers for Nancy Drew movies. The picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night's flick was a pre-Code cheapo called "The Murder in the Museum"(1934), except it takes place at a carnival, not a museum. The sideshow is about what you'd expect. They've got a woman who's "all head, no body". They've got half-naked dancers, a mind reader, a knife thrower, a "Mexican Revolutionary," they've got an artist without arms who draws with his feet. The cops are visiting again, making sure there's no opium being sold, and that the dancers have at least some clothes on. One ticket buyer wants his money back for exactly that reason. Then, as the police are talking to the carnival owner, a shot rings out; the city councilman's been killed. Now it's learned that he led the charge to run the sideshow out of town. So it's a question of whodunit, but the suspects aren't your typical Ten Little Indians. The councilman's daughter teams up with the cops to find his killer, with help from the mind reader "Professor Mysto" (Henry Walthall). He says the killer is "the Mexican." He'd probably never get away with saying that nowdays. 

The movie is more notable for its context than its content, because the sideshow appears to be the real thing. Several scenes feature extended exotic dancing, and Professor Mysto also performs some good magic tricks. I didn't find the plot as compelling as many of the commentators on IMDB, but I still give the movie Two Big Thumbs as a curio. It's a definite recommendation and the picture is very good. ////

And that's all I know. I'm listening to a lot of Van Der Graaf Generator of late (and Peter Hammill solo, too). My blogging music tonight was "Godbluff", my late night is Handel's Ptolemy, King of Egypt opera. I trust your week is off to a good start, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

James Flavin and Madge Bellamy in "Police Patrol", and "The World Accuses" starring Vivian Tobin

Last night's movie was "Police Patrol"(1933), a pre-Coder with some holdover traits from Silent film, like eye makeup on the leading man - James Flavin as "Mack McCue" - who exaggerates his facial expressions and recites his lines like he's got a lemon wedge his mouth. He and his partner "Bob Larkin" (Pat O'Malley) are detectives for LAPD. Though best pals, they're also rivals for the same gal, "Lil Daley" (Madge Bellamy), who McCue gets involved with after busting "Nolan" (Harrison Greene) a high powered gambling lord. She's actually Nolan's moll, and has been sent by him to entrap McCue in an affair, so he won't be able to testify at Nolan's trial. McCue isn't aware of Lil's association with Nolan, and he starts hanging out at her swanky pad after meeting her at a press conference. On the job, he talks her up to his partner and buddy Det. Larkin, and because Larkin wants whatever McCue has, he follows Mack to Lil's apartment the next day, waits for Mack to leave, then horns in on the action too, representing himself as a shoe salesman. Lil invites him in and ends up liking him better than Mack, and much of the first 30 minutes of the movie are spent on developing the romance, which comes off a bit stiff because of a static camera and some technical early sound-era issues involving dead air and stilted dialogue.

The flick does get moving at the halfway point, when the two detectives get in a punchout over Lil and are demoted to the Riot Squad. The gambling lord is found guilty of murdalization (having killed a hoodlum at the beginning of the movie), and is facing execution. His sentencing is pending so to hamper the judge he has his men kidnap the judge's daughter. In the process they also get McCue, and now they are holding both in a big crash pad in the hills.

But the judge won't bite on the bossman's kidnap leverage. "I am going to sentence you to death anyway, lest your tactic become commonplace. Even though you have my daughter, I still serve you justice under the law." But meanwhile, he's got the entire PD looking for his daughter and Mack at the hideaway house. Detective Larkin, feeling duped by Lil Daley (cause she's been part of the gambling ring all along) now leads the charge to rescue the two hostages.

The draw here, with a schcript that's 1/3 improvisation, is the great location footage of Los Angeles 90 years ago. It's mostly shot in and around Hancock Park, and on 5th Avenue where an old apartment building called the Chateau Laurier is located. Though that's not a schtreet many of us ever frequented, it's still cool just to see all the old cars, and pristine sidewalks in the early days of the city. There's also an awesome dirt road that goes up in the hills to the crash pad, and I'd love to know where it was because it's very likely highly developed now.

Two Big Thumbs Up, then, because the movie sneaks up on you. The script couldn't be much thinner, but early actress Madge Bellamy knows how to keep your attention by shifting her position on the couch and batting her eyelashes Silent movie-style, and the guy with the lemon wedge is amusing for the way he talks. It adds up to a winner because you don't have to pay attention until the plot kicks in. You can just look at the Hollywood scenery, and because the picture is dvd quality it's like being in a time machine.  //// 

Our previous night's film, entitled "The World Accuses"(1934), had a variation of a plot we've seen before: "Decent-but-misunderstood Mom loses custody of child to overbearing in-law." In this case, our Mom is "Lola Weymouth" (Vivian Tobin) who, as the movie opens, is dancing to the radio in her apartment when her mean old mother-in-law walks in. "Lucille" (Sarah Edwards) asks Lola to turn the music down, which she does (unlike John Carradine the other night), but it's clear that Momma Lucille doesn't like her. Right on the spot, she accuses Lola of neglecting her baby, "who is my son's baby, too." When Lola explains that baby likes the music too, it only make Lucille madder. Now, Lucille is rich. She pays the rent on the Weymouth's fancy apartment. When her son (Lola's hubby), gets home from work, things come to a head. Mother-in-law Lucille gives him an ultimatum over Lola: "either divorce her or you won't get another cent out of me."

Well, "John" (Paul Fix) loves his wife. "We can make it without my mother's money," he says, and in order to get the bad feeling out of the air, Lola suggests they go out for a special date, "like it was the first time we met". She takes him to the club she used to work at and they're having a nice time. They've forgotten all about the fight with Lucille. But there's an inebriated guy at the bar who knows Lola from her club days. His name is "Checkers Fraley" (Harold Huber). Checkers is a small-time crook who had a crush on Lola before she was married, and apparently thought it was mutual. On this night he's drunk and trying to make a play. Husband John wants to leave and insults Checkers in the process. Checkers then kills him with a single punch, and is convicted of manslaughter.

But now Lucille is suing for custody of the Weymouth's baby (her grandson), saying Lola's an unfit mother for talking John to the nightclub where he got killed. She hates Lola to begin with, so taking away her baby is nothing but a revenge move, but the judge rules in Lucille's favor.

Lola is distraught. One day while walking, she passes an orphanage and faints from despair. The matron of the facility catches her before she hits the ground, and offers her a job because it's obvious she loves children. Lola tells the woman who she really is - her story was in all the papers. The matron says, "I knew it was you. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." Five years pass. Still working at the orphanage, Lola places an ad seeking to locate her son, just to make contact. In a related consequence, Lucille's lawyer commits suicide after it's discovered he bilked all his clients of their savings, Lucille included. She's broke now, and soon dies of stress. Lola's son "Tommy" (Dickie Moore), now five years old, gets put in his Mom's orphanage by Lucille's caretaker. But because Lola has changed her name, and because she hasn't seen Tommy since he was an infant, neither of them knows they are mother and son. 

Can you believe they fit all of this into a 57 minute movie? And there's more. Tommy's playmate at the orphanage is a precocious little girl named "Pat" (Cora Sue Collins), whose Dad wants to marry Lola. Their relationship is heading in that direction when Checkers escapes from prison and goes straight to the orphanage to force Lola to hide him in the attic. Tommy and Pat like to play up there, and Checkers discovers them, which leads to a hostage standoff. But that ending (while dramatic) is beside the point. Really, it's a movie against taking children from their mothers, and also a condemnation of wealthy in-laws with the power to break up families. Maybe that happened a lot during the Depression, I don't know, but as mentioned we've seen this plot at least twice now and it's from the heart. Two Big Thumbs Up for "The World Accuses." It's highly recommended and the picture is very good.  //// 

That's all for tonight. My blogging music is "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" by Van Der Graaf Generator. My late night is Handel's Rinoldo Opera. I had a long drive today, down to the Mexican Border and back, to pick up my sister, who went to Mexico for a cosmetic procedure. I hadn't been down that way since 1971, when my Dad took my brother and me to an air race at Brown Field in Chula Vista. This was my first time being right at the border. I've never been to Mexico (or out of the country at all), but it was a fun drive, if lengthy, and it was great to see all the places Dad used to take us, like Oceanside, Miramar and La Jolla. Dad was an honorary San Diegan.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Leslie Harcourt and Evelyn Ankers in "The Villiers Diamond", and "Mr. Reckless" starring William Eythe and Barbara Britton

Last night's movie was "The Villiers Diamond"(1938), a compact Brrrittish crime dramedy, set in "everyone's-in-the-house" mode. As it opens, jewel thief "Barker" (Leslie Harcourt) is paroled, having served his sentence without ever revealing what became of the Villiers diamond, a large piece of ice. Skeertlnd Yeerd decides to follow him as he leaves The Slam, thinking he'll lead them straight to the Villiers, but he's more cagey than they assumed. He goes straight to the mansion of "Silas Wade" (Frank Birch), a wealthy businessman and jewel collector who was going to fence the diamond for Barker before he went to prison. Barker wants his payoff, 150 pounds. Wade tells him he can have ten pounds now and the rest later because he hasn't sold it yet: "It's still too hot." Barker says okay, but demands to stay in Wade's house and watch over it, "Because I don't trust you". Wade gives him a pretend job as his butler so no one will question his presence, much to the chagrin of "Ma Benson" (Margaret Davidge), Wade's protective Irish cook.

Then Wade's niece "Joan" (Evelyn Ankers) returns from her finishing school in France, accompanied by the headmistress. Joan's been expelled for having love letters in her room. The headmistress claims she was planning to elope. Wade is miffed but takes her in, and she asks him about her ten grand in investments, which he's been in charge of. He can't tell her the truth, that it's all gone because he mismanaged it, so he enlists Barker in a scheme to recover her money, which involves faking the theft of his jewel collection. This will also allow them to "vanish" the Villiers diamond and fence it in the process.

To set it up the plan, Wade answers the ads in the "Agony Column" of the local paper, a list of monetary requests from the poor. Wade invites several of them to a charity dinner, so he can use one as a patsy to take the fall for the faked jewel theft. But the guy he picks is - unknown to him - his niece's boyfriend, whom he's never met, the guy who got her kicked out of school with his love letters.

Meanwhile, two of the "Agonized", a couple who wrote assistance letters to the column, have heard about Wade's jewel collection and are planning to rob his safe. When they arrive for the "charity dinner", they hide in the anteroom behind the floor-to-ceiling drapes so they can watch him turn the dial and steal the combination. But when Wade's fake robbery scheme goes down, their plan gets mixed up with his and now nobody knows who has the Villiers diamond. There's a twist at the end, which you may not see coming. It's only fifty minutes long but tight as a drum, a charming and fast moving puzzle. Two Bigs, though just regular Brrrittish instead of Veddy.  //// 

The previous night, we found an odd potpourri of a movie called "Mr. Reckless"(1948). This one you haven't heard before. Tyrone Power lookalike William Eythe is an oil roughneck, originally from Lowss -ANGless but working in Loozy-Anna. When he comes back home, he and a rigger pal commandeer a taxi because the cabbie sings tenor. They belt a few tunes while Eythe is driving "recklessly" (cause he's Mr. Reckless, get it?), and while avoiding a head-on with a bus, he crashes through the wall of Gus's #1 Cafe and Eats. Eythe was planning to visit "Gus" (Nestor Paiva) anyway (they're best friends), and now's as good a time as any, while the taxi is parked in the dining room of Gus's restaurant. And Gus don't mind; "the joint is a-gonna be-a torn down anyway, for to put in a skyscraper".

Eythe only has a couple days, then he's gotta head back to Loozy for work. Gus wants to go with, so he can be with his friend. Gus is a 100% caricature, but we like caricature characters, and he's about to marry "Betty" his cook (Barbara Britton). Betty is half Gus's age, and Eythe is bummed because she was his gal before he left for the oil field. But he's got "wings on his feet", he can't stay in one place, and he tells he to "go ahead and marry Gus. You'd never be happy with me."

But the marriage is on the back burner for the next 45 minutes, because there's hijinx and other stuff to attend to. The whole gang moves to Louisiana, including Betty's Dad (Lloyd Corrigan), a heart-of-gold gambling addict, whom she supports on her cook's salary. Dad does get a job, at the fields, but is soon in debt to a fellow 'neck, a big dude who locks him in a storage tank for failure to pay his poker debt. That night, the tank starts filling up with oil. Dad is about to drown. Gus shows up after hearing about it, and beats the tar out of Dad's tormentor, but takes a few lumps in the process. Then Eythe arrives and pounds the guy some more, but the dude is big and mean, and it takes a lot to keep him down. The end result is that Betty's two suitors (William Eythe and Gus) are now both laid up in the hospital with a host of injuries. She doesn't love Gus, but he's loyal, he's her boss, and he's good support for her and her wayward father.

Later on, the big oil roughneck returns to the drilling site to sabotage Eythe on the job. He trips a steam valve, causing a heavy pipe to fall on Eythe's leg. Gus and Eythe later catch him, but then Gus finds out that Betty is in love with Eyeth, which results in a rather unusual ending to the movie:  a horrific fight scene, atop an oil derrick (of course), followed by a romantic kiss-off and a marriage, as if Gus was a monster all along, instead of a sympathetic character. I told ya it was a potpourri. It's a good one, though, and gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is very good also.  ////  

And that's all I know for tonight. My blogging music is "H to He" by Van Der Graaf Generator, my late night is the Ezio Opera by Handel, I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo  :):)   

Gene Evans and Mary Welch in Sam Fuller's "Park Row", and "The Outer Gate" starring Ralph Morgan, Ben Alexander and Kay Linaker

Last night, we watched "Park Row"(1952), a two-fisted, rousing celebration of the New York newspaper business circa 1886, courtesy of our cigar chomping pal Sam Fuller. As the movie opens, "Phineas Mitchell" (Gene Evans), an editor for The Star, is drinking in a saloon and getting angrier by the minute, because the headline in today's edition is gloating over the execution of a man Phineas knows was innocent. He's furious at his publisher, "Charity Hackett" (Mary Welch), who led the paper's charge to convict, so out the door he goes, on his way to Potter's Field, where he nails a board to the the marker of the dead man, with the message: "killed by yellow journalism."

Charity hears about it, comes to the saloon, and fires Phineas (who was gonna quit anyway) and everyone from the paper who is with him. Though still in his cups (and chomping a stogie to represent director Fuller) Phineas decides on the spot to start his own paper.....sigh.....if he only had the money. Then an older man approaches, having heard his lament. "I once had the same dream," the man says, before giving a poetic lead-in to what he's about to offer: full financial backing for Phineas's new paper, which he's christened The Globe. The whole scene reeks of Integrity with a capital I, and that's a big part of the style here: the movie has the energy of live theater, where every line of dialogue is snappy and uttered with "let's put on a show" verve. Fuller wants you to know -without a shadow of a doubt - that freedom of speech is represented by the newspaper business, and while his heart is righteously on his sleeve (he started as a news man himself), the sentiment is quaint because now, ever since JFK (and 9/11, OKC, et al.) the press and media are in charge of suppressing - not printing - the truth.

Ahh, but I shant go on a tirade. While the "rah-rah, have another giant-sized beer, let's get out there and trump-et the truth" theme of the movie is nostalgic, but outdated, the real story here is the newspaper war in NYC that raged at the end of the century. It starts when "Steve Brodie" (George O'Hanlon) dives off the Brooklyn Bridge, to make himself famous. Phineas covers it in the first edition of The Globe, which he prints on butcher paper and sells for a penny a piece. He and his staff are really winging it. A subplot of interest concerns the invention and development of the Linotype machine, which I found quite fascinating.

But when Phineas gets the scoop on Brodie, Charity - his former boss - gets nervous about competition, which gets worse when the French offer the Statue of Liberty to America as a gift. Phineas raises money for its pedestal, while Charity has her editor rail against trusting the French: "Is the statue really a gift, or a prelude to asking for a loan?" She's the queen of cynicism and exploitation, anything to sell papers. But Phineas is winning the circulation battle with Earnestness (capital E) and Honesty. Then things get nasty. The printer's devil kid who works at The Globe gets run over by The Star's delivery wagon and is hanging by a thread. Despite his antipathy toward Charity, Phineas was about to fall in love with her (because actress Mary Welch is a stunner). Now he's is ready to kill both her and her editor, who set up the delivery wagon mow-down. The circulation battle is now an all-out war, with Molotovs being chucked through windums. The Globe's Linotype machine is destroyed, and there's an obscenely violent punchout, by Phineas, of the guy who ran over the kid. It's sickening (looks like real life), and as noted, I am tired of watching extended beatings in movies. Yeah, Sam Fuller was Mr. Macho, but what's the deal with the Tough Guy Artiste? I just don't get it. 

We've talked about having things named after you, like mustaches and underarm deodorants. But what about Brodies? Did you ever pull one as a kid? Man, we used to pull Brodies all over the place. The earliest Brodie I ever pulled may have been at Reseda Park. I didn't learn how to ride a bike til I was seven, so it must've been in the Summer of '67, about six months before we moved to Northridge. Anyway, I was with an experienced Brodie puller (can't remember his name), and we rode to the north side of the park where the LA River passes through. There wasn't a fence on the river bank in those days, and my friend demonstrated how to ride up real fast toward the bank, then pull a Brodie before you tumbled over the side. I did it, too, and I'm pretty sure it was the first Brodie I ever pulled, because I was new to riding bikes and hadn't heard of Brodies before. But I mean, as cool as it must be to be Fu Manchu or Robert Mitchum, how about being Steve Brodie and having kids still say your name, 80 years after you jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, every time they pulled a daredevil skid? That's why a Brodie was called a Brodie; because it was daredevil (supposedly). And "pulling" a Brodie meant doing as he did, like pulling a stunt only it was a big, sweeping skid on your bike.  

Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, "Park Row." Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent movie, worth Two Huge Thumbs Up in almost every respect, and at the time it was made (during the height of the Cold War and HUAC), Freedom of Speech and of the press was a big deal. But it's message sadly doesn't ring as true in the era of corporate, selective news. Having said that, it's still highly recommended. Gene Evans is great as the ready to rumble Phineas, and Mary Welch, whom we hadn't seen before (she was a stage actress), is just beautiful. You can't take your eyes off her and the picture is razor sharp, which helps.  ////

The previous night, we had an eye-for-an-eye crime film called "The Outer Gate"(1937), in which "Bob Terry" (Ben Alexander), a young and ingenious architect working for Ralph Morgan's firm, comes up with an idea for prefab houses. This is 1937 and he's way ahead of the game. Morgan's daughter "Lois" (Kay Linaker) has a crush on Bob, and because daughters rule Dads, (and Morgan likes Bob anyway), he gives him a promotion at the company. But then, 5 Gees go missing from Bob's production account. Morgan has a strict code about workplace malfeasance, and on scant evidence, he accuses then charges Bob with embezzlement. Bob is found guilty and does five hard years in the clink. His cellmate is a guy named "Todd Shannon" (Eddie Acuff), who's cynical but easygoing and knows the ropes. Young Bob went into prison a Boy Scout, but when the real embezzler commits suicide and the truth is revealed that an innocent man was convicted, he leaves the joint embittered, sworn to pay Morgan back tenfold. Shannon suggests he cut his throat, and you don't know if hes joking or not because he's ironic.

Meanwhile, Morgan feels terrible that Bob has lost five years of his life due to his accusation. He wants to "make it up to him," which is if course impossible, but he does take him in to live at his mansion, and his daughter Lois is in love with him. They get Bob a job as headwaiter at a swanky nightclub, but the band leader there is a criminal behind his Smilin' Jack facade. He hears that Morgan has a quarter million in bonds in his safe. Bob gives him the combination (which Morgan gave to him) and tells him where it's located in the house.

Shannon, Bob's former cellmate, has been paroled, but has second thoughts about the aforementioned revenge plan against Morgan, because by now he's met Lois too. She likes him (she likes everyone) and has gotten him a job at the nightclub, also. When the bonds are stolen buy the bandleader and his henchmen, Ralph Morgan knows he going to be accused by his board of directors. It's like that episode of The Flintstones, when Mr. Slate fires Fred, and Fred wants revenge, but then finds out that Mr. Slate has bosses, too (the board of directors) and that Slate feels the same pressure he does, maybe worse. But anyhow, Morgan knows that Bob has helped set him up, but he willingly accepts his fate. "I cost you five years of your life, now I will suffer the same."

But Todd Shannon, a good man at heart, because he's ironic (a cynic is an optimist who's been disillusioned) thinks it's wrong to persecute Morgan. Revenge is self-destructive, he tells Bob, "and it's is also hurting Lois, who loves you!." But Bob doesn't care. Then at the end, he does, when he helps bust the bandleader. Two Bigs, even though the direction is a bit dry. The picture is slightly soft.  //// 

And that's the kit-n-kaboodle for this evening. My blogging music is "Fool's Mate" by Peter Hammill, my late night is Handel's Ezio opera. I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Lawrence Tierney, John Carradine and Jayne Mansfield in "Female Jungle", and "Mr. Corbett's Ghost" starring John Huston and Paul Scofield

Last night, we found a low budget Noir called "Female Jungle"(1956), directed by Roger Corman regular Bruno VeSota, starring Lawrence Tierney, John Carradine and Burt Kaiser (who wrote and produced), and featuring the debut of Jayne Mansfield. Good cast, eh? The whole thing takes place in one night, beginning around 1 am when an actress is strangled after leaving a bar. "Sgt. Jack Stevens" (Tierney) is late to the scene, because he's getting hammered in the same joint. When he leaves and sees the investigation already underway in the street, he stumbles over, only to get chewed out by the Captain of Detectives. After the case gets assigned to another cop, Stevens apologises and asks for a chance to redeem himself. The captain says, "okay, but you better stay off the sauce, and no more breaks when you're on the job". Tierney, doing his patented God Cop with a Dark Side thing, says "Thank you, sir. I'll stay here all night if I have to."

Meanwhile, an artist named "Alex Voe" (Kaiser), who was watching the crime scene as a bystander, heads home to his apartment a few blocks away. When he gets there, his wife "Peggy" (Kathleen Crowley of "Target Earth" fame) is waiting, but they're interrupted by the sudden and unexpected arrival of a tall, well dressed man (Carradine), who wants his portrait drawn. Alex is a talented caricaturist. "I'm sorry for the late hour", says the tall man, "but I don't know when I can return. I've seen your work and would be honored to have you draw me. Is there a chance you could squeeze me in before you go to bed?" Alex can use the ten bucks (his fee) so he agrees to make the drawing. His caricatures will become important in the plot. 

But he's been drinking, too (so has everyone in the movie), and before he can start work on his late night guest, he gets into an argument with his wife. Carradine is sitting at the dinner table and hears the whole ugly thing unfold. After Alex leaves, he makes a move on Peggy: "That didn't sound too good. Would you like to go out for a drink? I think you could use one." But instead of taking her to another bar, he drives her back to his place, a nice pad on Mulholland Drive. It turns out he's a well known newspaper columnist, specializing in movie gossip, and he knew murdered actress. After pouring their drinks, the next thing he does is blast his expensive stereo (with speakers embedded in the stonework.) He's playing a symphony at full volume, and Peggy asks him to turn it down, but he won't because "it's meant to be played this way!" Director VeSota has set the scene just right, and you're thinking that Carradine has got to be the murderer. I mean, c'mon: he's just driven off with a married woman he only met ten minutes ago, he's got his stereo cranked and won't turn it down, and he's John Carradine. It's gotta be him.

Back to Alex, we discover he's a lousy husband. After storming out on Peggy, he goes straight to the apartment of "Candy Price" (Mansfield), who's wearing her tiger-print stretch pants. Now, her name is apt, 'cause there's a price for Candy. She's a bit of a bimbo; we've already seen her with Sgt. Stevens (her other boyfriend), but he's still coming off his drunk and doesn't remember being at her apartment that night. His memory loss will play into the finale. Alex tells Candy he loves her, and that he just had a fight with his wife. "Good", she replies, "Then you'll finally get that divorce you've been promising." "Yeah maybe. But I'm worried about Peggy, because I left her with that weird guy in our apartment, and I think he may be the killer the cops are looking for."

Things get more twisted as the hours pass. The bar stays open all night to accommodate the police, and the janitor (Davis Roberts)  mops up blood from Sgt. Stevens' dripping hand to cover for him, because the Sarge is his pal, and because the lead detective thinks the killer has a scratched-up hand. Is Stevens the killer? He's played by Lawrence Tierney, so he could be. Good guy/Bad guy, which is it? Wanna guess? With Lawrence Tierney the only thing you know for sure is that it's in his contract to Go On the Wagon. The dialogue sync is terrible in this flick.. At first, its distracting to the point where you wonder if you should continue watching, but after the first five minutes, your eyes and brain adjust and you don't notice it too much. John Carradine is less craggy than usual, suave even, and he proves once again that he could act, within range, when he felt like it. Jayne Mansfield was being groomed as a Monroe, she did what they wanted her to do, but she doesn't look like a dum-dum (man, they taught those Blonde Bombshells how to flare their nostrils when they whispered sweet nothings).

VeSota's whole deal, as would be any director's in such a film, is to keep you guessing as to the identity of the killer, and in fact there could be more than one, which is what I was thinking. And of course, when the killer or killers is/are finally chased down, the face off takes place in a power station, because, naturally, there's always an open-all-night power station conveniently located nearby, whenever a movie killer is escaping. And he always goes straight to the catwalk. "The Catwalk Must Be Accessible To The Killer": Motion Picture Codebook. "Female Jungle" is a weird little competent movie, slightly sub-Cormanlike in its professionalism. Two Big Thumbs Up, the picture is very good.  ////

The night before we watched a made-for-BBC film starring John Huston in his final role, directed by his son Danny. "Mr. Corbett's Ghost"(1987) is a Dickensian, Scrooge-like tale of an apothecary shop owner (genius actor Paul Scofield) whose apprentice wishes him dead. Mr. Corbett (Scofield) is a stern old taskmaster. It's 8pm on New Year's Eve, 1727, but he won't let young "Ben Partridge" (Mark Farmer) go to a midnight party. Ben usually gets off work by 6, its as if Mr. Corbett is keeping him late on purpose, so he'll miss out on the fun. He hectors Ben, following him around the shop: "Polish this bottle"! "There's a spot on that table, wipe it down again!" "I need your heart and soul, Ben Partridge. You're no good to me otherwise." When Ben asks, "Can't I go home to at least be with my family?" Corbett answers, "They can wait. And they'll appreciate you more for the waiting."

Finally, a late night customer knocks, wanting a prescription sent to a house three miles away. Corbett sends Ben, who protests. "But sir, it's freezing and snowing outside. I'm scared I shan't make it there and back." "Here now, Ben Partridge! You're a young and hearty lad, stop complaining." "But sir, there's robbers on that road." "Yes, and what would they want with a lad with obviously no money, by the looks of your coat?" "Please sir, don't make me travel. There's ghosts on that road."

Mr. Corbett scoffs at this, as would Scrooge: "Ghosts, you say? What kind of boy are you? Get going or I'll keep you here all night. You can go on your way after you've finished the delivery."

Upset that he's missing New Year's Eve, Ben curses Corbett on the way, wishing him dead. While walking on the ghost road in the forest, he's startled by the sudden appearance of "Mad Tom" (Burgess Meredith), the village lunatic, whose "mistress is the Moon". Tom has overheard Ben's curse on Mr. Corbett, and tells him, "there's a man who can make your wish come true". Tom directs him to a house in a nearby town, where a strange man lives who calls himself a Soul Collector (Huston). He's also a potion-ist and spell caster, who charges "one quarter of your earnings for as long as you live. I only deal in quarters." Ben tells him about Mr. Corbett, what a mean old man he is, and The Collector asks if he has anything from Corbett's possession, a cloth, a hair? "I have nothing, sir." But that's no impediment, the SC can improvise. He captures Corbett's spirit in a vial jar, which he ties with a black ribbon, before uttering an incantation.

"You man will soon be dead upon the road" he tells Ben. "If you leave now, you can watch him die. But remember, one quarter of your earnings, for as long as you live." Ben does arrive in time to see Corbett drop dead, but then he gets scared and tries to dispose of the body, to avoid being accused of murder. He encounters a gang of road criminals who have their own code of ethics, and when he won't join them, they stone him and threaten to expose him. "But I didn't even touch the man," Ben protests. He wishes Mr. Corbett were alive again and goes back to see The Collector. "I can't do that, but I can make him a ghost. He'll be your ghost. Only you will see him." So Corbett comes back as a spirit, humbled now, but in Hell, which is "very cold," he reports. Now Mr. Corbett is at the mercy of Ben, who finally goes to his New Year's Eve party with the ghost of Mr. Corbett tagging along. Corbett warms his frigid hands by the fire. Now he wants to visit his own family, an ironic twist of what he denied Ben earlier. 

But Ben can't take the madness of Corbett's ghost following him around, so he goes to see The Collector a third time, and that's all I will reveal. We don't usually do post-1960s films here at the blog (nor many films in color), but this one looked good and it was. Two Huge Thumbs Up and a very high recommendation for "Mr. Corbett's Ghost". Few actors were on the level of Paul Scofield, who won an Oscar for "A Man for All Seasons", one of the greatest films ever made. He's tremendous here, and John Huston is very good also. The picture is soft but watchable.  ////

That's all for tonight. My blogging music is Traffic's "John Barleycorn" again, my late night is still Handel's Rodelinda Oratorio (it's three plus hours). I hope you enjoyed your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Paul Langton in "For You I Die", and "Drums of Fu Manchu", a Chapter Serial starring Henry Brandon

Last night's movie was a Noir with a plug-and-play "framework script" called "For You I Die"(1947). Tell me if you've heard this plot before. Two cons break out of the slam. They hide from the cops in a schtorm drain for three days. One is dominant and slaps the other guy silly, telling him, "We're gonna split up now. You go to this joint in Sausalito, it's called Maggie Dillon's. Ask for girl named 'Hope Novak' (Cathy Downs). She knows me and she'll take care of ya. Don't tell nobody nothin'. I'll join ya there in about a week. Gotta take care of some business in San Francisco."

So, Johnny the weaker convict does as he's told. He goes to Maggie Dillon's Cafe and Cabin Rentals and checks in under a fake name. A hot-tomato chick named "Georgie" (Jane Weeks) meets him getting off the bus. He assumes she's Hope Novak, the other convict's girl, and because she's savvy she goes along with his assumption and learns that he's one of the two escapees the cops are looking for. Meanwhile, the real Hope is a nice girl who works at the cafe. Georgie tries blackmailing her after she learns Johnny's secret, but her heart isn't in it. Instead, she tries cozying up to Johnny (Paul Langton), and pulls a "let's you and me leave this crummy town" routine on him. But Johnny can't leave the crummy town (and it ain't crummy, just a nice place in the mountains) because 1) he's waiting for his buddy 2) a pair of cops regularly stop at Maggie's cafe for lunch and have been poking around asking questions, and 3) lives are about to converge, especially Johnny's and Hope's.

As for the plug-and-play, here we go: now that he's settled in and not leaving, because the cops can't figure where they've "seen him before", he becomes attached to the characters who live in the cabins, including Mischa Auer (who produced), playing a Borscht Belt Russian-American theater comedian. As producer, Auer (a brilliant early character actor) gives himself and his onscreen wife two separate performance vignettes, lasting about three minutes each, which are fun but have little to do with the story. The heart of this particular framework is that Johnny is gonna be put into a position where he'll become A Hero. "Escaped Convict Does Good". Didn't we just see that in another picture? Who was the actor who played an escapee and saved a kid from drowning, about two weeks ago? Ahh, yes; Warren Hull in "Desert Escape." Well, anyway, I'm not gonna tell you what happens with Johnny, but it turns out he was forced to participate in the prison break by the dominant bad guy "Matt Gruber" (Don C. Harvey). Johnny was a trustee with a spotless record who only had a year left on his sentence. He didn't wanna escape, but now he can't go back. So he's found a hiding place in the small town where he now Affects Lives, and he never wants to leave. Same deal as in "Desert Escape".

But then his bad buddy Gruber returns from San Francisco. "I told ya I'd be back!" A punchout ensues that's way too violent, and a cabin resident named "Smitty" (Roman Bohnen) intervenes. Saving Johnny's life serves as redemption for Smitty, an alcoholic who was once a war hero. Smitty gets killed in the shootout that follows, and there's a huge twist at the end that makes the film a cut above. The plot has onion skin layering, and had it a bigger budget (for better production values) we'd be talking Two Huge, even with the formula script. But the actors and the direction are fine, so Two Big Thumbs Up with a very high recommendation. The picture is slightly soft.  ////

The previous night we began another chapter serial, "Drums of Fu Manchu"(1940), in which Fu is seeking the keys to Genghis Khan's tomb to obtain his scepter so he can rule all of Asia. How'd you like to have a mustache named after you? Man, I thought Robert Mitchum was a tough hombre for having a deodorant to his name. But a mustache? That makes Fu the baddest man alive. I think Joe Namath was the King of Fu Manchus in the modern era; Fu's own 'stache is a little thin and droopy, but then Asian men aren't known for their facial hirsuteness.

Jim Kiick once said something in a Sports Illustrated interview that I've never forgotten. It must've been in 1972 when he and the Dolphins were getting a lot of press for their perfect season. I had a subscription to SI that year, and anyway, Kiick was known as a clothes horse, a stylish dude in the mode of Joe Namath. But Kiick was known for his shoes (as opposed to his mustache, even though his was pretty good), and as a running back, that might not be unexpected. His shoe collection was his pride (he rivaled Imelda Marcos, apparently). But what he said that I never forgot was, regarding shoes, was that "if you have a brand new pair of shoes and a sharp-looking haircut, you're gonna look good even if you're wearing old blue jeans and a dirty t-shirt, whereas you could be wearing a 2000 dollar suit, but if your shoes are worn out and your hair is greasy, and you're gonna look terrible."

I never forgot that, and Kiick (a great runner who was paired with Larry Csonka) was right. It's the Bookend Theory: if the top and bottom look good, the middle won't matter (so long as it's not atrocious or garish, like neon orange pants.) But if the bookends aren't sharp, it doesn't matter how shiny and stylish the middle is. And Larry Csonka had a Fu Manchu to (almost) rival Namath.

Fu's own Manchu may be droopy, but Fu himself is all bidness. He kidnaps "Professor Randolph" (Tom Chatterton), an archaeologist in possession of The Dalai Plaque, an ancient tablet that's reputed to have symbols leading to the location of Khan's tomb keys. Now Fu's about to torture the Professor in The Coffin of Seven Windows, into which go rats and increasingly worse critters. The guy playing Fu is spooky. He has henchmen throwing knives in every direction. The good guys are ducking, Jim Kiick is running through a hole in the KC line, and at one point, Fu's men - wearing silk pajamas and slippers, use high voltage power cables to pull themselves across a gap between two buildings so they can get at "Sir Dennis Nayland Smith" (William Royle), a nobleman who is trying to rescue the Professor. All of this happens in the first chapter. The entire serial is 15 chapters and 4 1/2 hours long. Fu plays a drum solo every time something bad is about to happen, hence the title. Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is very good.  ////

That's all for tonight. My blogging music is "Elegy"by The Nice. My late night is Handel's Rodelinda Oratorio. I wish you a great weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)       

Lita Grey in "The Devil's Sleep", and "Whispering Footsteps" starring John Hubbard and Rita Quigley

Last night we had "The Devil's Sleep"(1949), a juvenile delinquent "warning" flick about rising narcotic use among teenagers. A slick hoodlum named "Umberto Scalli" (Timothy Farrell) is running an amphetamine and downers ring out of a weight-loss gym for women, his primary customers. He owns the gym and has his female trainer hook the ladies on a drug called neurofloramine, but a judge (Lita Grey, Charlie Chaplin's second wife) gets wind of an associated problem involving teens after a local high school kid robs a gas station while high on benzedrine.

Scalli's  big seller is the nitroflouramine (never hoyd of it; sounds made-up), which the gym ladies gobble like candy. They're shown working out in their underwear and bras for exploitation purposes, and a big gal named Tessie T. Tesse (last name also pronounced Tessy) gets three minutes of hijinxs and looks like she was a professional comedian. The actors are amateur or semi-pro. Timothy Farrell (playing Scalli) was a court bailiff in real life, and went on to become a county judge. But in this movie he's breakin' the law, and when he finds out the judge's daughter is attending pool parties at a rich kid's house with the other teens, he sends his henchman out to set her up for blackmail. The "rich kid" with the party house pretends to have a rich uncle "who's out of town", but it turns out he's not a rich kid at all. His name is really "Fred Smith" (Stan Freed) and he's working for Scalli. He sets up a game of Blind Mans Bluff and "Margie Ballantine" (Tracy Lynne) falls into the pool while blindfolded. After removing her wet dress, she gets her towel pulled off before being back pushed into the pool, and there's about a half second of rear-end nudity. Scalli has prearranged for his henchman to take a picture of Margie when this happens, and he then blackmails the judge with the nude photograph. Meanwhile, Mr. Universe (George Eiferman) has been hired to take over the exercise training at Scalli's gym. I have no idea why he's there. Maybe Charles Atlas produced the movie.

There are many extraneous characters, including a second henchman with muscles for brains who swears he could "take" Mr. Universe. Maybe the director self financed this flick and used all his friends as the actors. Good guy teenager "Bob Winter" (Jim Tyde) is dating Margie the judge's daughter. Bob's sister "Jerri" (Laura Travers) is the wife of the lead detective (William Thomason) on the judge's anti-drug strike team. There's a huge punchout at the end, involving the teens vs. Scalli and his photographer, who have Jerri Winter and Mr. Universe tied up in the weight-loss gym. Ed Wood could've directed this film and made it weirder and less stiff (it's cue card city), but then it wouldn't have been as coherent. The anti-drug message does come through strongly, and it's all about pills and date rape drugs (which are nothing new, apparently), but not marijuana, which perhaps wasn't in vogue with the average teen until the late fifties.

At any rate, it's good for what it is, so Two Bigs, though it should've been 56 minutes instead of 71. The picture is very good. John Mitchum has a scene as an intern near the end, after young Margie overdoses on Nembutal trying to kill herself over the naked photo. He gives an anti-drug speech in which you can tell he's Robert Mitchum's son. After Lita Grey, he's the only quasi-famous actor in the movie. ////

Now then: sometimes you get an unheralded film that dares to venture outside the formula, in this case of the murder mystery genre. "Whispering Footsteps"(1943) mixes Noir style with World War 2 Americana. Living in Ma Murphy's boarding house, you've got a Whitman's Sampler of folksytypes:  a gas meter reader, a milkman (Billy Benedict from The East Side Kids), a librarian (Grandmama), a screaming teenager (Juanita Quigley), and "MarK Borne" (John Hubbard), a handsome, friendly bank teller, who gets caught in a case of mistaken identity because he looks like a murderer.

The circumstantial evidence couldn't be worse. Borne gets off a train in an Indiana town an hour before a murder happens there. On another night, he's out walking in a park and comes back to Ma Murphy's with his shoes covered in mud. A body is found in the park the next day. But wait - in that investigation there's a twist because "Helen LaSalle" (Joan Blair), the new gal in town who Mark fancies, also has muddy shoes. Was she tracking him in the park, or is there a chance she's the killer? Cy Kendall is the lead detective (he's always a detective), but he's playing his cards close. Cy's a surrogate for the director, who is NOT gonna let you know his intention.

I have a small collection of movies I'm fond of (and sometimes mention) that have metaphysical themes submerged within what you think is a genre picture. Sure, a title like "The Enchanted Cottage" should tell you something, but the undercurrent in such a movie is still surprising for how deep the filmmakers explore it. You aren't expecting them to get that far out because it's a studio system film in an era when they stuck to formula for the resolution of stories; there were only so many ways to end a movie. But every once in a while, they made a movie like "Cottage", or "Portrait of Jennie", or "The Secret Garden", or "I'll Be Seeing You", where the director (or the producer) inserted a spiritual subtext that changed the film's meaning. In this one, you are deliberately kept wondering about the identity of the murderer. Surely it's Mark, the evidence says so, even he thinks so! "There have been killers who were two different people" he says to "Brook Hammond" (Rita Quigley), the daughter of bank president (Charles Halton). "What if I am myself by day, but kill by night and don't remember"? Another murder happens and Brook makes an alibi for him, but everyone at the boarding house is calling the police now, to offer clues. I was thinking it had to be a shell game plot, one of the typical murder mystery frameworks, and I thought the killer was gonna be Helene (Marc's girlfriend), or Cy Kendall, because it was too obvious that Mark wasn't the guy, even though everyone - including himself - thought he was.

Then the director and screenwriter pulled their rabbit out of a hat and made their movie different. It doesn't have the payoff you might be expecting, but instead has one of deeper meaning and consequence, and that's all I am going to tell you. BTW, Blossom Rock (aka Grandmama from The Addams Family) was Jeanette McDonald's sister. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Whispering Footsteps, with a very high recommendation. It's one to look for, and the picture is very good. ////

That's all for tonight. My blogging music was Mike Oldfield's "Hergest Ridge" and "Tubular Bells 3", my late night is Handel's Serse Oratorio, I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)    

Sir Ralph Richardson in "On the Night of the Fire", and "No Room for the Groom" starring Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie

Last night we found a good one: "On the Night of the Fire"(1939), an English thriller in which a barber (Sir Ralph Richardson) commits a robbery he seems sure to get away with. It's a chance opportunity. As he's walking to his shop, he passes an open window at an office building, glances in, and sees money on a desk. Lots of money; the room is a payroll office. No one is around. "Why the bloody hell shouldn't I?" he thinks, and climbs through the window to steal it. Back at his barber shop, he stashes the cash (100 pounds) and no one is the wiser. The robbery makes the papers the next day, but he figures, "Big deal. They can afford the loss and I needed that money. I'm barely squeaking by." Before this, he was an honest man who never committed a crime. It's an "oh what a tangled web we weave" plot. I'm sure we've seen very similar ones in other pictures, but they don't all have Sir Ralph, who I think is one of the greatest actors England ever produced. This film qualifies as Enlish rather than Veddy Brrrittish, because the latter requires a national and cultural self-consciousness on the part of the filmmakers and actors; an acknowledgement that "we know we're a funny/quirky/smart/nutty/stuffy people, i.e "we're Veddy Brrrritttish"! A Veddy Brrrittish film, no matter the genre, has an element of the Brits making fun of themselves, which they do better than any other country. But British and English are two different things (and don't get me started on the whole UK/Great Britain/England thing). 

But anyhow.

A customer (pronounced Koos-tah-ma, as in "Penny Lane, the barber shaves anotha Koos-tah-ma") comes into the shop the next day, talking about the robbery. "The coppers say whoever done it left a button behind, with a bit of thread". Yikes. Richardson wasn't aware of that detail. "You know", the man continues, "they've got microscopes these days that can find out where that button came from." Soon, the robbery is the talk of the town. Ralph's wife goes to hang up his coat one night, and notices a missing button. Worried, she says nothing to Ralph but goes to the local tailor to buy a set of buttons to entirely replace the ones on Ralph's coat.

The tailor is also usurer. He's fronted Ralph's wife some fancy dresses so she could "keep up" in fashion with her best friend, whose husband is a wealthy champion boxer. But he charged her exorbitant interest and now she owes him big time dough. When she comes in to buy the buttons, the tailor knows something is up. He puts two and two together because the button clue is the talk of the town, and after she gets home, she asks Ralph if he was indeed the robber. He confesses and gives her the stolen money, to pay the tailor and get him off her back. But the stolen bills are marked, and now the cops think the tailor is the robber. The situation gets worse instead of better for Richardson, because the tailor doesn't like being under suspicion. "Your wife gave me that money and both of you know it." But being a man of low character himself, he starts blackmailing Ralph. "Pay me and I won't tell what I know".

One night, there's a building fire that draws the attention of the police force and the entire town. Richardson uses the opportunity to go to the tailor's shop and kill him. End of blackmail problem. But soon, the tailor's body is found, and Ralph slips up when interviewed by a detective. "Why would anyone want to strangle Mr. Pilleger?" "How do you know he was strangled?" Richardson gives an alibi of being at the fire that night, and hopes the cops can't prove otherwise. His wife can't take the pressure and goes to live with her best friend, the boxer's wife. Richardson hides out in the attic of a flophouse, where a homeless man named "Jimsey" (Romney Brent) acts as his screen. Jimsey is a friend of a crazy street lady named "Lizzie", who makes drinking money by handing out flyers for merchants. Lizzy saw Ralph entering Mr. Pilleger's shop on the night of the fire (hence the film's title), but she's schizophrenic, so the police don't pay her much mind. Jimsey takes Ralph under his wing after Ralph becomes surrounded. But then Ralph's wife, who is hiding out at her friend's house, decides she needs to see him before he gets caught and hanged. Reporters are waiting outside the house; they follow her and do a Princess Di. Now she's in the hospital with slim chance for survival. When Ralph hears the bad news from Jimsey, he decides he needs to visit her before she dies. Expert direction keeps the sudden changes flowing toward the end, as Richardson becomes increasingly cornered. You'l feel you are trapped in the attic with him and Jimsey. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "On the Night of the Fire". The picture is razor sharp.  ////   

The previous night, we saw a screwball rom/com directed by Douglas Sirk called "No Room for the Groom"(1952). Wait a minute..what? 

You: "Did you say Douglas Sirk?"

Yes I did, directing a goofy movie, not a taboo-laden melodrama. One Sirkian trait is intact: the whole thing looks fabulous, with the velveteen textures he's noted for. Stony Curtis stars as "Alvah Morrell", a WW2 soldier on leave who elopes with his sweetheart, "Lee Kingshead" (Piper Laurie, only 20 here). They elope because her mama (Spring Byington) might have a "dizzy spell" if she knew Lee was marrying Alvah, who she doesn't like. Byington is doing her highfalutin' Mom thing as per usual: "But dear, I have your best interests in mind."

So they don't tell Mom, and don't plan to until Alvah gets leave again, or the war ends, whichever comes first. But what happens is that his return to base gets put on hold, because on their wedding night, in Las Vegas, Alvah comes down with chicken pox right after checking into their motel. It not only interrupts his army service, but also his.......ahem.......wedding night if you get my drift. He has to spend it quarantined in another motel and when his two weeks are up with the chicken pox, he's gone for ten months with the army. (Didja ever have chicken pox? I did, when I was seven. Man, did it itch. I had to take epsom salt baths for two weeks. Or was it baking soda?)

When Alvah finally gets his army leave, he goes back to his family wine farm (which he inherited from his Dad) to find not only Lee waiting for him but her entire extended family. They've all moved in, including some hick cousins, two newborn babies and a bratty kid that Alvah is ready to kill (you would be too). This is where the title kicks in, because there's "no room for the groom" (Alvah). He's in-lawed out of his own house. Because he wants privacy for himself and Lee, they have to finally tell her mama they are married, her dizzy spells be damned. Naturally, she doesn't like it, and tells Lee, "You know Mr. Strouple adores you! Why didn't you marry him?" Mr. Strouple (Don DeFore) is Lee's boss, she's his secretary at his successful cement contracting firm. Strouple does want to marry Lee, though he's twice her age, and he's also just secured a bid to run the railroad through Rockridge, er, I mean, the wine country. Alvah's land is in the way, and Strouple needs him to sign a release form to buy the rights. But Alvah won't sign, even when Mr. Strouple offers him big money and a high paying job. Alvah tells him to stick his money. "This was my grandfather's property, and my father's and now it's mine. Nothing will entice me to sell it."

This is the only bit of moral compass Sirk squeezed out of the producers. The rest is non-stop silliness, except for when Mr. Strouple hires a shrink to try and have Alvah committed. "He's suffering from a nervous breakdown, doctor. Effects of the war, I imagine." Nervous breakdowns are trademark Douglas Sirk. "Unless you put one in the picture, I won't direct it!" We love Tony Curtis as an actor, a movie star, and creator of the Elvis hairdo, but boy was he a lowlife. I Googled him after the movie was over and some of the things he said about people are just disgusting. A low-class guy all the way. Piper Laurie was very cute as an ingenue. Watching her here, all sweet and chirrupy, you wonder how she acquired that insouciant, overbearing low voice she used in "Carrie" and "Ruby". Smoking maybe? Drinking? Or just good acting? She's very good in this movie, even if it's mostly a trifle. The Sirk touch earns it Two Big Thumbs Up, however, and the picture is dvd quality.  ////

And that's every doggone thing I know. My blogging music was Traffic's "Mr. Fantasy" again. I'm in danger of that whole album becoming an earworm. My late night is the second half of Handel's Scipione Oratorio. I finally was able to go for a walk after years (months? weeks? or was it days?) of rain, but it was freezing tonight; L.A. Cold has set in. Only the penguins will survive.

I hope you had a nice Monday and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Vicki Carlson in "Violated", and "Picture Brides" starring Alan Hale and Regis Toomey

Last night, we found a gritty crime thriller from New York called "Violated"(1953). There's a killer on the loose in Brooklyn. His trademark is to cut off a lock of his victim's hair. We don't see his face, just his hand and a pair of scissors. He strangles young women, prostitutes mostly. The cops keep pulling in every known sex offender for questioning, but they just can't find the right man.

The plot also follows "Susan Grant" (Vicki Carlson), a nice young woman who aspires to become a fashion model. While on the Manhattan ferry, she meets a professional photographer named "Jan Verbig" (William Holland). He offers her a sitting, and she takes him up, but when she gets to his studio the following week, there's a more experienced model being photographed. Verbig knows this gal personally and seems to have a thing for her, so Susan gets put on the back burner. Meanwhile, another young woman has been found murdered in Central Park, with her hair cut. Susan is not deterred. She tells her mom she wants to be a cover girl. Mom asks if she's "coming on" to Verbig. "Of course not, mama. Our relationship is strictly professional." She does idolize him, though; he's "Continental", sophisticated, and he takes excellent pictures. But he's got her on hold because he really wants to photograph the other model, whose name is "Lili Damar" (Lili Dawn). Verbig keeps asking Lili out. "I like ya but you can't afford me," she tells him. By night, she's an exotic dancer.

The cops detain an older man, a recently paroled sex offender, who claims he has nothing to with the murders. As part of his probation, he's under the care of a psychiatrist, but we still see him getting off the bus and following young girls all over town. The punchline becomes telegraphed after a certain point, but it's a well made film, despite the fact that there aren't any well known actors (or even semi well known). This appears to be an independently financed flick, maybe made with local actors - all of whom are good - and the director knows what he's doing and even gets in an Expressionistic scene, reminiscent of "M", when the murdalizer is being chased down. That sequence looks like it came from a 1920s German horror movie. The guy made an arty crime film, but he copped it from Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom", for certain. Its apparently a cult favorite, and we give it Two Bigs verging on Two Huge despite it's low budget. There's also lots of good location shooting in Brooklyn circa 1953. The picture is medium good.  //// 

The previous night, we watched a Poverty Row pre-Code adventure film hodgepodge entitled "Picture Brides"(1934). The Skipper's Dad stars as "Mr. Von Luden", the big Dutch owner of a diamond mine in the Amazon jungle. His mine workers are all wanted fugitives from other countries. Von Luden has an arrangement with them to keep the police away. "I control the riverboats. They can't get here." He even lets one guy (Outregis Toomey) buy a stake in the mine. Von Luden keeps his men happy (and makes extra money) by shipping over "picture brides", ladies who want to get married for legal reasons (I don't know what they are, maybe pregnancy, it isn't said). They get a marriage certificate without the hassle of having a husband. 

The picture brides are shipped over and assigned a mine worker fugitive, to whom they'll be legally married. The deal is that they they will then be taken back to their home countries. A native gal resents all the "white women". "What?", she complains, "Laoma not good enough for you?"

Toomey has a 5k reward out for him; a henchman has brought Von Luden the wanted poster. A gang of American bounty hunters are trying to get to the mine and find him, but the problem is that this is a 62 minute movie that should've been cut to 50 (okay, 51). Because in the early going, it looks improvised. There's a lot of short scenes of characters getting drunk in a nightclub and slurring their words for laughs. "Mame Smith" (Dorothy Mackaill) is the innocent girl among the brides, naive about what she's in for. In pre-Code shorthand - for the stuff they can't say in the dialogue - it's insinuated on the voyage over, by other more sophisticated gals, that Mame is gonna have to put out for the man she "marries". She was expecting to just get hitched and head home.

The movie gets serious around the 45 minute mark, meaning you get 17 minutes of actual plotting. This flick was directed by Phil Rosen, a notable helmsman of the era, and someone wrote a synopsis at IMDB that describes in detail what is happening as if it was taken from an adventure novel. He or she must've gotten their cliff notes from whatever studio produced this flick, because - from my vantage point - you couldn't have gleaned these details from what is being said and shown onscreen. Sometimes with these super cheapies, you only get the gist of what is going on, because of poorly articulated and underwritten dialogue, combined with poor editing, pacing, etcetera. This film was made to be cranked out and gotten into theaters, because in those days, movies were changed every Wednesday (according to my Mom, whose folks briefly owned a movie theater). Now, we love Poverty Row, because they usually have something to make a picture interesting, and this one does too toward the end. But it feels like they're goofing around for the first 45 minutes. You'll find yourself mostly looking at the beautiful picture brides, and that is probably what Rosen was intending, instead of trying to make something of the script.

The Skipper's Dad does a very good Dutch accent, therefore Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is soft but watchable.  ////

And that's all I've got for this evening.  Have you had enough rain yet? Bring back the drought already, good grief. My blogging music is John Mayall's Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, my late night is Handel's Scipione Oratorio. How about them Chargers? (not). I hope you are enjoying your weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

J. Edward Bromberg in PRC's "The Missing Corpse", and "Robot Pilot" starring Forrest Tucker and Evelyn Brent

Last night, we watched a top notch black comedy/mystery from PRC: "The Missing Corpse"(1945). Two rival big city publishers, "McDonald" (Paul Guilfoyle) and "Kruger" (J. Edward Bromberg), are trying to drive each other out of business. When McDonald  prints a front page story, with photo, of Kruger's daughter getting 86ed from a nightclub for brawling, Kruger threatens to kill him. This doesn't work out too well for Kruger, because McDonald does indeed wind up dead, killed by a henchman (Ben Welden) he was blackmailing. Welden knows about the death threat made by Mr. Kruger, so he stuffs McDonald's corpse in the trunk of Kruger's car. Kruger finds it one night while at his mountain cabin, where he's gone with his chauffer (Frank Jenks) to get away from his ingrate family.

Thinking that everyone's gonna blame him for what is clearly McDonald's murder, Kruger buys some quicklime at the mountainside general store, and pays the nosy owner lady five bucks to keep her mouth shut (without telling her about the dead body). "Just don't tell any one I'm up here. That's all I ask."

Well, he drives off with the intent of burying McDonald's body in the forest, and covering it with the quicklime so it will rapidly decompose. But on his way to do the deed, he gets pulled over by a motorcycle cop for schpeeding, and because he's acting jittery, the cop asks to search his car.

Is he just about to get busted, or what? Well, not exactly, because when the cop opens the trunk, it's empty! Kruger has no idea what has happened to the body, but he drives away a happy camper. Back at the cabin, Jenks tells him he found it too, when Kruger's doggie was sniffing around. Jenks took it from the trunk and hid it in the bathroom. This will be the plot device from here on out; Hide the Body, put it in another place every time someone claims they saw it.

The motorcycle cop comes to the cabin after hearing of the disappearance of McDonald. He tells his partner, "That guy I pulled over was acting kinda funny." By now, the body has been moved several times. Later on, Mr. Kruger's family - feeling bad about the way they've ignored him - decide to drive up to the cabin and visit him to apologize. When they get there, each one finds the body in turn, in different rooms, and by now, the henchman Ben Welden - the real murderer (and a professional numbskull) - has driven to the cabin also, and is hiding inside, because there is a blackmail letter in McDonald's coat that will point directly to him if the body is ever found. Welden's got to get that letter, and will kill any family member in his way (well, he would if he weren't the worlds biggest chowderhead). 

This flick is almost as good as "The Harassed Hero", as far as wind-ups go. For PRC, that's high praise. They rarely have a movie with this level of writing quality, and usually get by with the charm and improv skills of their stable of caricature actors. But this is very good stuff. Everyone contributes close to A-level farce. Frank Jenks is another notable comic actor who always plays a nitwit. He was "Eddie", the dopey bailbond salesman in "Shake Hands with Murder" (seen the other night). Ken Terrell as the motorcycle cop is the straight man; he's a riot too. But the movie belongs to J. Edward Bromberg (who I don't think we've seen before) as Mr. Kruger, who's being framed for murder but the body can't be found. "The Missing Corpse" gets Two Big Thumbs Up with a very high recommendation. The picture is razor sharp.  ////

Now, sometimes with PRC movies, the titles aren't representative of the content. Such is the case with "Robot Pilot"(1941), in which you get a smidgen of remote-controlled airplane suspense, bookending 50 minutes of romantic screwball comedy. If, like me, you were expecting a sci-fi flick or a WW2 arms race drama, it's kind of like biting into what you thought was a cheeseburger and getting a piece of cake. Or something like that.

"Doc Williams" (Emmett Vogan) has invented a remote control for model airplanes and he's already installed it in the Real Thing, a '30s-era fighter plane owned by his benefactor "George Lambert" (William Halligan). Doc's right hand man is "Jerry Barton" (Forrest Tucker), a pilot who doubles as a ranger. They operate out of Doc's private airfield in the Arizona desert. Jerry is competent but has the personality of an overgrown kid. Mr. Lambert has a spoiled brat for a daughter (Carol Hughes), who has "always gotten her way since she was four years old" according to her "Aunt Maude" (Evelyn Brent), Lambert's sister. Daughter Betty Lambert is now grown up and wants to leave for Hollywood to become a movie star. After about 7 or 8 minutes of remote control action, complete with model airplanes flying around (and Forrest Tucker making a test run in the fighter plane), we're switched to Betty's story, and we'll stay there until five minutes before the end of the film.

Now we're in the desert with Betty and Aunt Maude. They run out of gas, and the funniest scene in the movie results. A gentleman (Joaquin Edwards) riding a burro approaches and offers to give them directions to the nearest gas station. He's wearing a sombrero and his name is "Pedro", if that gives you any indication. But it's his way of directing them that is.....(hmm)....a little trying at first?....and then (when you give it time)....er, it's pretty funny after all. And, there's a line spoken by Aunt Maude around the 29 minute mark (give or take a minute), that absolutely would not be allowed in a movie today. Pedro and Aunt Maude make the movie. And, Forrest Tucker's "gee whiz" portrayal of Jerry is fun, if goofy. He's so adolescent that Betty tells him, "you should meet my nephew, he'd loan you his scooter." Most of the plot revolves around Betty and Aunt Maude's theft of gasoline from a government tank, located on Doc Williams's property. Jerry is so determined to enforce the law, in his role as a "federal agent" (ranger), that he puts the ladies under house arrest - at Doc's house, where, for most of the movie, they try to escape, and/or have bacon and egg breakfasts.

Don't ask. I mean, you can ask "who writes this stuff?" I think some of it is made up on the spot. But it works (cough, cough) because Evelyn Brent is funny. 

There is some conflict. A bad guy named "Karl" (played by I. Stanford Jolley, possessor of one of the most awesome names in motion picture history), is a mechanic for Mr. Lambert. He wants to steal the robot pilot device for his own nefarious purposes. But he's only gonna get one scene to do it. Two Big Thumbs Up. Ya gotta love it even if you don't get much robot piloting. The movie is also known as "Emergency Landing" and the picture is soft but watchable.  ////

Sad to hear about Jeff Beck, as much for the cause of his passing as the suddenness. He just played here two months ago, with Johnny Depp, and from the reviews was in fine form and vital, so this seems like a freak accident. From what I've read today, you can get meningitis from an infected person's cough, or picking up  the wrong drink at a party. Apparently, some people who are carriers of the bacteria never get sick and never know they have it. Beck might've caught it on this last tour, as Depp reports he was sick for several weeks. So God Bless the man, who desererved a much better exit from the stage, and far longer down the road.

My favorite Jeff Beck albums were the fusion ones, especially Blow by Blow. I'd be lying if I said I was a huge fan. Truth be told, I wasn't, because I am more into songs, and with JB, I don't think he was known as a composer as much as an instrumentalist who could add his own twist to most any style of popular music. That, I think, was the problem for me; there wasn't a consistency I could grab hold of. In concert, from what I've heard (from Grimsley) he'd play a Judy Garland song, then a fusion, then a dirty blues, and...it just wasn't my thing. But his talent was unquestionable. He was Ritchie Blackmore's favorite guitarist, and I think my own favorite JB playing was on Roger Waters' grim-but-good solo album "Amused to Death". Beck plays some very emotional fills on that record, using his whammy-bar style. Anyhow, I am the last guy who should speak about him, because I didn't know much of his music. Of the early '60s guitar heroes, I am a Clapton man. But Jeff Beck was considered #1 by so many people, he must've been one hell of a musician. And a nice man by all accounts. ////

And now we are hit by the death of Lisa Marie Presley. I just think the loss of her son was too much, and she had to be with him and her father.

My blogging music is Traffic again ("Mr. Fantasy"), my late night is the Alexander Balus Oratorio by Handel, but don't ask me who Alexander Balus is.

I wish you a happy (and lucky) Friday the 13, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in "The Cat and the Canary", and "The Spider's Web" (A Chapter Serial)

Last night's motion picture was "The Cat and the Canary"(1939), an old dark house mystery featuring the standard setup: a disparate group of relatives gather at a creepy old mansion in a remote location to hear the reading of their patriarch's will. Why else would they go to such a joint, right? This time, the mansion is down in the Looz-e-anna Bayou, so they have to take swamp boats to get there. Top-billed Bob Hope arrives last, after five others: his "Aunt Susan" (Elizabeth Patterson), her companion "Cicily Young" (Nydia Westman), a twice removed cousin; handsome grandnephews "Charles Wilder" (Douglass Montgomery) and "Fred Blythe" (John Beal), and grandniece "Joyce Norman" (Paulette Goddard), all of whom hope to inherit the decedent's fortune. George Zucco is the probate lawyer. Right away, you're thinking he's gonna be the movie's culprit, after all, it was in Zucco's contract to be Evil Personified.

But he's actually the first guy who gets knocked off. After the reading of the the will, in which niece Joyce is named the sole heir (with a second heir named in a sealed envelope in case she dies), Zucco is eliminated after being pulled through a secret wall panel by an outstretched, long-nailed hand. This happens early on, and while the entire 74 minute film features grade-A productions values, steady pacing, above average "dark house" acting ("Someone just tried to murder me!" "Eek, there's a shadow on the wall"!) and plentiful Bob Hope one liners, in the middle 40 minutes there isn't much plot development to speak of. Bob and Paulette Goddard find a necklace and that's about it. There is a sexual undercurrent motif, played for laughs. The two old ladies (Aunt Susan and Cousin Cicily), frightened by a report of a murderer in the house, decide they should stay close for the rest of the night. "I think we need to sleep together," says one. This theme builds as the nights go on, to include a three way sleep-in with young nephew Charlie. Only 'cause they're spooked, dontchaknow.

We mostly remember Bob Hope as an older man, from his USO trips and his gig as an Academy Award host. Along with Johnny Carson, Hope was the best host Oscar ever had (and Billy Crystal). But what about Hope as a young man? What made him such a big schtar? For one thing, the guy was beyond smooth. You can see it in this movie. He's got a walk that's like a glide, and even the way he turns his shoulders is graceful as he utters a throwaway line. But his lines only seem throwaway; they're delayed reaction jokes, they hit you after Hope has walked (or glided) out of the room. We think of him as the ultimate one-liner stand up comic, but he was also a very good actor. Gail Sondergaard plays "Miss Lu", the caretaker of the dead patriarch's estate. She's a Morticia-esque spiritualist who talks to the ghosts in the house. They tell her what's going to happen next. If they'd tell us, too, it would make the plot a tad more interesting. 

I wish it didn't drag with all that mid-film ensemble interaction. Where's the doggone murderer, already? When he (or she) does show up, it's worth the wait, but you might find your thumbs twiddling on their own in the interim. It's still an entertaining flick. Hope chimes in with witticisms that revive you. I've wanted to see the original version of this movie (based on a play) for a long time, because it was directed by Paul Leni of "Man Who Laughs" fame. His version was Silent, made in '27, but if I'm not mistaken, the horror is more accentuated.

Having said all of that, because the acting is so good, anchored by Paulette Goddard and Old Ski Nose, I've gotta give it Two Big Thumbs Up. In all other aspects except plot development it rates Two Huge. Maybe it should've been edited down to an hour, like most movies should be. Overall, it's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night, our pal Warren Hull was back, in the first episode of a major-league chapter serial, "The Spider's Web"(1938). Why major league? Because it inspired 16 year-old Stan Lee to create Spiderman. Hull stars in triplicate, as "Richard Wentworth", a Bruce Wayne type rich guy crime fighter, whose alter ego is "The Spider", and who also makes use of a third personality, "Blinky McQuade", a one-eyed, black toothed all-purpose criminal, which allows him to infiltrate organised gangs. 

There's trouble in the city, big trouble, because a megalomaniac who wears a Stay Puft all-white walrus suit and calls himself "The Octopus" (actor unrevealed), is pulling a Dr. Mabuse trip. He's trying to overthrow the government by starting an all-out crime war. His strategery is to destroy the transportation capability of the nation first, by blowing up bridges, crashing trains and planes, and bombing trucking warehouses, and he's sparing no expense on the gunpowder.

He also has a seemingly endless supply of henchmen, too. Donald Trump should be so lucky. The Octopus talks into a small circular microphone, to make his voice sound ominous. This was de rigueur for the madman in these movies.

Richard Wentworth is newly engaged when he hears about The Octopus's destruction of a train station. Wentworth was planning to retire as The Spider in honor of his pending marriage. He and his fiancee are flying home from vacation and he wants his old crime fighting life behind him, but right! at! that! moment! - OMG! Someone has put a trip wire on the runway! It damages the undercarriage of their plane, and Wentworth is forced to abort the landing. Back in the air, the plane falls apart and the two of them have to bail out. They parachute to the ground, and now all of Wentworth's plans to discontinue The Spider are put on hold. He can't allow The Octopus to take over Gotham City.

The Spider then appears in public in the middle of a warehouse takeover by the Octopi's henchmen. A humongous shootout rages as he jumps onto a high-story overhang. His entrance is striking and especially cinematic for 1938. Some effort went into this production, it's one of the best looking chapter serials we've seen so far, and we're only in the first episode. It's the '38 equivalent of today's Marvel Superhero blockbusters, and so far, we've gotta give it Two Huge Thumbs Up. The picture is razor sharp.  ////

That's all for tonight. My blogging music is Traffic's debut album and "John Barleycorn Must Die". As happened with Cream a couple weeks ago, I am rediscovering Traffic, and in their case I'm kind of discovering them in depth for the first time. I had "Shootout at the Fantasy Factory" when I was 14, and played it a few times (and who wasn't drawn in by that album cover?), and I knew all their FM staple hits, but I think they were too mellow for my teenage self, or too jazzy/bluesy, but holy smokes, I started to appreciate how great Steve Winwood was when I watched that Blind Faith concert I posted, and now I am immersing myself in Traffic (live shows as well as studio albums) and my verdict is............they're as great as it gets. It took til I was almost 63 to appreciate them, but man....watch their concert from Santa Monica 1972. What a band. And Winwood shreds on guitar, which was something I didn't know. Ya learns something new every day.

My late night is Mendelssohn's Elias Oratorio. I love that kind of singing (my gig in the next life). I hope your week is going well and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)      

Guy Middleton in "The Harassed Hero", and "Shake Hands with Murder" starring Iris Adrian and Douglas Fowley (plus A Special Book)

Last night we had a Veddy Brrrittish (and hilarious) crime farce called "The Harassed Hero"(1954), starring Guy Middleton as "Murray Selwyn", a man with a nervous condition. He's been diagnosed with "acute apprehension", so as the movie opens, he and his valet "Twigg" (Harold Goodwin) are preparing for his stay in a nursing home. They've just returned from the doctor's office in a taxi, so Twigg starts organizing Mr. Selwyn's belongings and notices a satchel he doesn't recognize. "Sir, is this case yours?" "No, I've never seen it before". Twigg opens it to find thousands of Veddy Brittish bank notes. Man, they've got some giant-sized money in England. How do they ever fit it into their wallets? 

Selwyn figures  the satchel - and the money - must have been left behind by a previous passenger in the taxi. "He must've been a bank robber," says Twigg, and they make a note to turn the dough in. But then, there's a knock at the door; it's a man with a gun. He's the passenger from the cab and he wants his satchel back. Twigg gives it to him. "No funny business," says the man. But that's exactly what we're in for, for the next 50 minutes, as the plot winds and winds in the kind of send-up the English excel at. I may not be able do it justice.

The gunman takes his bag and departs. Selwyn and Twigg ruminate on what to do next. Call the police? Return to preparing for the nursing home? They decide on the latter. Twigg opens the front door to take a suitcase to the car, and finds the gunman's body smack dab on the doorstep! We know what happened to him, but Twigg and Selwyn do not, and I can't tell you either. But the last thing they need is a corpse on the doorsill, so they move the body to a back room of Mr. Selwyn's spacious townhouse. Then they resume packing for the nursing home.

Before they leave, Twigg makes a final check to make sure the body is secure. But OMG, it's gone! The windum is open; could someone have stolen it? But who and why? They haven't time to figure it out. Selwyn is scheduled (pronounced shed-jooled) for his nursing home check-in within the hour. He has an attractive nurse (Joan Winmill Brown), whom he soon falls in love with. He tells her his story of a runaway corpse and she thinks he's a nutter, but she humors him. Then, she finds a small metal box with some engraved copper plates inside. Selwyn says they aren't his. "Maybe they're works of art, or deguerrotypes or something". Neither of them know where they came from. It turns out that Twigg took the box from the pocket of the gunman/corpse when he was still on the porch. But they don't put two and two together: copper plates and thousands of British pounds.

The money isn't from a bank robbery after all. It's counterfeit. In a crosscut scene, the counterfeiters are discussing how to get their plates back. 

You'll just have to watch the movie, because I'd be here all day describing the plot changes. We talk a lot about screenwriting around here. This movie is an example of A-plus plotting. Every line of dialogue is worked out like math, and every actor knows just how to react in character. Confusion builds more confusion, and each new addition is a puzzle piece. What's amazing is that this is a one hour film that was likely released as the opener on a double bill, and it's far better than anything passing for comedy in movies today. The movie turns into a search for the copper plates. To recover them, the head counterfeiter poses as a nursing home doctor. Trust me, just watch it. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Harassed Hero". The picture is razor sharp.  ////

The night before, we watched Iris Adrian in "Shake Hands with Murder"(1944), a PRC screwball mystery. Iris plays "Patsy Brent", owner of a struggling bail bonds company. In search of a client, her not-too-bright partner "Eddie" (Frank Jenks) chooses embezzler "Steve Morgan" (Douglas Fowley), who's in jail for filching a hundred gees from his bank. Eddie figures Morgan is good publicity for the firm. Patsy is angry because he's obviously guilty as heck, and they'll lose the bail money if Morgan leaves the country.

She goes in search of him (Eddie failed to schedule a meeting), and finds him sitting at a cafe. It's not easy to discern what's going on at this point, because Iris Adrian is talking a blue streak. According to her bio, she was quite the comedienne, with a sizable fan base, and she runs off so many words it'll knock you sideways. The gist you catch is that Morgan may not be guilty. He's not skipping out on his bail after all; he even invites Iris over to his place, where she tries to steal a package he picked up from the post office. She thinks it's the money from the bank.

Eddie disappears from the movie at this time. He's only in the beginning and the end, and the writer added expository dialogue in all the right places because he knew you'd lose track of what's going on. That's because Iris Adrian is doing her thing, and Douglas Fowley becomes her co-star, playing a good guy for once. Fowley was adept at these roles, and I am liking him more than I liked his son Kim, who in interviews denounced his Dad as a womaniser and an absent father (and maybe there was truth in what he said). But on screen you can't help but like Douglas Fowley, whereas Kim Fowley was a degenerate any which way you looked at him. 

Anyhow, once Morgan (Fowley) convinces Patsy (Adrian) that he's innocent of embezzelment, the obvious next question is "who did it?" Morgan says it was an executive at the bank, but he's dead. It's gonna be tough collecting evidence against him. But - wait a minute, he's not dead after all. Now he kidnaps Morgan and Patsy, the oldest trick in the PRC book, and all they have is Eddie the dumbbell to rescue them.

Iris Adrian is cute, and sweet, so if you can handle her non-stop talking, you should enjoy the movie. I liked it, I thought she made a good team with Fowley, so it gets Two Big Thumbs Up despite it flaws. The picture is just a tad soft.  ////

And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is a live concert by Traffic (Santa Monica 1972) on Youtube. Watch it, it's really good. My late night is Handel's Jeptha Oratorio. Man, this weekend I had something amazing happen. For years, at least the past ten, I've been searching for a favorite book from childhood. My quest started back in 2008 or thereabouts, when I found a copy of "Hamid of Aleppo." It might have been the passing of my parents that inspired this desire. They were big on books. Dad introduced me to "Hamid". I never thought about it til he died, then I remembered it as one of my favorites from childhood, and I had to track down a copy. I was successful (though it took a while), and when I got it in the mail and read it again, it reminded me of another obscure book. I couldn't remember the title of that one; all I recalled was that it was about a little hunchbacked boy who was shunned, and left home to become a cook. I seemed to remember it didn't come from the library, but from London or Belgium when Dad went to Europe on business in the late 1960s.

Starting about 2010 or so, give or take a couple years, I started Googling about this book, but it was hard because I didn't have a title. I'd put in search terms like "Belgian children's book" + "hunchback boy" + cook," but nothing ever came back. I remembered he learned to make soup, so I added that, and I thought there was a character called "The Major Domo", so I put him in the search terms, too. Still, I got nothing. I slowly slacked off on my search for this book, but I never gave up. In recent years I searched about every six months, whenever something caused me to think of it. Well, on Friday night, that's exactly what happened. I was sitting here listening to music, and all of a sudden for some reason The Major Domo came into my head. You know how the mind is, you never know what's gonna pop up. I got an inspiration then, to Google some search terms then and there. And for some reason I added a new detail. My search went like this: "Belgian children's book about a boy with a long nose who becomes a cook." I pressed "enter" and bingo: there was the cover of the book! "Dwarf Long Nose," it is called. It was written as "Dwarf Nose" by William Hauff in 1826, and later translated into English. The copy I remember had the cover I was looking at, drawn by Maurice Sendak of "Where the Wild Things Are" fame. He did all the illustrations for "Dwarf Long Nose," and I remember looking at the drawings at reading the book over and over when I was about 8. Who didn't love Maurice Sendak at that time, am I right? But the other thing is, that I'm not sure it was the copy Dad brought back from Europe, because I seem to recall a version with small, pencil-sketch illustrations. It's a very famous German fairy tale originally, no doubt it was published many times over the decades, in different countries. Maybe my European copy was in English, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure Dad brought it back from his trip. Maybe I lost it and Mom found the Sendak version at the library.

The important thing is that I found it after all these years and all that Googling, and ten minutes after I rediscovered "Dwarf Long Nose", I found a copy of the Sendak version at an online used book store. Do you think I ordered it as fast as I could? It was only ten bucks, and it should arrive in the mail very soon.

I think it was the "long nose" that did the trick. I'd never remembered that detail before. Hooray for "Dwarf Long Nose"! Nothing is ever lost. I wish you a nice week, and I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)       

George Raft in "I'll Get You", and "Tomorrow's Youth" starring Dickie Moore, Martha Sleeper and John Miljan (plus Top Ten Movies of 2022)

Last night's movie was "I'll Get You", an espionage film similar in content to "Night People" (reviewed a few days ago). It takes place in London instead of Berlin, in 1953 instead of '45, but we're at the height of the Cold War and someone is kidnapping scientists (instead of soldiers). Once again, the kidnappers are likely Nazis or Russians. George Raft stars as "Steve Rossi", an American aerospace engineer who, for some reason known only to the screenwriter, flies across the pond to investigate. What - he's never heard of Scotland Yard? 

In London, he goes in search of a man named "Mr. Grand". After asking around, he finally obtains an address, but when he gets there, he finds only Grand's wife (Sally Gray), who informs him that Grand is out of the country. "This apartment is only temporary. Can't you tell? It's furnished."

By now, we've been watching for about 20 minutes, waiting for things to gel, but we're about to get sidetracked with a romance that goes flat before it ever carbonates. Part of the problem is that, because Raft doesn't believe Mr. Grand is away, he starts engaging the wife in banter, only it isn't the usual back-and-forth repartee, with inflection and body language. Instead, it's as cue-card as could possibly be. Remember Alan Baxter, the actor from "Submarine Base"? We said he was reading cue-cards in that movie. Well, in this sequence to set up a romantic duo, George Raft makes Baxter look like Al Pacino. Whoo-ah! He might as well be reading his lines at the rehearsal table (or in the morgue). His monotone makes it hard to follow the plot because it's very distracting.

However, the story gets back up to speed once Raft and Gray get out and about in London. Before they depart, she pulls a gun, he wrestles it away, then she gets him in a hammerlock because Raft is a shrimp. Now they are almost in love. Gray admits she isn't Grand's wife, which Raft suspected all along. Okay, fine. Then who is she? 

Trying to find out, Raft goes on his own to a beauty salon, to talk to "Irma Brooks" (Patricia Laffan), owner of the apartment building. She claims to have no information on anyone named Grand, and as soon as Raft leaves, she makes a phone call. Is he being set up to be kidnapped? So far, everything at least looks great, with non-stop London action. The actors (except Raft) couldn't be more Brrrittish, but the plot is just kind of treading water. Okay already; who the heck is Mr. Grand and why can't you find him? The movie's 35 minutes old, get with it! Up to now, it's been an uninspired but well-shot spy flick, centered on Raft's own awareness of his suaveness, which is so far under the radar that he might as well be acting from a bunker.

Finally, at the 56 minute mark, there's a major league reveal. Had the film been written by a more talented screenwriter, he'd have worked this information in gradually, and we wouldn't have had to twiddle our thumbs for an hour. Or maybe it was the director's fault, but I don't think so. He's saddled with an aging George Raft, who is still stylish enough to carry his own water, but he ain't what he once was.

The reveal, which I cannot remotely tell you about, sets the climax in motion, and if the whole thing had this much energy we'd be talking a Two Huge Thumbs Up picture. One ridiculous thing at the end; having Raft appear to perform stunts like jumping off of a freight elevator to tackle a much younger bad guy, then winning a karate-style punchout. Get real. Still, because we like Raft, and because we hung out with his grandson in 1986, and went to a Celtic Frost concert with him and Sean, the movie gets Two Big Thumbs. If it had anything resembling a big league schcript, we'd be talking Two Huge. But then Raft wouldn't have phoned it in in the first place. I'll give you a hint - there's kind of a "Third Man" deal at the end. Definitely recommended, the picture is DVD quality.  ////

The previous night, we saw a movie about the effects of divorce on a child. In "Tomorrow's Youth"(1934), 8 year-old Dickie Moore plays "Tommy Hall", the son of a corporate executive. As the movie opens, "Thomas Hall Sr." (John Miljan) is in his penthouse office when a call comes in summoning him to Florida. His secretary scowls. She knows that "a meeting in Florida" is code for "your bimbo is coming to pick you up." Indeed, Hall's bimbo is waiting in her car by the curb when he exits the building. They leave for a weekend at his retreat.

Now, it just so happens that "Mrs. Hall" (Martha Sleeper) and little Tommy drive up just after Dad and the bimbo leave. The secretary gives Mom the Florida routine, but she's not stupid and files for divorce the next day. While waiting for the case to go to trial (because Dad has contested the divorce), Mom has custody of Tommy. In her company, he's an upright boy. He gets assigned to be a playground monitor at school, in charge of stopping fights. Tommy has a Boy Scout mentality, instilled by his momma, who leads him in prayer every night before bed.

But it's a whole different kettle with his Dad. When Dad wins a temporary injunction, giving him shared custody while the divorce is pending, Tommy goes to live with him at his countryside mansion and his behavior changes drastically. Now, he's rebellious and running from the cops. He has a manservant (Franklin Pangborn at his most flaming) who calls him "little man" and treats him like an irritant in his underwear. There's a great scene where Tommy runs away and organizes a football game with the kids from the wrong side of the tracks. The police try to nab him but are left holding his football flag and a shoe. Eventually he's returned to Dad, but Dad's bimbo is a problem. She claims she wants to bond with Tommy, by reading to him and taking him to the movies, but really she's a gold digger who's after Dad's money. When alone, she strikes classic smoking poses. 

When Dad's custody is up, Mom comes to claim Tommy, and the marriage is almost rekindled with the encouragement of the family's long time cook (Jane Darwell). Mr. and Mrs. Hall share a patio breakfast, but then the bimbo walks in and insinuates that she's Tommy's mom from now on. That ruins everything; the divorce is back on with a vengeance, and now it's going to trial. Mrs. Hall is concerned with Tommy's welfare; she doesn't want him living around the bimbo and is demanding sole custody. That's all I'm going to tell you, but Two Huge Thumbs Up. Dickie Moore was a tremendous child actor. Here, he's at the top of his tearjerking game, and only four years into the sound era. Amazing. His big scene in the last five minutes makes the movie. The picture is very good.  ////

Okay, we've been meaning to do a Top Ten for 2022, so here it is, though it might not be a typical ten film format. For instance, because we saw at least 100 60 Minute Westerns, we'll probably include them as a whole genre. Let's do it, then, in no particular order.

Ten Great Films From 2022:

1) "Elvis"

2) "Top Gun: Maverick"

3) Our Sixty Minute Westerns with Johnny Mack Brown, Tim McCoy, Tom Tyler, et al.

4) "That Hamilton Woman" (1941)

5) The Original Disney Animated Films ("Snow White", "Pinocchio", "Sleeping Beauty", "Peter Pan", "Cinderella", "Alice in Wonderland")

6) "Hobson's Choice" (1954)

7) "The Thief of Baghdad" (1940)

8) "Romeo and Juliet" (1968)

9) "Samson and Delilah" (1949)

10) "The Fighting Sullivans" (1944)

Honorable Mention : "The Fabelmans"

There were many good ones, so maybe we'll do some more in the next blog. My music tonight is ELP Live at Nassau Colosseum in 1978 (on Youtube). I've been immersed in The Nice this week, and of course ELP is in our DNA, but even though we've always known how great they were, it's really sinking in the last couple of days that they were giants, really, in a league of their own, and Keith may have been the greatest rock musician of all-time. Even though I'd be unable to name one single "favorite" band, if anyone asked me who the "greatest" band was, I'd have to say Emerson, Lake and Palmer. They were in another universe.

My late night music is Handel's "Deborah" oratorio. He did a whole bunch of 'em based on Biblical characters. I wish you a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love, as always.

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