PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Murder At Dawn 1932

Murder At Dawn 1932 Original story and screenplay by Barry Barringer, directed by Richard Thorpe. An American old dark house sort of mystery that was called The Death Ray in the UK. Oddly enough, there is no death ray in the film. The poster is a lie.

A couple want to visit her father to tell him they are getting married. The couple and their best man and woman travel by train to his country mansion. The bride's father is a scientist who's invented a secret device to get power from sunlight. When they get the father's house they get tossed into a mystery, a man is murdered and the bride's father has disappeared. The couple and their pals stumble around the big house while the housekeeper's son tries to coerce the formula out of father. Misha Auer plays the housekeeper's son. Probably the most interesting thing in the movie for me.

Sadly it's a limp biscuit of a film. You've seen everything before, usually better. The jokes are weak and the all the running about is more tiring than fun. I found it on YouTube. you can find it there but I wouldn't recommend it.

Early To Bed 1936

Early To Bed 1936 Written by Arthur Kober, Lucien Littlefield, S J Perelman and Chandler Sprague, directed by Norman McLeod. An American comedy with Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland. Both of them were a big hit in Ruggles Of Red Gap the year before.

Charlie and Mary play Chester and Tessie, they've been engaged for 5 years with out setting a date. The couple had been dating for 15 years before that and Tessie is tired of waiting to be a bride. Chester claims he's got a secret problem that makes him leery of getting married. It's pretty benign, he sleepwalks. Chester is a bit a nervous nelly.

As Tessie puts the pressure on Chester he gives in and they set the date. Sadly Chester's boss won't give him any time off. While this is going on Chester's boss is annoyed by his salesmen failing to land a big contract with Horace B Stanton. Stanton's left town for a resort so Chester devises a plan, he'll marry Tessie and honeymoon at the same resort. What they don't know is the place is a resort for those seeking the cure for what ails you.

Chester gets knocked out by Stanton's golf ball. The pair become friends but a robbery and murder complicate the story. Eventually things work out well for everyone, other than the dead guy, he's still dead.

I enjoyed it. It's no Ruggles Of Red Gap but it was fun for what ails me. One can always use a shot of humor.

This Man Is News 1938

This Man Is News 1938 Written by Basil Dearden, Roger MacDougall and Allan MacKinnon, directed by David MacDonald.

Alastair Sim is Lochlan Macgregor, the editor of a newspaper, Barry K Barnes plays  reporter Simon Drake, Valerie Hobson is Drake's wife Pat. Drake pranks his editor with a fake murder only to have his joke turn him into the main suspect when the victim turns up dead for real. The police really bear down on Drake after the dead man's son turns up deceased in Drake's apartment. The editor fires and rehires Drake through the movie.

A bit of a screwball comedy, there's plenty of activity and some jokes. Sadly there's not much by way of posters or lobby cards. I liked the film and I am looking for the 1939 sequel This Man In Paris. I'd certainly watch it again despite the poor quality of the copy I saw.

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Hallucination Generation 1966 Written and directed by Edward Mann. An American film that was shot in Spain. It was hyped as an anti drug movie but deep down it's really an exploitation film. It's filmed in B&W with a small bit of color for appropriate scenes. The copies on YouTube have a pinkish hue to them.

Billy goes to Ibiza in Spain to "write" on his mother's dime. He's not a writer, he's more a beatnik, he spends his days hanging out on the beach and at the local cafes, drinking coffee and beer, smoking cigarettes and cheap weed. Billy stays at the house of a local drug dealer called Eric. Billy meets and marries a German girl, they move to Barcelona where the marriage fails after Billy gets cut off by his mom. 

Billy runs back to Ibiza to stay at Eric's again. Eric thinks the layabouts need to start contributing a bit of cash to the upkeep of his casa. One of the women suggests robbing an older man she used to date. She was with him when he was robbed before and he didn't put up a fight. Eric wants Billy and another lad to do the job but Billy is scared and doesn't want to do it. Eric brow beats him into getting the rob on and off they go. Of course things don't go so well. These aren't competent young men.

As a film it's below average but interesting as a bit of social history. I can say the same for a segment of the film near the end. Billy is on the run, he's gotten back to Barcelna, he sees two cops down the street and ducks in Antonio Gaudi's Casa Mila to hide. There's a short scene of him outside, inside and on top of the building. I'm such a big Gaudi fan I decided to keep a copy of the film in case I wanted to see that segment again. You can see the film over at YouTube. You might have an interest.

Murder At The Vanities 1934 Play written by Earl Carroll and Rufus King, screenplay by Carey Wilson, Joseph Gollomb, Sam Hellman (dialogue) and an uncredited Jack Cunningham, directed by Mitchell Leisen.

The Earl Carroll Vanities were a series of Broadway revues that appeared between 1923 and 1940. The main draw was the big lavish production numbers with dozens of showgirls dancing and singing. There were other acts featuring singers, dancers and white comics in blackface. Real black entertainers had jobs too, Duke Ellington appears in the movie just like he would have appeared in the revue.

Jack Oakie is the backstage manager at the Earl Carroll Revue, he's on his own, Earl is out of town, and he's worried about failing. Carl, the main singer, is going to marry Ann after the show, she's his partner in the show. Carl's old girlfriend is upset but his mother is happy, she's the seamstress on the show but that's a secret. Things percolate as the story progresses.

That's one of the cactus ladies in the Sweet Marijuana song. That song got a lot of flack and not for the nearly naked lady. It was the weed itself that people were complaining about, there was even comment at the League of Nations. Paramount was supposed to cut the song from the film but lucky for us Paramount didn't and we can see it today. That lovely ladies is about to have blood dripped on her by the first victim of the movie. It's pre-code so it's a bit more risque than it will be for another 30 years.

There's a good cast beside Jack Oakie: Carl Bisson is the main singer suspect, Victor McLaglen is the homicide detective, Kitty Carlisle is Carl's main partner in the revue, she's the gal he's going to marry. Gertrude Michael is the ex-girlfriend and Jessie Ralph is Carl's secret mom with a bad past. There's over 100 showgirls, they're often scantily clad.

The murders ramp up and there's plenty of running about between musical numbers. The show is known for the debut of Cocktails For Two. I didn't know it was from the movie but I was familiar with the song from 60s and 70s TV variety shows. People are still singing it today. Eventually the music is over, the murderer confesses and everyone leaves the theater.

I thought it was fairly entertaining but I wasn't that keen on some of the musical numbers. I watched the Kino Lorber Blu-ray and then listened to the commentary by film histories Arthur Slide. He had plenty of info and presented it well. I'll probably give it another watch sometime down the line.

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Madam Satan 1930 Screenplay by Jeanie MacPherson with dialog by Gladys Unger and Elsie Janis, directed by Cecil B DeMille.

A romantic musical comedy that had scenes filmed in Multicolor. Sadly the color scenes set in the Zeppelin only exist in B&W. It was the most expensive film made at Metro Goldwyn Mayer that year.

That's DeMille next to Kay Johnson, the lady on the left is screenwriter Jeanie MacPherson. It's DeMille's only musical and came out at a time when the public had started to lose interest in them. It was a box office failure that lost $390K, that's over $7,000,000 in 2023 dollars. DeMille had left Paramount for a better deal at MGM. He made three pictures there and two of them went bust at the box office. He went back to Paramount.

Kay Johnson plays Angela Brooks and Reginald Denny plays her husband Bob. Early one morning Bob comes home drunk with his pal Jimmy, played by Roland Young. Angela finds out from the newspaper that he'd been arrested and appeared in Night Court with his wife and Jimmy. Bob tries to convince Angela that "Mrs Brooks" was really Jimmy's wife Trixie, played by Lillian Roth. It's not a convincing story and Angela knows that Bob is cheating on her.

After Bob sleeps the day away the couple get into a fight because he's forgotten that they were supposed to go to the theater. They split up and Bob leaves the house. Angela regrets the split and decides to fight for her hubby. Her maid sings her a song about fighting for her husband. Angela tells Jimmy she's like to spend the night with him and Trixie, knowing all too well that they aren't married. She follows them home and puts them on the spot. Bob appears and they fool him into thinking that Trixie was out and Jimmy was there with a new girlfriend.

Jimmy has a costume party on a zeppelin. There's a nice model of the zeppelin and mooring tower. The zeppelin has large sets and plenty of great costumes.

There's a floor show with about as many performers as guests.

Angela makes an appearance in her Madam Satan costume and wows the men. Bob forgets Trixie quickly and goes after Madam Satan. There's some running about and funny dialog. Then things take a turn, a giant electrical storm comes up and detaches the zeppelin from the mooring tower. Now it's a disaster movie. The zeppelin is tossed about, the guest parachute to safety and only Bob manages to get himself hurt. Things get back to what ever normal is among the rich and the movie is over.

I enjoyed parts of the movie. The banter among the main characters is entertaining, Angela putting Jimmy on the spot is fun, the zeppelin model is great, the costumes are wild. I didn't care for the musical numbers. the singing is high pitched and the words are hard to understand. I did like the big dance routine on the zeppelin even though it's a bit of a goofy thing. I'd recommend seeing it, it's unusual and that's a plus. I doubt I'd need to see it again so I don't need a DVD of it. That's one less thing to store.

Eat Brains Love 2019 Based on the novel Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart, screenplay by Mike Hero and David Strauss, directed by Rodman Flender. Rodman has directed very few films, I've only seen a couple, Leprechaun 2, Idle Hands, and enjoyed those. He mostly directs TV episodes, most of which I've also not seen.

Jake and Amanda are in school when they turn zombie and eat their classmates. The zombie plague is only transmitted sexually. The victim of the disease only appears as a zombie when stressed or hungry. They look normal the rest of the time. Zombie's have remarkable recuperative powers.

The government is hunting zombies so the couple go on the run. With the help of a zombie lesbian couple they quickly adapt to their new lifestyle. The lesbians have a shopping list consisting of local sex offenders. No one will miss those victims. One of the zombie hunters is a psychic called Cass. She develops a thing for Jake over the movie and eventually gives up the zombie hunting. Alastaire is Cass's boss, he's been experimenting on zombie's turning them into controlled slaves.

There's a good bit of gore that isn't too excessive, it goes well with the humorous tone of the script. It's briskly paced and mostly enjoyable. Not sure I'd need to see it again, I'm not going to get the Blu-ray.

Meet Nero Wolfe 1936

Meet Nero Wolfe 1936 Based on the Rex Stout novel Fer-de-lance, screenplay by Howard J Green, Bruce Manning and Joseph Anthony, directed by Herbert Biberman.

Edward Arnold plays Nero Wolfe and Lionel Stander plays Archie Goodwin. They aren't the characters from the books but they're entertaining. Nero Wolfe writer Rex Stout thought they were miscast. Can't argue with that. The lady in the picture is Dennie Moore, she's Archie's fiancée Mazie Gray. She follows him around complaining about not getting married for pretty much the whole movie.

A rich guy drops dead on the golf course. Rita Hayworth asks Wolfe to find her brother. Nero decides to take the case and the investigation leads to that dead golfer. There's a lot of running around and most of a good mystery. It's pretty darn goofy and there are a few good jokes. You can try it out on YouTube. Link above.

Murder with Pictures 1936

Murder with Pictures 1936 Based on a story by George Harmon Coxe, screenplay by Jack Moffitt and Sidney Salkow, directed by Charles Barton.

After a gangster gets acquitted his lawyer has a party for him. Someone kills the lawyer at the party.

Lew Ayers is a reporter who gets involved with the major suspect, played by Gail Patrick. He works to solve the murder and save Gail. Lucky for her there's a picture of the real killer. Can Lew get the picture before the killer destroys it. You can find out at the link above. I thought it was alright, fairly good story and a good cast. Worth a look for the crime fan.

Absolute Quiet 1936

Absolute Quiet 1936 Screenplay b Harry Clork, directed by George B Seitz.

Lionel Atwill is a well off business man who collapses at work, his doctor tells him to take a rest with absolute quiet. Lionel goes to his ranch with assistant. Wallace Ford and Bernadene Hayes are a Bonnie and Clyde pair who are on the run, they take over the ranch at gun point.

A plane needs to make an emergency landing in a fog and crashes when the ranch's runway lights aren't lit. The pilots die and the governor shows what a scumbag coward he is by pushing a woman out of the way to escape the plane. There's a reporter and an actor on the flight. The actor gets a couple of cuts on his face. He dismayed it probably means the end of his career.

Things stay civil for a while then Wallace and Bernadene pull their rods and start bossing people around. Their short career as criminals comes to an end when the actor finds a gun and blasts them repeatedly. It's a comedy with some romance, some political commentary, and some murder. Some parts of the script don't make much sense, especially the part where they plan to white wash Wallace and Bernadene being on the scene and letting them run away. They were the ones that caused the plane crash when they stopped Lionel from turning on the runway lights. If anyone deserved to die in a hail of bullets, it's those two.

I thought it was OK but still think the gangster aspect is sill annoying. You can take a look at it on the Internet Archive. See link above.

You Can't Buy Luck 1937

You Can't Buy Luck 1937 Story by Martin Mooney, screenplay by Arthur T Horman and Martin Mooney, directed by Lew Landers. Arthur wrote a lot of films, many mysteries, many comedies including a couple for Abbot and Costello. Martin wrote quite a number of pictures, some stories, some screenplays, some uncredited. I know I've seen The Monster Maker, In Fast Company and Crime Inc. Lew directed nearly 150 movies and over 200 TV episodes. I've certainly seen much of his work.

You Can't Buy Luck starts as a silly comedy then turns into a murder story. Onslow Stevens plays a gambler who owns a race horse called Sarcasm. Onslow is a firm believer in luck and thinks he can generate good luck by being charitable. He sends his cheating girlfriend good luck charm on a trip to Europe too keep her happy. He doesn't know she's got her lover in another cabin. He did meet the guy, played by Vinton Hayworth, when he got a light for a cigarette from him.

Things go sour in the race game and Onslow tries to change his luck. It doesn't work and soon enough he's charged with the murder of his good luck charm. We know that Vinton did it but the police have no clues. Onslow is convicted but escapes jail to prove himself innocent. With the help of Paul Guilfoyle and Helen Mack he finds out who the real killer.

It delivers a decent story with some likeable characters. It's only a hour so there's a certain urgency in getting from one place to another. Enjoyable enough to get to the end, no rush to see it again.

Third Time Lucky 1932

Third Time Lucky 1931 Based on the play by Arnold Ridley, screenplay by Sidney Gilliat, Angus MacPhail and H Fowler Mear, directed by Walter Forde. Arnold is the writer of the 1923 play The Ghost Train which got made into a movie with Arthur Askey. Arnold is mostly remembered for playing Private Godfrey in Dad's Army. One of my favorite characters in the series.

Sidney Gilliat is one of my favorite film makers, he's written and/or directed quite a number of entertaining films, some favorites being The Lady Vanishes, Night Train To Munich, Green For Danger and the St Trinian's series.

The Reverend Arthur Fear takes is upon himself to help his ward, she's being blackmailed by a man who has some incriminating letters of her visit to the room of a young man. Nothing happened but it could break up her engagement if they got sent to her fiance. Turns out the fiance is in league with the blackmailer.

Reverend Fear goes to the blackmailer but he's rebuffed. He decides to sneak in and steal the letters only to be confronted first by Gordon Harker playing a thief and second by the blackmailer. Gordon and the Reverend manage to escape but the blackmailer is on their trail. The movie ends with a shoot out in the middle of the church's fate.

Quite entertaining in the end.  I found a copy online but that source has disappeared.