PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Out Of The Blue 1947

Out Of The Blue 1947 Short story by Vera Caspary, screenplay by Vera Caspary, Walter Bullock and Edward Eliscu, directed by Leigh Jason.

A screwball comedy about a dead body on a balcony. Nosy neighbors report the body but the police don't find anything. George Brent and Carole Landis are a married couple, she's pretty bossy and he's pretty limp. Turhan Bey is an artist that draws women in bathing suits. He has a dog that likes burying bones in Carole's balcony garden. She doesn't like the dog and insists it must go. Virginia Mayo owns a dog kennel, she's trying to mate Turhan's dog to one of her dogs. Ann Dvorak meets George while he's eating on his own. She's a bit drunk and pretty forceful, they wind up at Georges place while the wife is out of town. No matter what George was thinking might happen he's hardly ready for what does.

I enjoyed the heck out of the movie and had a good laugh or five. The cast is great and Turhan Bey is a favorite of mine. You can see it on YouTube. Nice copy.

Friday Night Movies 998

Mad Heidi 2022 Written by Sandro Klopfstein, Johannes Hartman and Gregory D Widmer, directed by Johannes Hartman and Sandro Klopfstein.

For the last 20 years Switzerland has been under the control of a dictator who makes cheese. It's against the law for anyone to make their own cheese, it's against the law to be lactose intolerant. Heidi's boyfriend gets caught making goat cheese and Heidi gets arrested for complaining about Kommandant Knorr killing her boyfriend. In jail Heidi is bullied by the other women, she breaks out and a gaggle of nuns take her in and train her to fight the fascists. It's all revenge to the end.

I thought it was a lot of fun. One of the viewers here said it was the best exploding head movie he'd ever seen. There's plenty of goopy bits and violent action. The sets and scenery are fun. I enjoyed the heck out of it and would want to watch it again.

The Cat Creeps 1946 Story by Gerald Geraghty, screenplay by Edward Dein, Jerry Warner and Gertrude Walker, directed b Erle C Kenton.

The last of the Universal horror titles to be shot. It was released on a double bill with She-Wolf Of London. Horror was failing to draw the patrons, The Brute Man was shot just before The Cat Creeps, it was sold to PRC to release.

The movie is an old dark house sort of story with a group of people on an island without a way to get home after their boat is burnt. An old lady in the house is attacked as the visitors arrive at the door. They are there to search for $200,000 in cash that was stolen in a robbery 15 years ago. Someone finishes off the old lady and another guy has a bad fall down the basement stairs. Now the rest of the visitors have to try to keep alive until they can be rescued.

There's a cast of decent character actors, Noah Beery Jr, Frederick Brady, Douglass Dumbrille, Jonathan Hale, Paul Kelly are the few I knew. The story is pretty standard stuff, it gives the cast something to do most of the time.  It's not great but it's got some jokes. I enjoyed it and I'd watch it again.

Home Sweet Homicide 1946

Home Sweet Homicide 1946 Based on Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice, screenplay by F Hugh Herbert, directed by Lloyd Bacon.

 

I've been reading through my Craig Rice books the last 3-4 months. Most are available for the Kindle. This last week I was reading my favorite of her books, Home Sweet Homicide, and decided to watch the 1946 movie with Randolph Scott. It's never had a official DVD release, the copy I had is really poor but I watched it anyway. After I was done I ordered a bootleg, hoping it would look better, it arrived today and it does look better than the copy I had. The copy has already been deleted.

 

Home Sweet Homicide is a comic novel about a woman mystery writer and her three children. While mom is slaving away at the typewriter the kids get themselves involved with a murder. The woman next door is killed and the husband is wanted for questioning by the police. The kids hide the husband and play around with the clues to the annoyance of the police.

In the movie Randolph Scott is a detective with the same name, Bill Smith, as the mystery writer's main character. Lynn Bari plays mystery writer Marian Carstairs, Peggy Ann Garner plays her oldest daughter Dinah, Connie Marshall plays April and Dean Stockwell plays Archie.

 

James Gleason plays Sgt O'Hare, a fellow with 9 children in the book but only 6 in the movie. The Carstairs kids are a handful for O'Hara, conning him out of nearly 4 bucks for chop suey and chocolate malts, and Bill Smith, who has no children of his own, isn't much better at handling them. There's a few suspects besides the husband and it takes a while to figure out which one is the murderer.

 

The movie and the book end happily and there are good laughs in both. I posted a link to the movie on YouTube, it's pretty fuzzy. The DVD I bought looks quite good by comparison but it's still a bit fuzzy and a few scenes are of lower quality. Be nice if they could restore that one. 

Private Snuffy Smith 1942

Private Snuffy Smith 1942 Based on the comic strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith by Billy DeBeck, screenplay by John Grey, Jack Henley, Lloyd French and Doncho Hall, directed by Edward F Cline.

Snuffy Smith wants a taste of that $30 a month pay in the army. He joins up and smuggles his dog Mr Carson onto the post. Snuffy has an invisibility potion to keep Mr Carson out of sight. Snuffy gets a surprise when the sergeant turns out to be his still hunting nemesis from the revenue department back home. There's a subplot about a range finder and some fifth columnists.

It's vaguely amusing, there are a couple of laughs but it's below average. I wouldn't need to see it again. Link above so you can try it out.

 

I'm From Arkansas 1944

I'm From Arkansas 1944 Written by Marcy Klauber and Joseph Carole, directed by Lew Landers.

A sow gives birth to 18 piglets in the small town of Pitchfork Arkansas. The town comes to host a lot of visitors: reporters hoping for a story, men from the meat packing industry hoping to find a way to increase meat production and some showgirls hoping to make some money entertaining.

There's not much story, there are a good number of musical numbers. The Pied Pipers appear as a folk group returning home for a bit of a rest. Country and western singer Jimmy Wakely appears as himself. Mary Ford, Les Paul's singing partner does three songs. There's a couple of yodeling songs from Carolina Cotton. It's got a few jokes and some were OK. I got a couple of laughs but mostly it helps pass the time. You can see it on YouTube.

Murder In The Blue Room 1944

Murder In The Blue Room 1944 Based on Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers by Erich Philippi, screenplay by I A L Diamond and Stanley Davis, directed by Leslie Goodwins. It's a remake, here's the bit about that from the Wikipedia:

It is the second remake of the 1933 American Pre-code murder-mystery film Secret of the Blue Room, the first being Universal's 1938 remake, The Missing Guest. Faithful to the original plot, Murder in the Blue Room plays up the comedy with songs. The plot is based on the 1932 German film Secret of the Blue Room.

 

A family is having a party in their mansion. The three ladies in the picture on the left are a singing trio that's come to entertain the guests. They are played by The Three Jazzybelles who were picked to replace The Ritz Brothers. The trio of gals are friends with a young woman at the party and the comic relief.

The house is said to be haunted by people in the area. The title refers to the room in which the patriarch of the family was murdered, that happened in 20 years ago and the room has been kept closed up ever since. The movie is mostly a comedy with a couple of murders, plenty of yelling and lots of running about. It's kind of silly and most of the jokes are fairly good.

A man gets the family to let him sleep in the blue room overnight, in the morning the man is gone and the door to the room is locked from the inside. His body turns up the next day in the blue room after another man has disappeared.

I had a good time despite the songs from The Three Jazzybelles, they were OK but nothing much special. You can have a gander at it on YouTube.There are a few links above with other versions of the story.

Phantom Killer 1942

Phantom Killer 1942 Written by Karl Brown and directed by William Beaudine. William is credited with 350 plus films and hundreds of TV shows in a career that lasted from 1915 to 1970 when he died at 78 years old. He's one of my heroes in film. The script is a remake of the film The Sphinx.

A deaf-mute philanthropist is suspected of murders but he has an airtight alibi. Dick Purcell is the DA. The police are nearly clueless until Mantan Moreland claims the killer spoke to him before he escaped. I'm a big Mantan fan, enjoying him in many films over the years.

There's plenty of running about and a bit of danger as Dick and the police try to keep Mantan alive and crack the case. The movie has a nice sense of humor and I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. You can try it out on YouTube.

Whispering Ghosts 1942

Whispering Ghosts 1942 Written by Lou Breslow and Philip MacDonald, directed by Alfred L Werker.

 

Milton Berle appears as a radio host who does a show about true crime. He gets mixed in a real mystery when he tries to solve the murder of a sea captain from several years ago. Brenda Joyce plays the grand niece of the sea captain. She shows up to claim the ship he left her. Supposedly there's a cash of diamonds hidden aboard. Free diamonds attracts the wrong sort of people.

John Carradine and Renie Riano are a pair of reprobates. Willie Best is Milton's servant and driver, the two of them are fun to watch. There's plenty of running about, some good jokes, and a murder or two.

Generally fun but nothing too exciting, a smidge better than average. I found a copy on YouTube. I'd watch it again.

Murder At The Windmill 1949

Murder At The Windmill 1949 Story, screenplay, direction and two songs by Val Guest. It was originally released as Murder At The Windmill in the UK, when it arrived in the US it got changed to Mystery At The Burlesque.

A man is killed in the first row of the Windmill theater, the bullet came from the stage area.The theater is home to 7 show a day variety program with singing, dancing and comedians. I can't say any of the acts were outstanding. Some where speed through.

Garry Marsh plays the Detective Inspector and Jon Pertwee plays the Detective Sergeant who've come to investigate. They figure out were the bullet came from and about when it was. They get the cast to redo the show so they can try to figure out who did it.

Eventually the mystery is solved and the baddie is whisked away by a couple of Bobbies. It was fun enough, there were a few gags that I laughed at, I could have done with less musical variety. You can see it on YouTube

Bury Me Dead 1947

Bury Me Dead 1947  Based on the radio drama of the same name by Irene Winston, screenplay by Dwight V Babcock and Karen DeWolf, directed by Bernard Vorhaus. The second film on The Chase DVD from VCI.

June Lockhart plays a dead woman called Barbara and Hugh Beaumont plays her wealthy family's lawyer Michael. When we meet Barbara she's riding in a cab to her funeral. She watches the thing go on, then meets Michael, he doesn't recognize her with the heavy veil. He offers her a lift and gets a big surprise. Barbara was out of town when the barn fire happened. She thinks someone tried to kill her, Michael tries to get her to go to the police but Barbara delays going, wanting to find out who it was. She does tell the police, the rest of her family and the servants she's alive.

So who's the dead body that got buried. They fear it was her step-sister but no she eventually turn up alive. There's a few suspects, Mark Daniels as June's cheating husband Rod, Cathy O'Donnell as the step-sister Rusty, Greg McClure as the dimwitted boxer George, Sonia Darrin as George's assistant Helen.

Sonia had a fairly short career, 1941 to 1950 and she wasn't in many movies, only a dozen. Her most famous has to be The Big Sleep where she played Agnes Lozelle who worked in Arthur Geiger's bookstore. Sonia was in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. She's the mother of Mason Reese, a child star in the 70s.

Detective Archer is played by Cliff Clark, he doesn't suspect the housekeeper played by Virginia Farmer or the butler played by Milton Parsons. Milton has 169 credits on the IMDb. I've seen him is so many films and TV shows over his long career, he started in 1939 and his last credit was in 1977.

It's soon clear that the victim is Helen, she was a conniving gold digger who doesn't mind breaking hearts to gets some cash. There's a lot of cheating on one another, Rusty and George, Barbara and George, Helen and Rod, Rusty and Rod, all lubed up with a bit of jealousy and extortion. June was going to divorce Rod and Rusty's a minor on top of that.

It all plays out fairly well in the 68 min run time. It's brisk and there's a fairly good pay off at the end of the film. It's got a sense of humor and you need it with that lot. I was glad to have seen it. You can check it out on YouTube, link above.

The commentary by Jay Fenton was informative and the DVD has the 25 minute version of the movie that was cut for a syndicated TV mystery anthology program in early 50s.