Two OK movies in Forbidden Noir Volume 5, the first up on the disc is F.B.I. Girl. It's a 1951 crime film that was written by Dwight V Babcock and Richard Landau with William Berke directing. Dwight wrote original stories or screenplays for 2 dozen movies and over 3 dozen TV episodes. You might have seen The Mummy's Curse, House Of Dracula, House Of Horrors, The Brute Man or She-Wolf Of London. Not all great films but entertaining. Richard has a few less movies and even more TV scripts than Dwight. I know I've seen Secret Of The Whistler, Spaceways, The Quatermass Xperiment, The Black Hole and Lost Continent. I know I've seen even more of his TV writing. William directed 86 movies and I've seen a few of them.
A sad story of a governor who murdered a man twenty years ago. Raymond Greenleaf plays the governor and he's managed to keep the secret so far. He fears a crime crackdown might lead to his getting fingerprinted and exposed. His pal, or sorts, Raymond Burr is a sleazy scumbag who is helping the gov get his fingerprints out of the FBI. He had a gal all primed and she fails, unfortunately Burr finds out after his goons have killed the woman. Since the woman worked for the FBI they take notice and put Cesar Romero on the job.
Audrey Trotter plays another woman at the FBI, Cesar uses her to get evidence on Burr. She's rumbled in the act and it's touch and go there. A nice solid story that moves along well. There's a good cast and they do the script right. A bit of film on a TV had a bit of the comedy styling by Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall. Peter would do himself right and get out of comedy and get into hosting Hollywood Squares. All in all a nice entertaining film.
Tough Assignment is the second feature and it came out in 1949. Don "Red" Berry and Marjorie Steele are a newly married couple, they've just returned home from their honeymoon. They stop off to get some groceries only to find the man at the butcher's has been attacked by hoodlums. They inadvertently snap a pic of the thugs as they leave and the thugs follow them home to get the film. A bit of rough and tumble leaves the couple alive but annoyed.
Don gets the idea that there's something fishy at the butchers and he's thinking protection racket. None of the butcher's in town will talk to him but he finds out that the problem is a gang has been forcing the butcher's to buy their illegally harvested beef products. The rustler's have a ranch and a meat factory. Quite a set up and they aren't none too happy to have the newspapers doing a story on stolen beef. They send some thugs after the couple but they manage to get away in time. The rest of the movie has the reporters going undercover at the ranch. Don maneuvers the crooks right from the get go.
There's a bit of jeopardy and some fun characters. I liked Don and Marjorie, too bad she only made four films. Marc Lawrence, Steve Brody and Sid Melton are among the crooks. Fun to watch. Glad to have it.
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