PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Arsenal Stadium Murder 1939

The Arsenal Stadium Murder is a 1939 British film that mixes soccer and murder with some humor. Leonard Reginald Gribble wrote the original story, Thorold Dickinson and Alan Hyman did the adaptation, Patrick Kirwan and Donald Bull wrote the screenplay, and Thorold Dickinson did the directing. Leslie Banks is Inspector Anthony Slade, he's called into investigate the suspicious death of a soccer player at the Arsenal Stadium. Ian McLean plays Sgt Clinton, his assistant. There's an awful lot of football, soccer to the Yanks, before the murder happens, we do get to met some of the players, management and other folks too. Slade is a bit eccentric, he keeps a bunch of hats in the backseat of his car, he wears a different one depending on the situation. He races about, dragging the poor confused Clinton behind him, visiting the various suspects. A story emerges, revealing the various connections between the players and their friends and co-workers. There's another murder and that gives Slade an idea about who is the murderer. It all works out. I had a good mystery with a bit of a laugh.

Will Hay - The Gainsborough Pictures Films

Will Hay worked for Gainsborough Pictures from 1935 to 1939 and they made 9 pictures. Will had made three pictures with Elstree Studios in 1934, Those Were The Days, Radio Parade of 1935 and Dandy Dick. I have seen the middle picture and have ordered the other two. There are 5 more films after the Gainsborough films and I'll get to those when I get copies of them.

Gainsborough started making films in 1924 and continued through 1950. In the 1920s they merged with Gaumont British, in the 1940s they were taken over by The Rank Organization, in 1950 they were shut down. If you're a classic film fan you might have come across some of their titles. Most of these seem to be owned by Studiocanal today.

Gainsborough had some name directors working for them, I know some of them, James Whale, Alfred Hitchcock, Walter Forde, Michael Powell, William Beaudine, Marcel Varnel, Raoul Walsh, Val Guest, Bernard Knowles, Ralph Smart, Terence Fisher, and Carol Reed.

VCI puts out the Will Hay Gainsborough films in 4 DVD sets. The first three volumes have 2 films per disc and the 4th volume has three films on one disc. There's a £12.99 British set that puts each film on it's own DVD but I haven't got that to compare. The VCI copies look fine for old 30s films. I got the VCI discs at Hamilton Books for $17.80 plus about a buck forty shipping (part of a larger order).

Boys Will Be Boys 1935 ◊ Directed by William Beaudine, written by Robert Edmunds, Will Hay and JB Morton.

Will Hay had become somewhat famous for his schoolmaster character in the 1920s, he even did a Royal Command Performance in 1925 before King George V and Queen Mary. He's a bumbling character who gets things wrong.

In BWBB Will plays a teacher at a prison who applies for the job of headmaster at a public school called Narkover. That's where JB Morton comes in, Beachcomber is his novel and his Narkover characters are what the characters in the film are based on. I'd never heard of that book and like so many books that get made into movies, I'll never read it at this stage.

The school is like St Trinian's for boys, bad boys, they gamble, piss about and cause trouble. Will kind of fits in, he likes to gamble and he's a bit of a boob. There's a valuable stolen necklace to spice things up. It gets worked into the climactic rugby match where the baddies are caught.

I found it fun. There's plenty of roughhousing, funny faces and comic bits, sprinkled with plenty of jokes.

Where There's A Will 1936 ◊ Directed by William Beaudine, story by Leslie Arliss and Sidney Gilliat, screenplay by Will Hay, Robert Edmunds and William Beaudine.

Will is a solicitor, he's got a failing practice, some baddie tricks him into the use of his office to rob the bank. The office is right over the bank. The police come and Will is right in the middle of their investigation, getting in the way.

It made me laugh and I'd seen it before. Most of these films are pretty much the same sort of thing. Plenty of jokes and a fair bit of physical comedy. Mistaken identity or assumptions are made. Things are broken. It's usually pretty laid back stuff with occasional bits of really great timing.

Windbag The Sailor 1936 ◊ Robert Stevenson wrote the original story with Leslie Arliss. Robert would go on to be the only director that got an Best Director Oscar nomination for directing a Disney movie. That movie was Mary Poppins, it was also selected to go into the Library of Congress collection. Robert started directing in 1932 and I've seen a few of his earlier movies. After a stint in TV he started directing Disney films in 1957 with Johnny Tremaine. He followed with Old Yeller, Darby O'Gill And The Little People and 17 of the best of the Disney live action films.  Leslie is also a writer - director and his list of work is fairly good. The screenplay was written by Marriott Edgar, Stafford Dickens and Will Hay. The director is William Beaudine.

Will brags about his sailing experience in the pub but once he's put in charge of a ship it's chaos. He's joined by Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt for the first time. They would make a half a dozen pictures together. Will was picked by the shipping company because of his lack of experience. They've sent him out in a poorly maintained ship, hoping it will sink so they can collect the insurance. There's plenty of noise, running about and nautical humor. There are even some south sea islanders to get in trouble with. Luckily, the battery powered radio helps out. Of course the ship doesn't sink, Will's incompetence brings it home, and the crooks are unmasked. There's usually a happy ending for Will and pals.

Good Morning, Boys 1937 ◊ Marcel Varnel is the director of this one, it was his first for Will, he would go onto direct 8 more movies for Will and several for George Formby. Anthony Kimmins wrote the original story. Val Guest, Leslie Arliss and Marriott Edgar wrote the screenplay.

Will's head of a school for bad boys. He's pretty lax and the boys are pretty wild. There's a plot with some crooks planning to steal the Mona Lisa, one crook is the father of a son at the school. he plans to use his son's field trip to France as a cover. There's another sub-plot about getting Will fired for being incompetant.

Graham Moffatt is one of the students, Charles Hawtrey is another, Clive Dunn has a small part, and Marcel Varnel plays a guard at the Louvre. Alfie director Lewis Gilbert, 17 when the picture came out, plays one of the students. His career started with a part in Dick Turpin in 1934 and his last credit was directing the 2002 movie Before You Go. He passed away last year at the age of 97.

It's a chaotic film with plenty of stuff happening. I got some laughs and I was glad to upgrade these Will Hay films, the downloads off of the internet were just too fuzzy.

Oh, Mr Porter 1937 ◊ Frank Launder wrote the original story for the movie. He's one of the two guys responsible for the original St Trinian's films, along with Sidney Gilliat. The screenplay was written by JOC Orton, Val Guest and Marriott Edgar. Marcel Varnel is the director. Here's a picture of the main cast and the director. 

Left to right in the picture, we've got Graham Moffatt, Moore Marriott, Will Hay and Marcel Varnel. Some of the main cast are in other comedies I've seen, Dennis Wyndham, Dave O'Toole, Sebastian Smith, Agnes Lauchlan and Percy Walsh, but I'm not that familiar with them. I wouldn't recognize them without help.

The three guys above I've seen plenty. Sadly, Will wasn't too keen on the other two and he made it known. I've read that he thought they got more attention than him, especially the old man. He still had two more pictures to make with them.

In Oh, Mr Porter Will plays a bumbling railway employee who gets a promotion because of a rich relative, she puts the fix in with the head of the railroad and Will is sent to the tiny Northern Irish town of Buggleskelly, it's on the border with the Irish Free State. The station is remote and said to be haunted. Will finds Graham and Moore working at the station. Well, I say working, they're a couple of layabouts who steal anything they can get their hands on. Will tries to smarten them up a bit. He wants to make the line more profitable and make an impression with the head of the company. His plans go awry. Things get worse when Will and the boys run into some gun smugglers, they're running guns to the Irish Free State. The hapless trio do well to get out of that mess.

It's widely said that this is Will's best picture. It was included in the British Film Institute's 360 Classic Feature Films list. I've seen it 4 or 5 times now and it's one of my favs of Will's films. There's plenty of jokes, slapstick, hitting and stunts. I know I'll watch it again someday.

Convict 99 1938 ◊ Cyril Campion wrote the story, Ralph Smart and Jack Davis Jr wrote the adaptation, Val Guest and Marriott Edgar wrote the scenario, Marcel Varnel directed. Fans of Danger Man and Secret Agent might recognize Ralph's name. He was a writer, director and producer on several other great British TV shows, The Adventures Of Sir Lancelot, The Adventures Of Robin Hood, The Buccaneers, William Tell, The Invisible Man and The Champions. He directed a few films but I haven't ever come across them.

Will plays an incompetent headmaster at St Michael's School. He's sacked and applies for another job. Will gets into the wrong office when called in for an interview, no one notices and he's given the job of governor at Blakedown Prison. He has a few drinks on the way to what he thinks is a school and winds up behind bars. It's thought he's an escaped prisoner, convict 99, and he's tossed into the prison population. Eventually someone figures out he's the new governor and Will sets about to make the place nicer for the inmates. A prisoner steals a blank check and makes off with the prison's bank account. Will gets up a team of criminals and gives chase. They catch the escapee and return the money to the bank.

I've seen this 3 times and each time I like it more. I still think that the great number of coincidences are really dumb but the individual scenes are often quite funny. Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt still working Will's nerve and my funny bone. Googie Withers, Dennis Wyndham and Roddy McDowall are in the cast.

Hey! Hey! USA 1938 ◊ Marcel Varnel directed the script that was written by a huge gang, Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, JOC Orton, Ralph Spence, Jack Swain, and Howard Irving Young.

In Hey! Hey! USA Will plays a porter who's drugged by a crook and left in the crook's stateroom. Will wakes up at sea. He gets to the USA and winds up tutoring a millionaire's son. There's plot to kidnap the son and a second gang that wants to steal the ransom from the kidnappers.

Edgar Kennedy plays a gangster and Roddy McDowell has a small part playing a boy. I didn't find it as funny as the last couple of movies but I still had a laugh or two. I usually like Edgar Kennedy and this was no different.

Old Bones Of The River 1938 ◊ Marcel Varnel is directing and Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, and JOC Orton wrote the script.

Will is a teaching missionary in Africa. Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt play a couple of boatmen on the river. There's trouble with the natives, a native returning from getting an education brings booze and guns with him. He's wanting revolution and independence and his brother, the Chief, is a fan of the British and just wants a peaceful time. Will winds up in the middle of it all. It's got a few laughs but the script is kind of dull and listless. There's also some racist stuff that's often typical of the times sadly. Leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth but I won't throw out the DVD. It's important to know what went before and work to better that.

Ask A Policeman 1938 ◊ Marcel Varnel directs, Sidney Gilliat wrote the story, Marriott Edgar and Val Guest wrote the screenplay, with an uncredited JOC Orton adding something in there.

It's the last time Will will appear with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. They are the men who man the village of Turnbotham Round police station. They've had ten years with no arrests and the police are questioning the need for the station. Trouble is Will and the gang are really incompetent. They plan to stage a crime but uncover a real crime. Now they must deal with that and a phantom headless horseman.

It was more fun than the last couple of pictures and I had some laughs. Maybe it's Sidney's good story? It's too bad that the trio wouldn't work together anymore. Now I'm done that lot of films. I'll file the discs away until the next time.

The Black Sheep Of Whitehall 1942

The third Will Hay movie in the three film set is The Black Sheep Of Whitehall. It's a 1942 film that was co-directed by Will Hay and Basil Dearden. Angus MacPhail and John Dighton are responsible for the story and screenplay. John would go on to write Kind Hearts And Coronets, The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, The Man In The Ice Cream Suit, Who Goes There!, and Roman Holiday to name a few I've seen. Angus wrote the screenplay to The Ghost Train starring Arthur Askey and the Hitchcock film Spellbound. I've seen very little of his other work.

Besides Will I only knew a couple in the cast: John Mills and Thora Hird. That's Will and John above. Will is a Professor at an unsuccessful correspondence school, John is his only student. Will is broke and John thinks he can get him a job at Whitehall. There Will gets mistaken for an economist and gets interviewed by the BBC. The real economist shows up, the viewers know he's a fake, put there by the Nazis, and somehow Will stumbles on the fifth columnists plot. Now he's got to get some proof and catch those baddies. I laughed several times and was happy to have picked it up. I'll be watching it again someday.

The Ghost Of St Michael's 1941

The Ghost of St Michael's is a 1941 Hill Hay comedy that's directed by Marcel Varnel. He's a Frenchman who started directing comedies on the Paris stage. He moved to New York in 1925 to direct on Broadway for the Shubert family. He made his way to Hollywood where he directed Chandu The Magician in 1932. He moved to England in 1934 where he would direct a lot of comedies for big stars like Will Hay, Arthur Askey and George Formby. He died in 1947.

Angus McPhail and John Dighton wrote the story and screenplay. They worked together and separately on many movies, some of which I've seen. Here they've got a murder mystery comedy with Will Hay as a teacher who gets sent to a school recently relocated to the Isle of Sky in Scotland. It's war time and the many young people were moved into the remote country to keep them from getting blown up in the cities. I liked the little miniature harbor and boat. No location shooting here, probably couldn't have gotten the gas to get them there.

The ghost of St Michael's returns after Will gets there and the Head Master is killed. That's Will with Charles Hawtrey and Claude Hubert above. Other than those three the rest of the cast were unfamiliar except for John Laurie. Some might know him from Dad's Army but he did a lot of films before that popular TV series. After the second Head Master is killed Will works out what is going on and eventually gets the baddies caught. There's some fun scenes and some OK jokes. Rapidly becoming one of my favorite Hay movies.

Josser In The Army 1932

I sure didn't care that much for Josser In The Army. It's a 1932 British war comedy, the story is by Herbert Sargent and Con West, Frank Launder wrote the screenplay and it was directed by Norman Lee. The DVD cover above has a mistake on it, listing the director as Marcel Varnel, the DVD I have does not have that wrong credit on the cover.

Mostly I didn't care that much for the Jimmy Josser character, he's played by Ernest Lotina. I didn't find him funny, more annoying, he put me off the whole movie. The slapstick is especially sloppy and contrived. Not going to be one I dip into again. This DVD came as part of a four pack of military movies from The British Film collection, it;s much cheaper than buying the individual films. They have several 4 packs of films, I've been rooting them out and ordering them. I should start a data base, they are over 300 films in the series, I can only keep a few in my head at a time.

Radio Parade Of 1935 1934

Radio Parade Of 1935 is a 1934 British movie and one that's not part of The British Film collection. It was released in the US as Radio Follies. Paul Perez, John Watt, Reginald Purdell, Jack Davis Jr and James Bunting wrote it and Arthur B Woods directed.

John Watt has four writing credits on the IMDb, the first is a 1933 TV movie. That's pretty darn early, huh. After RPO1935 John wrote Band Waggon starring Arthur Askey. His last film was Crook's Tour, he co-wrote with Max Kester. I'd seen the last two films and thought they were entertaining.

Paul Perez had a long film writing career, his first film was in 1927, he wrote the titles to a silent film called The Demi-Bride, his last film was the 1992 film The Last Of The Mohicans. Paul had been dead 8 years at that point and in reality his career ended in 1939. He worked on over 80 pictures in that short 12 years. TLOTM was based on his 1936 film of the same name. 

The only person in the cast that I knew was Will Hay, I'd seen a few of his pictures already. Many of them turn up on YouTube. I recently purchased 4 US DVD sets of 9 of his movies, they were issued in the UK as separate DVDs and a 9 DVD set. It's about £13 on Amazon UK. Radio Parade of 1935 is part of the 3 disc Will Hay Collection from Studiocanal. That company owns an incredible number of classic British films.

The story is set at a radio station with Will as the man in charge., He takes a chance on a goofy guy, in charge of the complaints department, to change up his station's programing to decrease complaints and increase ratings. There are mixed results but it mostly works out in the end. There are plenty of musical numbers, including two sequences filmed in Dufaycolor. There aren't as many good jokes as I would like but there are amazingly big sets. There's always a balance, though I wish there was more time with Will, he's only in the film a short bit. It's fun enough but it's not going to be my favorite Will Hay movie.

The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection Volume 1

The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection is a sub-set of The British Film series from Network. For some reason I'm a sucker for a film series on DVD. This series has 14 volumes, 28 discs, and 56 films, and the DVDs came out in 2013 and 2014. The films aren't the Ealing Comedies you might have heard about or seen, films like Kind Hearts And Coronets, The Lavender Kill Mob, The Man In The White Suit, and The Ladykillers. Most of them haven't been on video before, often they've not been seen for a long time. They might be lesser films but they still have some entertainment value and I'm glad they managed to get them out. The complete set of DVDs is still available and they are priced between £3-6 each after the VAT has been removed. That's ordered from Amazon UK. Volume 1 has 3 films from the 1930s and 1 film from 1956. 

The packaging says that Ealing Studios made over 150 films over a three decade period but I only found 126 listed on the Wikipedia. The studio's history is convoluted with different studios merging over time so who knows what they're counting.

The site of Ealing Studios, Ealing Green in West London, has been used by film makers since 1902. In 1929 Basil Dean founded Associated Talking Pictures Ltd which became Ealing Studios in 1938. The Wikipedia says the current sound stages were built in 1931 and bought by the BBC in 1955. Ealing Studios continued to make films through 1957 and in 2000 they resumed making films again. Other film studios used the Ealing stages too.

Escape 1930 The very first of the ES films back when they were Associated Talking Pictures. It's based on a 1926 play by John Galsworthy, Basil Dean wrote the screenplay and directed. Dean had previously directed the 1929 film The Return Of Sherlock Homes with Clive Brooks and H Reeves-Smith. Since the Ealing stages were built at this time, the film was shot at the British Lion Studios in Beaconsfield.

That's Gerald du Maurier talking to Mabel Poulton above, he's an upper crust guy and she's a gal hanging out in a park. Gerald is father to writer Daphne du Maurier. A police detective accuses Mabel of soliciting and arrests her, Gerald steps in at the rough treatment, a fight ensues, the copper dies after hitting his head in a fall.

Gerald is plunked into prison for 5 years, after 2 years he escapes while working outdoors, he then leads the police a chase through the moors. Gerald is befriended or betrayed by the people he meets and not much else happens.

It's an odd film, I'm not sure what to make of the story. The Wikipedia says it's a look at class and such. Many of the people Gerald meets think he got a bum sentence but 5 years doesn't seem too bad for manslaughter. With a bit of help from the locals Gerald manages to stay on the run for a couple of days. The local Bobbies have enlisted men for searching and they're hot on his trail. Gerald only got caught because he didn't want the Priest who helps him to lie for him. It was different enough it kept my attention to the end. It's only 68 minutes so I didn't have that hard a job. I'd watch it again.

West Of Zanzibar 1956 An interesting topical film about Africa. Harry Watt wrote the story and directed, Max Catto and Jack Whittingham wrote the screenplay. It's a sequel to Where No Vultures Fly which I don't have. WNVF is 30-40 smackaroonies on Amazon so I'm not having that. It's even more crazy expensive on Amazon UK, the price ranges from £46.91 to £208.15. You can buy used or bootleg copies online for a reasonable price.

Anthony Steele is a game warden in Kenya. He's friends with the Chief of a tribe that's facing a big decision. The drought  is so bad they must move the tribe. Either further into the countryside or near Mombasa. The Chief wants to stay in the country but the tribe votes to move to Mombasa.

They have a hard time adjusting to life near the city, the young men of the tribe want the fancy trappings of city life but they have no jobs or money. Some of them join up with Ivory poachers and that leads to trouble.

There's a mix of location shooting and stock footage. The story is fairly good with the two story lines wrapping around each other until they become one story. It's topical and there's some nice scenery to see. Worth a look.

Penny Paradise 1938 The 7th film directed by Carol Reed. Basil Dean, Thomas Browne, Walter Meade and Thomas Thompson all worked on the screenplay at some point.

Edmund Gwenn is a tugboat captain in the picture above. The young woman is Betty Driver, she plays Edmund's daughter Betty. She sings 3 songs during the movie but it's not meant to be a musical. Jimmy O'Dea plays Edmund's assistant and the older lady is Aunt Agnes, played by Ethel Coleridge.Jimmy played King Brian in Darby O'Gill And The Little People.

Edmund fills out a penny pools ticket and gives it to Pat to mail. Guess what, Pat doesn't mail it in, and Edmund wins £20,000. It throws the area into a tizzy as the story plays out.

It's a nice comedy about a lovable old sea captain, his lovely daughter and their stupid and incompetent pal. Why people continue to hang around Pat I'll never know. Betty is in love with him and Pat's in love with her. Betty was 18 at the time the picture was shot and Jimmy was 40. Trouble is Creepy Pat's too weak and stupid to tell her. Aunt Agnes is an old harridan who thinks she should get half the winnings because she said the name of one of the 15 team that won. Family sure can suck. Still, it will all work out nicely in the end, other than Betty and Jimmy hooking up. I usually enjoy Edmund in most of his pictures and this is no exception. It's a fun tale.

Cheer Up! 1936 Written by Stanley Lupino and Michael Barringer with Leo Mittler directing. Stanley's also the producer and he's in the movie, playing a songwriter. He also wrote the lyrics to the songs he sings. Roddy Hughes plays his musical pal and Sally Grey plays the romantic lead. That Sally and Stanley in the picture above.

I didn't like Stanley right from the get go, he's annoying and creepily made up. Stanley and Roddy do a lot of slapstick bits that were fair to poor. Their characters have some songs and want someone to back their revue. Sally is an actress and singer who's badly in need of work. I didn't care much for the songs in the movie but eventually they do get them on stage. There are several musical dance numbers that were sort of entertaining to look at. Better if I had liked the songs. All told not a movie I liked that much.

A mixed bag of stories and production values. Still I was glad to have picked the first of the series up. I have all the others in a stack. I'll get to those soon, I hope.

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.