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 :):)
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