QUIET PLEASE: MURDER

George Sanders

QUIET PLEASE: MURDER (1942). Director: John Francis Larkin. 

"We're really a couple of walking horror stories." -- Myra. 

Jim Fleg (George Sanders of Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons) is a murderous and completely immoral reprobate who steals a priceless manuscript from the public library and tries to sell off copies of it to unsuspecting and unscrupulous collectors. His partner is the equally reprehensible and dangerous Myra (Gail Patrick). Private eye Hal McByrne (Richard Denning of The Black Scorpion) romances Myra to try to get to the ringleader of this illicit operation. Everyone winds up at the library, where Fleg pretends to be a phony detective so he can rip off the place some more, placing Hal and librarian Kay (Lynne Roberts) in danger. Will the real police get there in time? Quiet Please: Murder is a minor crime meller with an expectedly notable lead performance from Sanders, who is always fun to watch, although others in the cast -- including Sidney Blackmer, Byron Foulger [The Magnetic Monster], Arthur Space and the ones already mentioned -- are all on top of things. 

Verdict: Stay out of the library! **3/4. 

KING OF THE MOUNTIES

Allan Lane returns as Sgt. Dave King

KING OF THE MOUNTIES (12-chapter Republic serial/1942). Director: William Witney. Colorized version.

After the success of King of the Royal Mounted, Allan Lane was brought back as Sgt. Dave King of the RCMP in this new cliffhanger with even more formidable adversaries. A deadly triumvirate consisting of Japanese admiral Yamata (Abner Biberman); German Marshal Von Horst (Wilhelm von Brincken); and Italian Count Boroni (Nestor Paiva) are working behind the scenes to destroy Canada. Professor Brent (George Irving of Spy Ship) has invented a special device that can detect the activities of the Axis trio's "Falcon," a rocket-controlled aircraft which takes the group into their HQ inside an active volcano. Traitors working for the Axis include Blake (Bradley Page) and Harper (Douglass Dumbrille of The Catman of Paris), with Anthony Warde and Jay Novello on board for more nefarious activity. William Bakewell plays another Mountie and associate of King's, Peggy Drake is Brent's daughter, Carol, and Duncan Renaldo is Harper's right-hand Pierre. 

Axis trio: Paiva, Biberman and von Brincken

King of the Mounties is another exciting serial with Lane making the most of his role, and such memorable cliffhangers as a car exploding with Carol inside it; King being dropped right out of the bomb bay of the Falcon; planes colliding in mid-air; and a runaway car that smacks into King as he stands at the edge of a cliff. As usual, you can easily lose count of how many fist fights with broken furniture there are -- at least two in every chapter -- and there are plenty of chases and breathless escapes. The actors are all game as well. There's a splendid climax inside the exploding volcano where our villains come to a satisfying ending. 

Verdict: Fine follow-up to King of the Royal Mounted. ***. 

TOMORROW WE LIVE

Jean Parker, Rose Anne Stevens, Emmett Lynn

TOMORROW WE LIVE (1942). Director: Edgar G. Ulmer. 

Julie Bronson (Jean Parker of Lady in the Death House) comes home to her father, "Pop" Bronson (Emmett Lynn), who runs a cafe but is actually working for a gangster known as The Ghost (Ricardo Cortez). When the Ghost meets Julie he instantly decides that he must have her, but although she gets a little weak in the knees, she is in love with handsome Lieutenant Bob Lord (William Marshall), who has just enlisted. Besides dealing with competition for Julie's affections, the Ghost -- so-called because he's managed to cheat death more than once -- also must contend with a rival, Big Charlie, who we never actually see because he sends his henchmen to do his dirty work. Bob proposes to Julie, but there's a hiccup when she learns that the Ghost has something on her father that could send him back to prison.

William Marshall

Although released in 1942, Tomorrow We Live comes off like a movie made ten years earlier. It's not just that it's a cheap PRC production that was probably shot in two days with a budget of 10 cents, but that its script is creaky and the musical score hokey as hell. Aside from Parker and Rose Anne Stevens as waitress Melba, the acting is so perfunctory that it's as if the performers were handed their scripts right before they stood in front of the cameras. Both Cortez and Marshall have given much better accounts of themselves, such as in the film they teamed for five years later, Blackmail. Director Edgar G. Ulmer, who has also done much better work, films a lengthy fist fight entirely in long shot! Ultimately this is pretty dull.

Verdict: One of Ulmer's worst movies. *.  

SUNSET SERENADE

Roy Rogers listens as Gabby Hayes sings

SUNSET SERENADE (1942). Director: Joseph Kane.

Although Vera Martin (Joan Woodbury) thought she was going to inherit a ranch from the deceased owner, it actually goes to his nephew, a one-year-old baby in the care of Sylvia Clark (Helen Parrish of X Marks the Spot). Sylvia doesn't know that Vera and her friend, Jackson (Onslow Stevens), are scheming to get the ranch away from her for a song. Wouldn't you know that Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, Bob Nolan (of Heldorado) and his Sons of the Pioneers ((including Pat Brady) are in the vicinity, out of work cowboys who are practically starving. In exchange for vittles, most of which are "et" by Gabby, Roy and his buddies help out Sylvia. Later on they have a shoot-out with Jackson's gang when he tries to steal cattle that Sylvia just sold to Clifford Sheldon (Frank M. Thomas) and Roy saves the man from a rushing river when a dam is exploded. There are also some forgettable songs sung by Roy, Bob, Pat and even annoying Gabby. Trigger doesn't have much to do in this one. Roy Barcroft of G-Men Never Forget plays one of the gang of bad guys. A "modern" western from Republic studios. 

Verdict: Acceptable but mediocre Roy Rogers entry. **. 

SPY SHIP

Maris Wrixon and Craig Stevens

SPY SHIP (1942). Director: B. Reeves Eason. Colorized. 

Pam Mitchell (Irene Manning) works for a committee that wants to keep the United States out of WW2, but she is actually a spy for the Axis powers, paid good money by German agents operating out of a ship in New York's harbor. Her sister, Sue (Maris Wrixon), has no idea of this but disagrees with her public isolationist policy. Sue is the girlfriend of reporter Ward Prescott (Craig Stevens of The Hidden Hand), who has become suspicious of Pam's activities; Pam's father (George Irving) seems to actively hate her. Pam is stringing along a poor sap named Gordon (Tod Andrews of From Hell It Came) but is secretly in love with another traitor, Martin Oster (William Forrest), who is more interested in getting his hands on some incriminating letters he sent her. Then Koshimo Haru (Keye Luke) shows up on the ship to tell him that Japan is about to take certain steps -- the next day Pearl Harbor is bombed. 

Stevens on the story

Despite everything going on, including the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Spy Ship is dull and seems much, much longer than an hour. Irene Manning makes a good villainess, but the death of this horrible creature occurs off-screen, providing no catharsis for the audience. It is also unbelievable that Ward's editor (Frank Ferguson of The Big Night), would get so excited about covering her murder on the very day of Pearl Harbor -- that's all that anyone would be talking or reading about! Craig Stevens walks through the movie with one expression, and his character never seems to get all that excited about anything. Maris Wrixon is acceptable as the good sister, but she's too bland to be memorable. 

Verdict: Not even Keye Luke can save this. *1/2. 

GANG BUSTERS

Kent Taylor, Irene Hervey, Robert Armstrong

GANG BUSTERS (13 chapter Universal serial/1942). Directors: Noel M. Smith; Ray Taylor. Colorized.

The city is under siege by "The League of Murdered Men," a sinister group of supposedly dead criminals run by Professor Mortis (Ralph Morgan of Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.). Mortis keeps his underlings in line by telling them -- once he has revived their "corpses" after plastic surgery -- that they must take a daily pill he has concocted or they will succumb to death for real. Mortis is less interested in financial gain than he is in revenge on all city authorities, especially the chief of police (Joseph Crehan) and the dyspeptic mayor (George Watts). Fighting against Mortis and his dead men are Detective Bill Bannister (Kent Taylor of The Crimson Key), his junior partner Tom Nolan (Robert Armstrong of Exposed), reporter Vicki Logan (Irene Hervey) and shutterbug Happy Haskins (Richards Davies), one of whom is secretly working for Professor Mortis.

Ralph Morgan as "Professor Mortis"

Gang Busters, not to be confused with the later TV series of the same name, is a top-notch Universal serial that is swiftly-paced and consistently exciting. Especially good sequences include a fight on a plane in chapter one, and a thrilling battle atop a speeding train. The leads are quite adept, and there is notable work from some actors cast as gang members, including William Haade as dimwitted Mike Taboni, George J. Lewis, and John Gallaudet as Wilkinson. Morgan is excellent as the sinister and hateful "Professor Mortis." An interesting if zany touch has it that the only entrance to the professor's underground lair is through a trap door in the middle of the subway tracks. Wild!

Verdict: Fun, fast-paced serial action now in color! ***. 

LURE OF THE ISLANDS

Robert Lowery and Margie Hart

LURE OF THE ISLANDS (1942). Director: Jean Yarbrough.  

During WW2 two American agents -- Wally (Robert Lowery of Sensation Hunters) and Jinx (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams) -- are told by the skipper (Tristram Coffin) to swim to a Tropical island paradise that may be a nest of Axis agents. There the boys encounter two women: Brooklyn-born Tana (Margie Hart), who hopes Wally will marry her and take her back to the U.S.; and Maui (Gale Storm of Nearly Eighteen), who is only interested in Jinx when Tana fibs that he's a pig millionaire. In this not terribly serious "war" film with song numbers, the foursome have to deal with a Nazi commandant (Ivan Lebedeff) and some Japanese who hope to turn the island into their base. 

Williams and Storm

Margie Hart was a burlesque stripper -- a competitor of Gypsy Rose Lee's -- who tried to kickstart a movie career by starring in this Monogram cheapie, which throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Unfortunately, Hart proved to be barely adequate as an actress. Although she later took acting lessons and did some theater, Lure of the Islands was her first and last movie. However, this is the kind of schlock that Lowery, Williams and Storm could probably do in their sleep, and they make a better impression. Hart warbles the pretty title tune (although she may have been dubbed) and Gale does a very cute number entitled "My Tahiti Sweetie" that boasts some clever and amusing lyrics. Kahala and Odetta Bray are the pretty native dancers and singers. 

Verdict: Another weird low-budget melange from Monogram. **1/2. 

LADY GANGSTER

LADY GANGSTER (1942). Director: Robert Florey. 

A failed actress, Dot Burton ( Faye Emerson), gets in with a gang of hoods and becomes embroiled in a bank robbery scheme. She winds up doing time with an interesting bunch of lady inmates, and then things get really complicated. This fast-paced, lively and very entertaining "B" movie is so unpredictable for the most part that it would be criminal to give away any more of the plot elements. It has the very casual immorality of most of these kind of movies. Emerson gives a vivid and adept performance as Dot, as does Ruth Ford as "stool pigeon" Lucy, Julie Bishop as inmate Myrtle, Dorothy Adams as "Deaf Annie," and Virginia Brissac as the warden Mrs. Stoner. Hedda Hopper's son William, herein billed as "DeWolf Hopper," has a small role, as does "The Great One" -- Jackie Gleason (billed as Jackie C. Gleason). Hopper is as stiff as ever (except when he was on Perry Mason), but Gleason makes a nice impression as a pleasant member of the robbery gang who has a soft touch for Dot. Roland Drew as gang leader Carey looks surprisingly good in drag. Frank Wilcox is only adequate as Kenneth, the old friend of Dot's who turns her in and then tries to help her. Robert Florey also directed The Beast with Five Fingers. Bishop, Ford, Drew, and Wilcox were all in The Hidden Hand. 

Verdict: A pleasant surprise. ***.

THE SECRET CODE

The Black Commando

THE SECRET CODE (15 chapter Columbia serial/1942). Director: Spencer Gordon Bennett. 

Lt. Dan Barton (Paul Kelly) is framed for sabotage and goes on the run. He tries to ingratiate himself with a gang of Nazi saboteurs and prove that he is trustworthy. Putting on a mask and dark outfit, he also runs about as the Black Commando, doing things he can't do as Barton. A sticky situation develops when the one man on the force who knows the truth about Barton is killed, but he still has supporters, including Sgt. Pat Flanagan (Clancy Cooper) and reporter Jane Ashley (Anne Nagle), who suspects Barton is the Commando. In both guises, Barton tries to foil the nefarious plots of the saboteurs while remaining close enough to get the information he requires to stop them. 

Anne Nagel and Paul Kelly

A superior Columbia chapterplay, The Secret Code has lots of action and exciting cliffhangers: Dan trapped by a deadly gas which causes an explosion; a fall off a skyscraper; trapped in webbing on a dock and nearly crushed by falling crates; and forced to shoot Flanagan in chapter thirteen. The bad guys employ a desk that lowers into the floor to reveal their secret headquarters, and at one point try to use radio bombs in one of their nasty schemes. Stalwart Paul Kelly and the fruity-voiced Anne Nagel give very good performances, handling this material with just the right touch. Trevor Bardette [Jungle Girl] plays the secret leader of the spies. Spencer Gordon Bennett also (co) directed The Purple Monster Strikes and many other serials.

Verdict: Snappy serial material. ***1/4. 

THE CORPSE VANISHES

 

THE CORPSE VANISHES (1942). Director: Wallace Fox.

A series of young brides collapse and apparently die in front of the altar on their wedding days, and then their bodies -- taken away by a hearse -- completely disappear. Could Dr. Lorenz (Bela Lugosi) be the culprit? A reporter named Patricia Hunter (Luana Walters) discovers that each woman was wearing a special kind of orchid at her wedding. Patricia's editor is so stupid that he doesn't seem to think this is any kind of a clue! Tristram Coffin (billed as Tris Coffin), the King of the Rocket Men himself, plays the Lorenz' family doctor, while Elizabeth Russell from The Seventh Victim, Weird Woman, and others, plays Lorenz' aged wife who needs, shall we say, frequent beauty treatments. This holds the attention but it isn't one of Bela's better latter-day features. An interesting idea isn't well developed. Lugosi is good, as usual.

Verdict: Hold the orchids if you dare. **.

X MARKS THE SPOT

Damian O'Flynn

X MARKS THE SPOT (1942). Director: George Sherman. 

Eddie Delaney (Damian O'Flynn of The Hidden City) is a private eye who is about to go into the Army. His father, Timothy (Robert Homans), is a beat cop who is shot to death when he confronts some suspicious characters at a warehouse. Eddie is determined to find out who murdered his dad, but he is warned by Police Lt. Bill Decker (Dick Purcell) that he can't become a vigilante no matter how he feels. When a suspect named Marty Clark (Jack La Rue) is shot and killed in his own nightclub, Bill arrests Eddie for the crime. In tried and true PI fashion, Eddie slugs Bill and takes off to solve the crime on his own. He has help from his "dream gal," Linda (Helen Parrish), a woman whose voice he has only heard when he asks for a song on the jukebox but who got involved in the murder when someone asked her to say there was a black-out and she tells everyone to turn out the lights. 

Helen Parrish and Damian O'Flynn

X Marks the Spot is a standard WW2 private eye melodrama that doesn't boast too many surprises. Not as rugged as other private dicks, O'Flynn still makes a reasonably appealing protagonist, and Dick Purcell is also good as the head cop on the case. Helen Parrish is acceptable as Linda but there are more interesting females in the movie, such as Lulu (Anne Jeffreys), who dallies with Marty, and Billie (Edna Harris), Linda's amusing older co-worker. The only other well-known cast member in the movie is Neil Hamilton, who plays a man who hires Eddie to find out who stole two empty trucks that belonged to his company.

O'Flynn with Dick Purcell

The motive behind everything may seem strange today but we have to remember that during WW2 rubber was a hot commodity. This is another movie that takes advantage of the fact that decades before the jukeboxes with which we are familiar, people in clubs could get tunes by calling up an exchange wherein the "d.j" would play records at a central location and pipe them out to different establishments (or something like that; it's a bit confusing, frankly). George Sherman also directed The Lady and the Monster. 

Verdict: Acceptable PI meller. **1/2. 

THE HIDDEN HAND

Milton Parsons

THE HIDDEN HAND (1942). Director: Benjamin Stoloff. 

Insane murderer John Channing (Milton Parsons) escapes from an institution by hiding in the back of a police car! He arrives at the mansion owned by his sister, Lorinda (Cecil Cunningham), who wants his help in carrying out a sinister scheme. Convinced that her relatives are only out for her money, she invites them all to her house, fakes her death, and hopes they will all kill each other off -- or become victims of John, who is pretending to be a new butler. Lorinda's secretary, Mary (Elisabeth Fraser) is said to be her main heir, so she becomes a target almost immediately. 

Craig Stevens and Cecil Cunningham

Half an hour into the film's brief running time, the star Craig Stevens, playing lawyer Peter Thorne, who is engaged to Mary, shows up to intercede in events. There are more murders and a bit of skulduggery as well, including sequences with secret panels and trapdoors that overhang deep drops into the ocean. The male relatives are played by Roland Drew, Tom Stevenson, and Frank Wilcox, while the ladies are portrayed by Julie Bishop and Ruth Ford, with Inez Gay cast as the unfortunate maid, Hattie, and Marian Hall as the sinister nurse, Eleanor. Kam Tong is the Chinest servant Mallo, who is one of several people who come to a bad end. 

"I don't like that pigeon." Willie Best

The most likable player is Willie Best, who plays Eustis, the chauffeur. Approaching an agitated raven in his mistress' bedroom, he says, "I don't like that pigeon and he doesn't like me, either." The Hidden Hand is too loopy to work as a serious mystery film, and it isn't funny enough to work as a black comedy, so what we've got is a fairly foolish melodrama with mostly insufficient acting. Even Cecil Cunningham isn't very good, and Stevens [Peter Gunn] has little to do but look pretty. Willie Best does his usual shtick, but he steals the move doing it. Elisabeth Fraser makes little impression as Mary, but Parsons is typically effective as one of his gallery of creeps. 

Verdict: An instantly forgettable so-called comedy melodrama.  **.