PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 935

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.

Trapped By Television 1936

Trapped By Television 1936 Screenplay by Lee Loeb and Harold Buchman, directed by Del Lord. Del directed over 200 films, many of them shorts for Mack Sennett. Del's credited with developing the unique comic style of the Three Stooges, according to his Wikipedia page.

A silly comedy involving a new TV system. Lyle Talbot is the inventor, Nat Pendleton is a bill collector assigned to collect from Lyle. He visits Lyle and goes into business with him even though neither of them has the cash to make the parts needed for the system. Nat gets Lyle a job as a bill collector to help raise funds.

Mary Astor is his first assignment and he winds up talking her into raising money for him. She does and the system is up and running. They get a demo from a Radio Network looking to get into TV. That would have gone well but there's sabotage in the works.

There's more story and a bit of romance before we get to the end. It's a bit slow but there are some gags. I thought it was worth a look once I was done.

The 13th Man 1937

The 13th Man 1937 Written by John W Krafft and directed by William Nigh.

Someone's killed the district attorney at a boxing match with a poisoned dart laced with curare. Weldon Heyburn and Milton Stone are reporters for the local paper. They are really interested in finding out who the DA was going to name as the 13th big crook in town. The DA had caught the 12 biggest crooks and on a special radio announcement he'd named 5 of his top choices for number 13. Some of the suspects were at the boxing match.

A nice little film with a decent story and a good cast. Worth a look for the mystery fan. I enjoyed it enough to download a copy for future perusal.

The Secret Of The Loch 1934

The Secret Of The Loch 1934 Written by Charles Bennett and Billie Bristow, directed by Milton Rosmer. The first film about the Loch Ness Monster. I watched a copy from the Internet Archive. I discovered it was part of The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection. It's the fourth volume and it's also part of The British Film from Network.

Milton Rosmer started his career in 1915 as an actor, he has 65 acting credits on the IMDb, he worked as an actor until 1954. Milton directed a couple of shorts in 1926, a couple years later he started with the first of his 15 feature films. I've only seen a couple of them before this one, Emil And The Detectives and Murder In The Red Barn. Both were entertaining enough but nothing outstanding. The 1935 German version of Emil And The Detectives is much better. Both films are found on a nice 2013 BFI release. It's a Region 2 British release so you need some way to play that if you live outside of the UK.

The Secret Of The Loch starts with a professor trying to convince other scientists that there is a dinosaur in the Loch but no one believes him. A reporter from London convinces his paper to send him to the Loch to see if there's anything to the story. He falls for the professor's daughter when he breaks into the house while trying to get a story. She takes it in stride and eventually plays a nice trick on him.

It's fairly light and breezy until the professor mounts a deep dive. The story turns a bit darker when the diver doesn't return. The professor is put on trial, though he's acquitted, he's vilified in the press. The reporter takes it on himself to turn that around by taking a dive and looking for the monster.

He finds the dead diver and the monster. The part of the monster is being played by an iguana. The reporter manages to escape and the monster is sighted on the surface. The underwater effects are fairly common for the time, there's a panel of water in front of the camera and air bubbles up from the bottom for no particular reason.

The Wikipedia has a bit I liked: Charles Bennett said the film was based on his original idea. He later admitted it was "terrible... but amusing".

I can't say it's terrible, it's about average for a film of the time. I liked some of the characters but that reporter is a jackass. I was glad to have seen it and it does have some significance as an early monster movie and the first film about Nessie.

The Black Hand Gang 1930

The Black Hand Gang 1930 Based on a play called Black Hand George by Bert Lee and R P Weston, screenplay by Victor Kendall, directed by Monty Banks.

Wee Georgie Wood is the kid in the black suit, he's third from the left, he was 34 years old when the picture was made but he's playing a young boy. Georgie started appearing on the stage at age 5 and made a good bit of cash in the music halls of the UK. He was 2 silent pictures and a TV movie from 1951. He appeared in three TV shows, one in 1951, another in 1959, the third in 1970.

Georgie is head of the Black Hand Gang, a bunch of poor kids who run the streets. They have some adventures and cause a bit of trouble. Somehow they hook up with a rich kid who invites them over for tea. It doesn't go so well and there's plenty of broken crockery at the end of the meal. A street encounter with a rival gang leaves the local push cart vendors in shambles. It's a tough neighborhood.

Mostly it was kind of fun, some of the gags work well enough, some don't. The acting is a mixed bag, kind of broad but watchable. I'd watched a copy off the Internet Archive, while looking for images I found the cover to the DVD I already had. I'll be getting to that set of British comedies after I get through the other DVDs in The British Film series from Network. It all takes time.