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. *.  

MYSTERY IN MEXICO

Jacqueline White and William Lundigan

MYSTERY IN MEXICO (1948). Directed by Robert Wise.

When one of his colleagues, Glenn Ames (Walter Reed), disappears, insurance investigator Steve Hastings (William Lundigan) flies down to Mexico to try to find him. He isn't certain if Glenn might be involved in dirty business concerning a stolen necklace, so he attaches himself to Ames' sister, Vicky (Jacqueline White), to see what she knows -- he's also not certain about her. Vicky is a nightclub singer who goes to work for club owner John Norcross (Ricardo Cortez), who has a jealous girlfriend named Delores (Jacqueline Dalya) --she makes a play for Steve even as Vicky is fighting her attraction to him. When a bartender (Armando Silvestre) who may have information regarding Glenn is killed in a suspicious accident, Steve realizes he is on the right track and there may well be danger involved. 

Lundigan looks for clues

An early film directed by Robert Wise, Mystery in Mexico is pleasant, well-acted, and moves swiftly at a little over an hour's running time. It is also extremely minor-league. Lundigan could do this type of material in his sleep, Cortez is suitably oily and makes a rather loathsome villain, and Jacqueline White is  perfectly adept as the heroine. White was a pleasing leading lady who had a handful of credits and whose most famous film is Narrow Margin. Released by RKO.

Verdict: Acceptable if decidedly minor mystery. **1/2. 

BLACKMAIL (1947)

William Marshall and Ricardo Cortez

BLACKMAIL (1947). Director: Lesley Selander. 

Ziggy Cranston (Ricardo Cortez) calls in a private eye, Danny Turner (William Marshall), when he is blackmailed by a avaricious gal named Carla (Stephanie Bachelor). When Carla is murdered, Ziggy is less concerned that he might be accused of the crime than that there might be associates of the dead woman who still have the incriminating photographs. This turns out to be true, and one of those associates winds up dead in Ziggy's swimming pool. Thinking Ziggy did the deed, Danny wants no part of murder and calls the police, but when the cops, including Inspector Donaldson (Grant Withers) get there the body has disappeared. Ziggy's gal, Sylvia (Adele Mara), backs up his story that there was no murder and no body, but Danny determines to get to the bottom of things. Along the way he has to contend with casino owner Kellaway (Roy Barcroft of The James Brothers of Missouri), his punch-happy associate, Pinky (Tristram Coffin of King of the Rocket Men), the supposedly French chauffeur Antoine (Richard Fraser of The Tiger Woman), and other nefarious characters before he reveals the true killer at the climax.

"I didn't do it!" Ricardo Cortez and Adele Mara

Blackmail is another bit of film noir from Republic studios featuring many of their contract players. Star William Marshall, who was once married to Ginger Rogers, makes a very convincing movie-type private eye radiating toughness and insolence in equal measure although he isn't given many opportunities to love up the ladies. Cortez plays the part in such a way that you never quite know if he's on the level or making things up as he goes along. Adele Mara is okay if a little bland in this as Cortez' squeeze. The plot is a wild and confusing  concoction that has a few holes in it, although it's entertaining enough and fast-paced. Marshall should have made more of these but this was his only appearance as Danny Turner. Probably the best thing about the movie are the ferocious fistfights which approach the level of the fisticuffs seen in Republic serials.

Verdict: Fast-moving Republic private eye flick. **1/2.