PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

A Letter For Evie Marshall 1946

A Letter For Evie Marshall is a 1946 comedy directed by Jules Dassin. It's based on a story by Blanche Brace called The Adventure Of A Ready Letter Writer. Devallon Scott and Alan Friedman wrote the screenplay. Jules previous picture was The Canterville Ghost with Charles Laughton. I've always liked that movie. I know I've seen The Naked City, Rafifi and Topkapi but none of his other 20 films. A Letter For Evie Marshall is a romance with a bit of comedy. A lonely woman puts a note into shirt for a soldier, he throws the note away, his wimpy pal starts writing to her. Of course the guy is stupid and he uses the pals picture and makes up an exciting life. Nothing like complicating a simple thing, huh. The tougher pal decides he likes the woman and he drops into to see her. It gets all complicated until it's not complicated anymore. A decent film but I just didn't find it as amusing as I hoped.

 

Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen 1942

Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen came out in 1942 and it's the last of the Ellery Queen movies from Columbia. Eric Taylor wrote the screenplay, with additional dialog by Arthur Strawn, the director was James P Hogan. Sadly, James Hogan died the following year at age 53.

William Gargan plays Ellery one last time, same for Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter, Charley Grapewin as Ellery's Dad Inspector Queen, and James Burke as Sergeant Velie. Guest stars are Gale Sondergaard, Ernest Deutsch, Gilbert Roland, Sig Ruman and others I didn't recognize.

Ellery and Nikki help Sergeant Velie get his prisoner back from some diamond smuggling Nazi scum. Sig is running a health club as a cover. There's the usual goings on and a joke or two. About the same as the previous couple, entertaining for the most part. I'm now done and those can go on the hard drive for some later re-watching.

A Desperate Chance For Ellery Queen 1942

A Desperate Chance For Ellery Queen came out in 1942 and it's the 6th of the seven 1940s Ellery Queen films, there were 2 previous films in the mid 30s. From the 50s there will be some Ellery Queen on TV. It's based on an Ellery Queen play called A Good Samaritan, Eric Taylor wrote the script and James P Hogan directed. Eric wrote all 7 of this lot of EQ films and James directed the last 6 of the EQ films.

William Gargan plays Ellery, Margaret Lindsay plays his gal Friday Nikki Porter, Charley Grapewin plays Ellery's father Inspector Queen and James Burke plays Sergeant Velie. There's blackmail, missing daughters and murder on Ellery's plate. Good fun and worth the watch. One last film to go.

A Close Call For Ellery Queen 1942

A Close Call For Ellery Queen is the 7th of the Ellery Queen movies from the 30s and 40s. It's from 1942. Erick Taylor wrote the screenplay, it's got some additional dialog by Gertrude Purcell, the director is James P Hogan. This film has anew Ellery, played by William Gargan, Margaret Lindsay returns as Nikki Porter, as do Charles Grapewin as Inspector Queen and James Burke as Sergeant Velle.

Ralph Morgan is a rich guy who's looking for his lost daughters. Ralph's secretary asks Ellery to help him get rid of some annoying guests. Ellery falls right into blackmail and murder. Nikki and Ellery help the real daughter in getting back together with her father.

It was about the same as the other films, good bit of comedy, some murdering, a lot of running about, and a good ending. Nothing special but certainly above average. So far I'm thinking that I would want to watch the series over again. Sadly they aren't readily available, mostly the DVDs out there are bootlegs. I don't torrent but I suspect they might be available there.

Ellery Queen And The Murder Ring 1941

Ellery Queen And The Murder Ring came out in 1941 and it's the 6th of the Ellery Queen films in the 30s and 40s. It's based on the 1931 Ellery Queen novel The Dutch Shoe Mystery. Eric Taylor and Gertrude Purcell wrote the screenplay and James P Hogan directed. I haven't read many of the novels, never got to be a fan of the series.

Ralph Bellamy and Margaret Lindsay returns as Ellery and Nikki Porter. It's the last EQ film for Ralph. Charley Grapewin returns as Ellery's dad Inspector Queen and James Burke returns as Sergeant Veile. George Zucco, Mona Barrie, Paul Hurst, Ton Dugan and Leon Ames were the names I recognized.

The movie is mostly set in a hospital, the owner asks the police to investigate what she thinks are suspicious goings on. Ellery helps out his dad by going undercover. Shortly after a patient dies and the autopsy reveals it's murder. There's plenty of running about and yelling before Nikki and Inspector Queen figure it out. It seems like it's played more for laughs than sleuthing. Still, I enjoyed it. Three more to go.

Ellery Queen And The Perfect Crime 1941

Ellery Queen And The Perfect Crime came out in 1941 and it;s the 5th Ellery Queen movie. Eric Taylor wrote the screenplay and James P Hogan directed.

Ralph Bellamy and Margaret Lindsay return as Ellery Queen and Nikki Porter. They're joined by some other cast members I knew, Spring Byington, HB Warner, James Burke, Charles Halton and Charles Lane.

Ellery and his father are working on the murder of power tycoon. He was stabbed to death a few days after his dam burst. The dam bursting created suspects out of the investors. The monkey isn't a suspect, he's just a monkey. It's an alright story but there's nothing really unusual about it. I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. It's another that appeared on YouTube one day and two weeks later the whole page is gone.

Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery 1941

Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery was the 4th of the Ellery Queen movies and the second from Republic Pictures. It came out in 1941 and it's based on the 1939 Ellery Queen play The Three Scratches. It's got a screenplay by Eric Taylor and the director is James P Hogan. Eric wrote around 50 movies in a career that started in 1936 and ended when he died in 1952. He was only 55 but before he croaked it he wrote several entertaining Universal horror films like The Black Cat, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, Phantom Of The Opera and Son Of Dracula. He wrote 6 more Ellery Queen movies, a couple of Dick Tracy movies and some starring The Crime Doctor. James started as a director in 1920 and he directed some of the Bulldog Drummond pictures and The Mad Ghoul. He died in 1943 at the age of 53.

Ralph Bellamy and Margaret Lindsay are back as Ellery and his secretary Nikki Porter. Anna May Wong is a woman with some jewels, she's to sell them and use the money for Chinese famine relief. Of course, crooks are after them. There's all the usual running about and yakking. The story moves along and the crooks get caught. Cast has a few of my old favorites: James Burke, Charles Lane, Russell Hicks and Mantan Moreland. I'd watch it again sometime.

Ellery Queen, Master Detective 1940

Ellery Queen, Master Detective is the first new Ellery Queen movie in 4 years, it came out in 1940 and the franchise had moved from Republic Pictures to Columbia Pictures. The story is loosely based on The Door Between by Ellery Queen, the screenplay is by Eric Taylor, the director is Kurt Neumann. Eric has quite a nice number of interesting films under his belt, he would write the rest of the EQ films at Columbia, as well as The Black Cat, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, Phantom Of The Opera, Son Of Dracula, The Whistler and Dick Tracy. Kurt directed over 70 features and I've only seen a few of them. Highlights for me are Tarzan And The Amazons, Tarzan And The Leopard Woman, Tarzan And The Huntress, Rocketship X-M, Tarzan And The She-Devil, Kronos and The Fly.

Ralph Bellamy is Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay is Nikki Porter, Charley Grapewin is Inspector Queen and James Burke is Sergeant Velle. A fitness guru is apparently dying, he changes his will to cut out his relatives and winds up with his throat cut. The new will has disappeared. 

Ellery helps on the case and mistakes Nikki Porter for the daughter of the fitness guru. He takes her to the house and drops her off. She winds up in the next office to the fitness guru just before he's killed. The Inspector suspects her and Ellery helps keep her away from the crooks and his father.

There's plenty of the usual detecting chatter as Ellery works the people at the house. The dead guy disappears and re-appears in a closet. Eventually the killer is uncovered. I've never been a big fan of Ralph Bellamy, I don't seek out his movies much, here he's OK. The script is fairly good, there's a few jokes and such. I got a laugh or two out of it. There doesn't seem to be a copy on YouTube right now. Someone had posted this and the rest of the Columbia series, I downloaded them a couple of weeks ago, now they're gone. You can see the movie in two parts at dailymotion, Part 1 and Part 2.

Cottage To Let 1941

Cottage To Let is a 1941 British film that was titled Bombsight Stolen over here. It's adapted from a play by Geoffrey Kerr, with a screenplay by Anatole de Grunwald and JOC Orton, the director is Anthony Asquith.

A ditsy country lady has let the cottage on the estate to Alistair Sim. She's also offered it to the military as a hospital. The program to place city kids in safer places has an order to put 20 kids there. They wind up leaving two, one is played by a teenage George Cole in his first role. John Mills plays a British pilot who jumped out of his failing plane and wound up in Lock Tay. He's hurt so they take him to the cottage. He gets one of the rooms and pushes one of the kids out to the manor house. George follows when Alistair shows up with this paid rent receipt.

The daughter of the ditsy lady falls for John, leaving her current suitor out in the cold. The suitor works for her father, he's an eccentric scientist who's currently working on the best bombsight anyone has seen. George is a bit of a Sherlock Holmes fan and he spots that the butler is a planted cop. There's a pack of Nazi spies working to get the bombsight and there are plenty of red herrings making this or that one guilty looking. We do find out who all the scumbags are and a couple of them get some heavy justice laid on them. That was funny. I did like the movies sense of humor and the nice brisk pace. There's a bit of action and a good ending. Nice job from all the cast, especially Alistair, George and John Mills. You can see a copy in the link in the title above.

Murder, He Says 1945

Murder, He Says is a crime comedy with Fred MacMurray, it came out in 1945 and it was directed by George Marshall. Jack Moffitt wrote the story and Lou Breslow wrote the screenplay. Fred plays a pollster who'd come looking for a missing pollster and winds up captive of a family of murderous hillbillies. He gets involved with the family's hunt for a big bag of stolen bank money. Marjorie Main plays the head of the dangerously inbred family. A dying Grandma leaves Fred with a bit of a clue but he can't make head nor tail of it. Helen Walker plays the daughter of a man wrongly attributed to the robbery. She helps Fred and there's a bit of romance. There's a bit of danger, a body count and some jokes. There's plenty of noise and some fun sight gags. The story moves along quickly and there's plenty of goofy characters. Worth a look and one I'd watch again.