G. I. HONEYMOON

Peter Cookson and Gale Storm

G. I. HONEYMOON (1945). Director: Phil Karlstein (Phil Karlson). 

Ann (Gale Storm of Gambling Daughters) and Lt. Bob Gordon (Peter Cookson) get married but things keep conspiring to keep them apart. They wind up renting an apartment in a place that was once a gambling casino -- leading to further complications -- and Ann incurs the wrath of the owner, Ace Renaldo (Jerome Cowan), when she manages to get a train compartment away from him via a little flirting and subterfuge. Renaldo makes certain the Military Police are informed that the place is off limits when Bob has a whole bunch of superior officers over for a cocktail party. Alleged pandemonium results. 

Gale Storm and Frank Jenks

The main strength of G.I. Honeymoon is the acting from the entire cast. Even in these early days Storm was an old pro, and Cookson displays his usual charm and adeptness. Cowan gives another excellent performance, and Frank Jenks (of The She Creature) scores a bullseye as Cowan's associate, "Blubber" Malloy. Arline Judge, Virginia Brissac (of The Mysterious Mr. M), and Jonathan Hale are also on hand and are also good, along with an uncredited actor who plays the love-smitten "Casanova." Although there are a few laughs in the film, there just aren't enough of them, with the picture coming off more as busy and frenetic than hilarious. From Monogram studios, of course.

Verdict: Just misses being a really funny movie. **1/4. 

STRANGE CONQUEST

Peter Cookson

STRANGE CONQUEST (1946). Director: John Rawlins.

Dr. Mary Palmer (Jane Wyatt) is quite put out when told that she can't join  Dr. Harris (Lowell Gilmore) at a research post in Sumatra because she's a woman. She's even more annoyed when she learns that her replacement is Dr. Bill Sommers (Peter Cookson of Fear), whose family is backing the foundation. When Bill arrives in Sumatra he is not warmly welcomed by Dr. Harris or his associate Bert (Milburn Stone of Swing It Professor), because they were expecting a more experienced doctor. Harris and Sommers both try to concoct a vaccine (or "serum") for something called "Black Grass Fever," which has already killed the man Sommers is replacing. Half an hour later in the running time Mary does get to meet Dr. Harris, although by this time he's impersonating Dr. Sommers. And then  Sommer's wife (Julie Bishop of Lady Gangster) shows up ...

Peter Cookson with Lowell Gilmore

I have withheld some of the plot details because the movie is unpredictable unless you've seen the previous version, which is called The Crime of Dr. Hallet. I think this film is meant to be ennobling and touching but it simply isn't convincing enough to do so. For that the actors cannot be faulted because everyone is perfectly on target, especially Cookson in one of his best portrayals. Cookson played Morris Townsend on Broadway in "The Heiress," but when the film was made the better-known Montgomery Clift got the part. Cookson would also have been marvelous and might have had an entirely different career had he been in the film version. Instead he mostly did cheap pictures for Monogram, and on occasion, bigger studios like Universal, which released Strange Conquest. 

Gilmore with Jane Wyatt

Lowell Gilmore was also an attractive and talented leading man type, but after a few movies, including The Picture of Dorian Gray, most of his credits were for television series. Jane Wyatt became more famous for Father Knows Best than anything else, but she did quite a few films earlier in her career. The synopsis on IMDB.com makes this sound like a film about a romantic triangle, but that is not the case. Wyatt is the only actor in this who is billed above the title. 

Verdict: Half-baked melodrama has a very adept cast. **1/2. 

FEAR

Peter Cookson

FEAR (1946). Director: Alfred Zeisler.  

Medical student Larry Crain (Peter Cookson) is weeks behind in his rent when he learns that he will no longer be able to get a scholarship. Feeling that a person should be allowed to be above the law if the situation warrants it, he murders Professor Stanley (Francis Pierlot), a miserly unlicensed pawnbroker, for his money, although things don't go quite as planned. As his relationship with a young lady named Eileen (Anne Gwynne) deepens, he is followed and interrogated by two policemen, Schaefer (Nestor Paiva) and Captain Burke (Warren William). Will guilt begin eating away at Larry? When another man is arrested for the crime, Larry may think he's gotten away with murder ... 

Anne Gwynne with Cookson

Who would have ever thought that Monogram studios would dare attempt their own version of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" or that it would be as credible as it is? Now let me make it clear from the first that this is by no means on the level of the book or of such previous film versions as Crime and Punishment with Peter Lorre in the lead, but it is also not the disaster that you might imagine it would be. Although the notion that guilt is eating away at Larry does not quite come across -- not because of any insufficiency in Cookson's acting but because of the very short running time -- Cookson delivers in a role that generally doesn't call for his usual charm or suavity. Anne Gwynne is not quite up to her more dramatic moments, but William and Paiva are perfect as the police officers. Without giving too much away, the film has two endings: one is more or less tragic, and the other -- well, let's just say it's rather "dreamy" and leave it at that. With another half hour of character development, this really might have amounted to something, but it's still interesting as it is. Jackson Rose's cinematography is an asset, as is the score by Edward J. Kay. 

Verdict: Crime and Punishment with a happy ending? ***.