PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Fast And Furious 1939

Harry Kurnitz provides the script for the third Joel and Garda Sloane film. Fast And Furious came out in 1939 and Busby Berkley is the director. There are nightclub scenes with singing and dancing, so it makes sense to have a guy like that directing.

Once again the Sloane's are played by a different couple, Franchot Tone and Ann Southern, and they do an OK job. I like both of them but I think I still prefer Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice as the Sloane's.

I enjoyed the movie though I think it's the weakest of the trio. Mysteries with a bookish bent have gone by the wayside in favor of murder at the seaside resort. Lucky for us it's the resort that Joel and Garda have gone to for vacation. Joel is really there to support his pal and the investment in said pal's beauty pageant. He hasn't told any of this to Garda but she eventually figures out something is going on behind her back. I'd still watch it again.

Fast And Loose 1939

Harry Kurnitz wrote Fast And Loose, the sequel to Fast Company. Harry would have a 30 plus year career writing movies like The Inspector General, What Next Private Hargrove?,  A Shot In The Dark, and a couple of the later Thin Man movies. Fast And Loose came out in 1939 and Edwin L Marin is the director. Edwin directed a good number of pictures but I haven't see many of them. I did like a couple of Randolph Scott westerns he did, Colt .45 and Abilene Town. Harry wrote the novel Fast Company and the screenplays for each of the three films in the series. All three are slapped on a disc, with their trailers, by Warner Archive. There are plenty of movies and TV shows in the Warner Archives, much as I wish they would make real DVDs, the DVDr versions will have to do, as opposed to not having it at all. I'm wondering if there will be a time when you can download an ISO file and burn your own DVDr. They do it over at RiffTracks, bigger studios could do the same. With more and more people on high speed internet it could work. Be nice if that download would be a good bit cheaper than having them burn the DVDr and mail it to you. You probably wouldn't want to download a Blu-ray at this time, the file would be massive. In the mean time I'll make due with what we have. Not that I'm short of movies to watch.

The sequel sees a change in the cast of the main characters, Joel and Garda Sloane are now played by Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell, the shenanigans are about the same. This time there's a Shakespeare manuscript that are offered for sale. Ralph Morgan plays the guy who owns the manuscript, he's soon murdered and the manuscript stolen. A forgery turns up and there are a good number of suspects. Plenty of detecting work for the Joel and Garda, bookstore owners and detectives.

I usually like Robert Montgomery and he's fine here. I've never been a fan of Rosalind Russell but she does OK here. There's a nice mix of mystery and comedy. I've seen this 3 or 4 times in the last 30 plus years and enjoyed it each time. A good addition to the pile.

Fast Company 1938

Fast Company is the first of the mystery comedies that featured Joel and Garda Sloan. Harry Kurnitz, writing under the name Marco Page, wrote the novel, he worked with Harold Tarshis on the screenplay. Edward Buzzell is the director. All three movies are in a Warner Archive Collection. They're all on one disc, they look fine, the movies are pretty short and in black and white. The IMDb says that Metro Pictures started the series because of the exhibitors requesting more pictures in The Thin Man series. They do have a bit of similarity but not as much drinking. The Thin Man is a bit better, still, you can't always watch Nick and Nora. It does remind me to get to those again sometime soon.

Melvyn Douglas plays Joel and Florence Rice plays Garda. They have a rare books biz and Joel occasionally works for an insurance company on stolen book cases. I knew a few of the cast, Nat Pendleton, George Zucco and Dwight Frye. A book seller is murdered and Joel is asked to look at the dead man's collection for the insurance company. He's surrounded by suspects, there's plenty of money in the dead man's collection, and there's even more in cheating people with fake books. Once an object becomes valuable someone will copy it to cheat someone else. It could be anything. In this case it's books. Joel does a good job of getting to the heart of the matter and he gets shot a bit for his troubles. There's a bit of jeopardy, some jokes, some romance, some action and murdering. It's a nice bit of entertainment. I'd seen these before, back when I had TCM on cable, and I think they hold up to repeated viewings. Glad I picked the set up. There are many a good thing over at Warner Archives. At least they make the more obscure titles available. It would be better if they weren't DVDrs but that's what they are. I think we'll be seeing more films available as Video On Demand in the future.

 

Irish Luck 1939

Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland appeared in Irish Luck, a 1939 crime comedy. Frankie is a bellboy and Mantan as the hotel's porter. Some crooks check into the hotel and Frankie spots them. His attempt to capture them goes south but the police arrive in the nick of time. Frankie's pal on the cops yells at him and Frankie promises to stop detecting and keep out of trouble.

It doesn't last long, almost immediately Frankie and Mantan help a young woman in trouble with some gangsters. Lucky for our plucky hero things work out for the best this time. I got a few laughs. I like the way Frankie and Mantan work together, they appeared in several movies together.

Frankie had a long career though he only lived to fifty-nine. He started at age 7 in 1924 and worked until he died in 1976. He was the voice of Lampwick in Disney's Pinocchio and he was the uncredited guy inside Robbie the Robot when he appeared in Forbidden Planet. He appeared on The Red Skelton Show, Bat Masterson, Have Gun-Will Travel and a couple of episodes of Batman.

 

Classic British Thrillers

I picked up Classic British Thrillers from Hamilton Books for $7.95. It's an MPI collection of 3 British films from the 1930s and 1940s. They're all short low budget films, nicknamed "quota quickies", and they're all on one disc. They look fine.

The Phantom Light 1935 The script for this comedy thriller is by Ralph Smart. It's based on the play The Haunted Light by Evadne Price and Joan Roy Byford. J Jefferson Farjeon and Austin Melford provide some extra dialog. Ralph of course would go onto write, direct and produce many movies and TV shows over the years. He worked on several TV shows that I liked: The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Buccaneers, The Invisible Man, Danger Man, Secret Agent, and The Champions. It's directed by Michael Powell who would go on to make many interesting and controversial films.

Gordon Harker is Sam Higgins, he's come to the Welsh village of Tan-Y-Bwlch to run the North Stack lighthouse. A man has been murdered there. The film was filmed in Gwynedd and Anglesey in Wales. The people in the village think the lighthouse is haunted and their fears are magnified by the death of one of the lighthouse men. The lighthouse is located in a small bit of dirt out into the sea a few hundred feet. Ian Hunter plays a reporter who wants to get to the lighthouse, so does Binnie Hale, she's playing a woman who believes the lighthouse is haunted and she wants to meet the ghost. They won't let either of them come along in the boat, so Ian rents a boat, Binnie sneaks on board when he isn't looking. Now on the lonely lighthouse the real story is slowly revealed.

There's a nice bit of humor, some danger, and a decent story. I liked the characters and the actors all did a good job. It looks good and sets and props are all fine. I was glad to see it and I'd watch it again someday. I thought it was  the best of the trio.

Red Ensign 1934 Another film directed by Michael Powell, he also co-wrote the script with Jerome Jackson, and L do Garde Peach wrote some additional dialog. It's a good solid film about a ship builder who's got a new design that he thinks will revolutionize the ship building business and bring it back to England.

Leslie Banks is the shipbuilder. You might have seen him in the 1932 film The Most Dangerous Game, he was also in The Man Who Knew Too Much, Jamacia Inn and Transatlantic Tunnel. Here he's one of those driven men that will do nearly anything to get his way. He sets out to build 20 ships but the board of directors won't give him the money. Given the opportunity he forges a signature to get access to more funds. Work goes on, but not for long, a rival sabotages the ship and kills the night watchman. While that going on the forgery is found out and Leslie is hauled off to jail and court. He's convicted but eventually gets to see the first ship launched. Glad to have seen it but I doubt I would be getting back to it anytime soon.

The Upturned Glass 1947 Another good solid film but of less interest to me. It's written by John Monaghan and Pamela Mason with Lawrence Huntington directing. James Mason plays a neurosurgeon who falls for the mother of a patient. Though both are married James has an affair with the woman. She ends it and later he learns she's died from a fall. It's a suspicious case and the suspicion falls on the sister-in-law who's played by Pamela Mason. She's horrible person and James decides to punish her. Then it's all downhill for James, the film ends with him plummeting down the white cliffs of Dover. Good but not the sort of story I care that much about. Still the whole package has good value.

Der Mann, Der Sherlock Holmes War 1937

Der Mann, Der Sherlock Holmes War isn't really a Sherlock Holmes movie, it's not an adaptation of a Holmes story, or even a new story with the famous detective and his companion. It's a 1937 German movie about a couple of detectives who people assume are the famous duo. I assume that's making fun of the many people who believed the fictional detective was a real man. Could anyone still believe that?

The USA title of the movie was Two Merry Adventurers, the world wide English title was The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes. The title on the DVDr from Rare Films and more is Der Mann, Der Sherlock Holmes War which the IMDb says is the original title.

Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann are Morris Flint and Macky McMacpherson. I had just seen Albers in the 1943 German film Munchhausen. Morris and Macky trick their way onto a train and meet the two lovely Berry sisters.

The ladies are traveling to Yvelles to receive an inheritance from their late uncle. They leave the train a stop before the guys do. Morris and Macky stay at a nice hotel, shortly after they check in the police arrive. They are spirited away to HQ but instead of being arrested, like the two were figuring, they're asked to help with the theft of some rare postage stamps.

There's plenty of running about and jokes. The duo follow up leads but before the big reveal they're found out and tried for impersonating Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. That's the film's version of Arthur Conan Doyle, his testimony at the trail gets the two men off. They find the stamps and get the girls. It's all pretty much fun from beginning to end. Glad I picked it up, I'd watch it again.

A Yank In Libya 1942

A Yank In Libya is a 1942 movie about an American correspondent who uncovers a Nazi plan to stir up the Arabs in Libya. The IMDb Trivia page says it was first broadcast on TV in 1945. It stars Walter Woolf King, Joan Woodbury, H B Warner, Duncan Renaldo and Harvey Parke as Parkyarkarkus. Walter is the correspondent, he's kind of an ass, and he's being chased by a Sheik's men. He meets up with Joan, she's a British spy, and Parkyarkarkus, who's from Brooklyn. There's some running about, a few murders and some jokes. It's not a great movie, that Walter is an annoying guy, but it's entertaining enough to get a 5 from me. It scores a 4.6 but with only 146 votes. I got the movie on an Alpha Video DVD but you can see it on YouTube and Dailymotion.

The Moonstone 1934

The Moonstone is the 1934 movie that was based on Wilkie Collins 1915 novel of the same name. I used to see that book in the used bookstores back in the 70's and 80s. It was often on the mysteries shelves but I never read it. The screenplay's by Adele Buffington and the direction's by Reginald Barker. Reginald was born in my home town of Winnipeg in 1886. His family moved to Scotland and later to California where he started directing shorts in 1912. He directed his first feature in 1914 and by the time he stopped in 1935 he'd directed 77 films. He was 48 when he retired, he died 10 years later.

The movie changes the book's Victorian setting to the 1930s. The Wikipedia tells me that and the fact that this is the 3rd version of the book on film. There were two silent versions, one in 1909 and the other in 1915, I have seen neither. The 1934 movie was 62 minutes but for some reason the DVD has a 46 minute version. There are TV versions that I haven't seen either.

David Manners is the lead in the film, you might remember him as Renfrew in the 1931 Dracula. He only has 39 credits on the IMDb but I can't say I've seen more than a handful of his films. He played the husband of the American honeymooners that get caught up in the final meeting between Herr Poelzig and Dr Werdegast in the wonderful 1934 film The Black Cat. Herr Poelzig and Dr Werdegast are played by Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

The Moonstone is a big jewel on a chain. It's worth a lot of smackaroonies and it gets stolen. Most of the action takes place in a big old house. It's kind of an average mystery with some romance, some humor and some melodrama. I gave it a 5. It entertained some and it was short. I might watch it again, I have the DVD, but it's highly possible that it won't happen. That the way it goes, huh.

Ladies Should Listen 1934

Ladies Should Listen is a 1934 Cary Grant movie. It's adapted from a play by Alfred Savoir by Claude Binyon and Guy Bolton, the director is Frank Tuttle. Guy is famous for working with PG Wodehouse on 21 musical comedies. He also worked with Cole Porter on Anything Goes in 1935. Guy gets mentioned a lot in PG Wodehouse bio books. Sadly this isn't quite up to Guy's normal standards, perhaps Claude is dragging him down. It's gets a bit of a boost from having Edward Everett Horton in the cast but that isn't enough to make it anything more than barely average. It was fun enough but it would be better to watch Bringing Up Baby or Mr Lucky again. Those were more fun.

Danger - Love At Work 1937

Danger - Love At Work is a 1937 romantic comedy that I picked up on clearance when I noticed that it had Edward Everett Horton and John Carradine in it. Ann Sothern and Jack Haley are the leads having the romance. I've heard of Mary Boland and Walter Catlett and everyone should know Elisha Cook Jr. The director is Otto Preminger and the screenplay was written by Buddy G DeSylva, James Edward Grant and Ben Markson.

It's a fair screwball comedy and it deserves it's 6.4 on the IMDb. Jack has to get a zany family to sign a land contract and Ann belongs to that family. I like Ann Sothern but I've never been a big Jack Haley fan. I would have enjoyed another actor in the role. Still, I had a laugh and enjoyed the film. Glad I bought it.