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. *.  

HEARTACHES (1947)

HEARTACHES (1947). Director: Basil Wrangell.

Obnoxious Vic Morton (Kenneth Farrell) is making his latest romantic movie, "Heartaches," when he gets a death threat in the mail. Vic's publicity agent, Toni (Sheila Ryan of Railroaded), is afraid that her boyfriend, reporter Jimmy McDonald (Edward Norris), will discover that Vic can't actually sing a note, but is dubbed by the un-handsome Bogey (Chill Wills). Lt. Armstrong (James Seay of Beginning of the End) thinks the business with the death threats -- which keep on coming -- is just a publicity stunt, but then a couple of dead bodies turn up. Potential suspects and victims include Mike Connolly (Frank Orth), Vic's agent, and Anatole Hendricks (Edward Earle),. who can't understand why Vic won't sign a very lucrative radio contract. 

Edward Norris, Sheila Ryan, Kenneth Farrell

Heartaches is better than the usual PRC production (which should stand for "Poverty Row Crap" but actually stands for "Producer's Releasing Corporation"), although this is still a minor murder mystery with the denouement practically a foregone conclusion. It has an interesting supporting cast: Keefe Brasselle as a prop boy who is also a suspect; Western star Lash La Rue as an actor in the film-within-a film whose gun somehow has real bullets in it (this is never really explained); Arthur Space of Panther Girl of the Kongo as a postal executive who investigates the threatening letters; Terry Moore as an actress in a coming attraction; and Minerva Urecal as a cleaning lady who discovers two corpses during her rounds. As for the leads, Chill Wills adds the most flavor as the man who was a lead vocalist with a band and is now just singing off-screen. Ken Farrell is suitably bitchy and twitchy, while Ryan and Norris are both adept but not terribly appealing. NOTE: Chill Wills was also lip-syncing -- the actual singer is unknown.

Verdict: Not since milli vanilli! **1/2. 

RAILROADED

Hugh Beaumont

RAILROADED (1947). Director: Anthony Mann. 

Steve Ryan (Ed Kelly) is falsely accused of robbery and the murder of a police officer when the real culprit is nasty hood Duke Martin (John Ireland). Duke's hard-as-a-hooker girlfriend, Clara (Jane Randolph), fingers poor Steve, but even she begins to develop a conscience when other witnesses wind up murdered. Sgt. Mickey Ferguson (Hugh Beaumont), a cop from the old neighborhood, has to arrest Steve, incurring the wrath of Steve's feisty sister, Rosie (Sheila Ryan), who begins a relationship with Duke to ferret out information. Meanwhile Mickey hopes he can get a love-sick but frightened Clara to turn on her boyfriend and tell the truth. 

John Ireland and Jane Randolph

Railroaded is an absorbing if minor entry in the film noir genre, bolstered by some good performances. Although best known as a kind of bland father on Leave It to Beaver, Beaumont was generally good playing cops, private eyes, and especially bad guys in low-budget melodramas like this one. Randolph and Ryan, who have a fairly zesty cat-fight at one point, are both effective as the ladies in the story, and Ireland makes a convincing villain. Steve Ryan is fine as the decent guy accused of a terrible crime, but he only appeared in two other pictures. Keefe Braselle plays another guy who took part in the robbery, and Roy Gordon [Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman] is a mob boss who gives Duke his orders; both are good. From PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation). 

Verdict: Lower case film noir with some interesting performers. **1/2.