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    Great Cinema Detectives: Best Movies of Mystery, Suspense & Film Noir
    Great Cinema Detectives: Best Movies of Mystery, Suspense & Film Noir
    Great Cinema Detectives: Best Movies of Mystery, Suspense & Film Noir
    Ebook526 pages9 hours

    Great Cinema Detectives: Best Movies of Mystery, Suspense & Film Noir

    By John Howard Reid

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    A review by Ross Adams in "Dress Circle" magazine: A diverse range of characters and movies appear within the pages of "Great Cinema Detectives: Best Movies of Mystery, Suspense and Film Noir" by John Howard Reid: Abbott and Costello, Charlie Chan, Margaret Rutherford, Humphrey Bogart, Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Tom Conway, Edward G. Robinson, Richard Basehart, George Sanders, Robert Mitchum, plus many, many more. So what have all these great movie identities got in common? Simply, they all starred in detective and mystery films. Margaret Rutherford of course was outstanding as Miss Marple in a number of "murder" pictures based on the characters created by Agatha Christie. All of them are reviewed in this book. As for Abbott and Costello, they starred in "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff", while heavies like Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum were featured in films like "The Harder They Fall", "The Maltese Falcon" and "His Kind of Woman". Ronald Reagan's name appears frequently, and of course no book about mystery movies would be complete without Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone. Among the other screen greats who are represented by appropriate films are Dennis Price, Jack Hawkins, William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Vivien Leigh, Irene Dunne, Walter Huston, Peter Ustinov, Lauren Bacall, Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino, Errol Flynn, Raymond Massey, Alan Ladd, Cary Grant, Norman Wisdom, and of course Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, both synonymous with suspense pictures. And dozens of other great actors. Many of the titles take us back to a different era. Who can remember Anna Karenina, Bulldog Drummond, Berlin Express, Calcutta, Charlie Chan, City That Never Sleeps, Farewell My Lovely, Harder They Fall, His Kind of Woman, House of Wax, Jane Eyre, Johnny Apollo, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Flying Scot, Night Train to Munich, The Thin Man, Town on Trial and Wages of Fear (that spellbinding edge-of-the-seat thriller)? In all, this book contains 192 reviews. John Howard Reid takes you through this myriad of films in his usual thorough style, listing the complete crew and all the actors and the parts they played in the movie, plus production and release dates in the U.S.A., Great Britain and Australia. He then gives a short synopsis and his own comments. For most films, he also provides an alternative review from other critics. I can thoroughly recommend "Great Cinema Detectives" to all fans of detective and mystery movies. I regard it as one of John Howard Reid’s most informative and interesting books. It is an invaluable guide not only to film buffs, but to all collectors of movie entertainments, whether they be film fans or DVD collectors. True, you may not necessarily agree with some of the comments presented in this book, but that is the beauty of publications such as this. They give readers and viewers something to think about. The comments may even make you change your views about a particular film. And readers may also be tempted to buy a DVD of a particular movie after reading JHR's expertly presented information.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Howard Reid
    Release dateApr 2, 2011
    ISBN9781458060969
    Great Cinema Detectives: Best Movies of Mystery, Suspense & Film Noir
    Author

    John Howard Reid

    Author of over 100 full-length books, of which around 60 are currently in print, John Howard Reid is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Merryll Manning series of mystery novels, anthologies of original poetry and short stories, translations from Spanish and Ancient Greek, and especially books of film criticism and movie history. Currently chief judge for three of America's leading literary contests, Reid has also written the textbook, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests".

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      Book preview

      Great Cinema Detectives - John Howard Reid

      GREAT CINEMA DETECTIVES

      BEST MOVIES OF MYSTERY, SUSPENSE AND FILM NOIR

      John Howard Reid

      ****

      Published by:

      John Howard Reid at Smashwords

      Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid

      ****

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      ****

      Original text copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.

      Enquiries: johnreid@mail.qango.com

      ****

      CHAPTER 1

      HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 21

      2011

      Other Books in the Hollywood Classics series:

      1. New Light on Movie Bests

      2. B Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies

      3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s

      4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West

      5. Memorable Films of the Forties

      6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s

      7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program

      8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment

      9. Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties

      10. Hollywood B Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills

      11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics

      12. These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards

      13. Movie Mystery & Suspense

      14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest

      15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic

      16. Hollywood Movie Musicals

      17. Hollywood Classics Index Books 1-16

      18. More Movie Musicals

      19. Success in the Cinema

      20. Best Western Movies

      21. Great Cinema Detectives

      22. Great Hollywood Westerns

      23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema

      24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies

      25. Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1—24

      --

      Other Movie Books by John Howard Reid

      Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD

      WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD

      British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD

      Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD

      CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ‘Scope

      CinemaScope Two: 20th Century-Fox

      CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge

      --

      Table of Contents

      A

      Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer {Boris Karloff} (1949)

      Accidental Death (1964)

      the Adventurers (1951)

      Adventures of Jane (1949)

      Afraid to Talk (1932)

      After the Thin Man (1936)

      Alerte au Deuxieme Bureau (1956)

      Anna Karenina (1948)

      Ann Vickers (1933)

      Another Thin Man (1939)

      Appointment with Death (1988)

      Armored Car Robbery (1950)

      Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1938)

      B

      Backfire (1950)

      Bank Raiders (1958)

      Baron’s African War (see Secret Service in Darkest Africa)

      the Bat (1959)

      Beast of the City (1932)

      Berlin Correspondent (1942)

      Berlin Express (1948)

      Bermuda Mystery (1944)

      Beware, My Lovely (1952)

      the Big Boodle (1957)

      the Big Tip-Off (1955)

      Black Limelight (1938)

      the Black Sheep of Whitehall (1941)

      Bloody Hands of the Law (see Mano Spietate della Legge)

      the Brothers Rico (1957)

      C

      Calcutta (1947)

      the Casino Murder Case (1935)

      Cat and Mouse (1958)

      Channel Crossing (1934)

      Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

      Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)

      Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)

      the Chinese Ring (1947)

      Circumstantial Evidence (1935)

      City That Never Sleeps (1953)

      the Clouded Yellow (1950)

      Code of the Secret Service (1939)

      Confession (1937)

      Convict 99 (1938)

      Court Martial of Major Keller (1961)

      Crime Reporter (see Criminal Investigator)

      Criminal Investigator (1942)

      D

      Dark City (1950)

      Dark Corner (1946)

      Daughter of Shanghai (1937)

      Daybreak (1946)

      Death Drives Through (1935)

      Deduce, You Say (1956)

      Desert Agent (see Secret Service in Darkest Afria)

      Desperate Men (see Cat and Mouse)

      the Devil Makes Three (1952)

      Diplomatic Courier (1952)

      E

      Edge of Doom (1950)

      Ellen (see Second Woman)

      the Enforcer (1950)

      Escapade (1957)

      Escape from Crime (1942)

      Espionage Agent (1939)

      the Ex-Mrs Bradford (1936)

      F

      the Falcon in Hollywood (1944)

      the Falcon in San Francisco (1945)

      Farewell, My Lovely (see Murder, My Sweet)

      Flaxy Martin (1949)

      Flesh and the Devil (1927)

      the Flying Scot (1957)

      Force of Evil (1948)

      Fortune in Diamonds (see Adventurers)

      G

      the Gang’s All Here (1941)

      Girls on Probation (1938)

      the Girl Who Had Everything (1953)

      the Glass Web (1953)

      Grand Central Murder (1942)

      Great Adventure (see Adventurers)

      H

      Hangover Square (1945)

      Harder They Fall (1956)

      Hell’s House (1932)

      High Command (1938)

      His Kind of Woman (1951)

      House of Wax (1953)

      How Do You Do? (1945)

      Human Desire (1954)

      I

      Island Captives (1936)

      J

      Jack of All Trades (1936)

      Jane Eyre (1934)

      Johnny Apollo (1940)

      Just Smith (1934)

      K

      Keep ‘Em Slugging (1943)

      Kennel Murder Case (1933)

      Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

      King of the Damned (1935)

      the Kiss (1929)

      L

      Larceny, Inc. (1942)

      Living Dead (see Scotland Yard Mystery)

      the Lodger (1926)

      M

      Mailbag Robbery (see Flying Scot)

      Main Event (1938)

      Malpas Mystery (1960)

      Maltese Falcon (1941)

      Man at the Carlton Tower (1961)

      Manhunt in the African Jungle (see Secret Service in Darkest Africa)

      Mano Spietate della Legge (1973)

      Midnight Man (1974)

      Mister Muggs Rides Again (1945)

      Mob Town (1941)

      Monte-Charge (see Paris Pick-Up)

      the Moonstone (1915)

      Muggs Rides Again (see Mister Muggs Rides Again)

      Murder Ahoy (1964)

      Murder at Malibu Beach (see Trap)

      Murder at the Gallop (1963)

      Murder by Decree (1979)

      the Murder Game (1966)

      Murder, Inc. (see the Enforcer)

      Murder Is My Beat (1955)

      Murder Man (1935)

      Murder Most Foul (1964)

      Murder, My Sweet (1945)

      Murder, She Said (1961)

      Murder with Pictures (1936)

      Mysterious Mr Valentine (1946)

      Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)

      Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)

      Mystery of Mister X (1934)

      Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

      Mystery Street (1950)

      Mystery Woman (1934)

      N

      Nest of Spies (see Alerte au Deuxieme Bureau)

      Night Holds Terror (1955)

      Night in Havana (see Big Boodle)

      Nightmare (1956)

      Night Moves (1975)

      Night Runner (1957)

      Night Train {to Munich} (1940)

      99 River Street (1953)

      Notorious (1946)

      Number 17 (1932)

      O

      Outrage (1950)

      P

      Paris Pick-Up (1963)

      Phantom of Paris (see Mystery of Marie Roget)

      Q

      Queer Money (see Smashing the Money Ring)

      Quick Millions (1931)

      R

      Rich and Strange (1931)

      S

      Saboteur (1942)

      the Saint in London (1939)

      Salaire de la Peur (see Wages of Fear)

      Satan Met a Lady (1936)

      Scapegoat (1959)

      Scarlet Claw (1944)

      Scotland Yard Mystery (1934)

      Scream of Fear (1961)

      the Second Woman (1950)

      Secret Code (1942)

      Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943)

      Secret Service of the Air (1939)

      Secret Ways (1961)

      Shadow of the Eagle (1932)

      Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)

      Shadows over Chinatown (1946)

      Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw (see Scarlet Claw)

      Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1942)

      Silent One (1972)

      Slander (1956)

      Smashing the Money Ring (1939)

      Smiling Ghost (1941)

      Song of the Thin Man (1947)

      Spider’s Web (1938)

      Stronger Than Fear (see Edge of Doom)

      T

      Taste of Fear (see Scream of Fear)

      Temptation (1946)

      Tension (1949)

      There’s That Woman Again (1938)

      There Was a Crooked Man (1960)

      They All Come Out (1939)

      Thin Man (1934)

      Thin Man Goes Home (1944)

      Third Time Lucky (1931)

      Third Visitor (1951)

      Three on a Match (1932)

      Too Many Thieves (1966)

      Tough As They Come (1942)

      Town on Trial (1956)

      the Trap (1946)

      Two of Us (see Jack of All Trades)

      U

      Unholy Garden (1931)

      Unpublished Story (1942)

      V

      Violators (1957)

      W

      Wages of Fear (1953)

      Who Done It (1942)

      Woman on the Run (1950)

      --

      Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer

      Bud Abbott (Casey Edwards), Lou Costello (Freddie Phillips), Boris Karloff (Swami Talpur), Lenore Aubert (Angela Gordon), Gar Moore (Jeff Wilson), Donna Martell (Betty Crandall), Alan Mowbray (Melton), James Flavin (Inspector Wellman), Roland Winters (T. Hanley Brooks), Nicholas Joy (Amos Stickland), Mikel Conrad (Sergeant Stone), Morgan Farley (Gregory Milford), Victoria Horne (Mrs Hargreave), Percy Helton (Abernathy), Claire Du Brey (Mrs Grimsby), Vincent Renno (Mike Relia), Murray Alper (Joe), Harry Hayden (Lawrence Crandall), Patricia Hall (manicurist), Marjorie Bennett (maid), Harry Brown (medical examiner), Beatrice Gray (woman), Frankie Van (Bozzo), Jack Chefe (barber), Eddie Randolph (bootblack), Phil Shepard (bellboy), Arthur Hecht (photographer), Eddie Coke, Billy Snyder (reporters).

      Director: CHARLES T. BARTON. Screenplay: John Grant, Hugh Wedlock Jr, Howard Snyder. Story: Hugh Wedlock Jr, Howard Snyder. Photography: Charles Van Enger. Film editor: Edward Curtiss. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun, Richard H. Riedel. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman and Oliver Emert. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Special effects: David S. Horsley. Music: Milton Schwarzwald. Assistant director: Joe Kenny. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey and Robert Pritchard. Producer: Robert Arthur.

      Copyright 8 September 1949 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 18 September 1949. U.S. release: August 1949. U.K. release: 23 January 1950. Australian release: 23 March 1950. 7,644 feet. 85 minutes. A Universal-International Picture.

      Alternative title: Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

      SYNOPSIS: A dim-witted bellboy at a resort hotel finds himself suspect number one in a murder investigation.

      COMMENT: The alternative title (widely used in America and England, but not in the censored-to-6,865-feet version released in Australia) pans out as a bit of a misnomer. It’s established at quite an early stage of the proceedings that Karloff is no killer. What’s even worse, his role occupies a pitifully meager amount of screen time. He’s actually allowed only one full scene in which to exercise his histrionic skill. One of the best scenes in the whole movie, admittedly, but hardly a justification for the excessive billing he receives in the title.

      Fortunately, the film presents plenty of other diversions, including some delightful slapstick by-play and a bit of hilariously quick-footed body-switching.

      We are also treated to some thrillingly atmospheric moments when photographer Charles Van Enger is allowed to run riot: the opening shot, for example, the dumping of the bodies into the basement, and, of course, the marvelous climactic chase and bizarre confrontation in the caverns. Mention should also be made of the fine sets created by Bernard Herzbrun and Richard H. Riedel. At the same time, we can all tingle to that wonderfully vintage Universal music score, so effective it was constantly used by the studio in movie after movie after movie (despite which of the studio’s in-house composers received the actual credit).

      However, I do make one note of caution for non-Abbott and Costello fans. You may find that the constant verbal battles between the two comics, plus Lou’s stupidly incessant interruptions to the deliberations of the other characters, do make the unfolding of the plot somewhat heavy going.

      --

      Accidental Death

      John Carson (Paul Lanson), Jacqueline Ellis (Henriette), Derrick Sherwin (Alan), Richard Vernon (Johnnie Paxton), Jean Lodge (Brenda), Gerald Case (police inspector), Jacqueline Lacey (Milly), Rilla Madden (nurse).

      Directed by GEOFFREY NETHERCOTT from a screenplay by Arthur La Bern, based on a story, Jack O’Judgement by Edgar Wallace. Photographed by James Wilson. Camera operator: Peter Allwork. Assistant director: Ted Lewis. Casting director: Ronald Curtis. Film editor: Geoffrey Muller. Music composed and directed by Bernard Ebbinghouse. Title music composed by Michael Carr. Art director: Peter Mullins. Make-up: Bill Griffiths. Production manager: Michael Morris. Set continuity: Kay Mander. Wardrobe: Eileen Welsch. Sound editor: Roy Norman. Sound recording: Sidney Rider and Ronald Abbott. Produced by Jack Greenwood for Merton Park Studios.

      Distributed in the U.K. through Warner Pathé/Anglo Amalgamated. U.K. release date: 8 March 1964. Australian distribution through B.E.F. Never theatrically released in the U.S.A. but available to TV through AVCO Embassy. 5,102 feet. 57 minutes.

      COMMENT: On acquiring the screen rights to most of Edgar Wallace’s novels and stories in 1960, Merton Park Studios made a total of 49 low-budget features. This is number 34, and the first of the two films (the other, Who Was Maddox?) in the series directed by Geoffrey Nethercott. The screenwriter, Arthur La Bern, also wrote numbers 18 (Time to Remember), 25 (Incident at Midnight), and 36 (The Verdict). Most of the other behind-the-camera personnel were used constantly throughout the series, which came to an end with Strangler’s Web in 1965. This is a passably entertaining entry. The photography is flat, but the direction shows some evidence of talent and the script holds the interest throughout the film’s 57 minutes.

      OTHER VIEWS: Entertaining minor thriller with plenty of pace and suspense and very neat performances from John Carson, Jacqueline Ellis and Richard Vernon. Within his obviously limited budget, Geoffrey Nethercott’s direction is fairly forceful.

      — E.V.D.

      Britain’s Edgar Wallace B-features are far drabber than their German contemporaries. This one is a little above the average for the series, having Miss Ellis (England’s answer to Merry Anders) and a climax in an electrified swimming pool which lingers in the mind long after the trivia of the war-time betrayal and vengeance plot.

      — B.P.

      --

      the Adventurers

      Dennis Price (Clive Hunter), Jack Hawkins (Pieter Brandt), Siobhan McKenna (Anne Hunter), Peter Hammond (Hendrik van Thaal), Gregoire Aslan (Dominic), Bernard Lee (O’Connell), Ronald Adam (van Thaal, senior), Charles Paton (barman), Martin Boddey (chief engineer), Phillip Ray (1st man in restaurant), Walter Horsbrugh (2nd man in restaurant), Cyril Chamberlain (waiter).

      Directed by DAVID MacDONALD from a story and screenplay by Robert Westerby. Photographed by Oswald Morris. Art director: Edward Carrick. Music composed by Cedric Thorpe Davie and directed by Muir Mathieson. Film editor: V. Sagovsky. Costumes: Joan Ellicott. 1st assistant director: Don Weeks. 2nd assistant director: David Peers. Associate producer: Alex Bryce. Producer: Aubrey Baring. Executive producer: Maxwell Setton.

      A Setton-Baring Mayflower Production, presented by J. Arthur Rank. Released in the U.K. through G.F.D., in Australia through B.E.F., in the U.S.A. through Lippert Pictures.

      Copyright 28 November 1951 (in Notice: 1950) by the Mayflower Pictures Corp., Ltd. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: December 1951. U.K. release: 9 April 1951. Australian release: 8 October 1953 (sic). 7,328 feet. 81 minutes. Cut to 75 minutes in the U.S.A.

      U.S. release title: THE GREAT ADVENTURE.

      Alternative U.S. title: A FORTUNE IN DIAMONDS.

      SYNOPSIS: Pieter Brandt (Jack Hawkins) and Hendrik van Thaal (Peter Hammond) are separated from their Boer Commando towards the end of the South African war. Pieter discovers a fortune in diamonds on the dead body of a smuggler. He hides them, intending to return. When he gets home he learns that his girl Anne (Siobhan McKenna), thinking him dead, has married Clive Hunter (Dennis Price), a wastrel expatriate Englishman.

      The local Law Officer O’Connell (Bernard Lee), who is also fond of Anne, owns a disused gold mine. Hunter has it surveyed, finds it has possibilties. He plans to buy it cheaply from O’Connell and sell at a profit.

      Hunter needs money for this project. Brandt needs money for his trek back to the diamonds. The pair form a distrustful partnership.

      VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: An English Treasure of the Sierra Madre, beautifully photographed by Oswald Morris on attractive South African locations. The characters, however, are pretty much stock figures, a fact that is emphasized by the director’s habit of filming dialogue in close-ups. The story is on the slow side, taking a long time to get under way, and it has only a perfunctory love interest. The special effects in the fire sequence are very poor, being very obvious superimpositions. Still, with cameraman Ossie Morris along, this film noirish trek to South Africa is well worth making.

      OTHER VIEWS: A dull safari to South Africa. A fine cast flounder throughout, trying to make the best of it, with Jack Hawkins a little more successful than the rest. But David Macdonald’s sub-routine direction manages to flatten any interest long before we have wended our weary way through it all. Oswald Morris tried to do something to give the film a lift with some striking photography but the effort was wasted.

      — E.V.D.

      An attempt at something off-beat in British films, a melodrama pivoting on a trek into the South African wilds to find a hidden diamond hoard, this film is a bit low on production values and movement, while the strong cast doesn’t get all the opportunities it deserves. As was often the case in English films of this period, it was considered adequate to put a story with a strong plot element on film and let the visuals take care of themselves. The result here is better than some.

      — B.P.

      --

      the Adventures of Jane

      Christabel Leighton-Porter (Jane, the cartoon girl), Stanelli (hotel manager), Michael Hogarth (Tom Hawke), Ian Colin (Captain Cleaver), Wally Patch (customs officer), Sonya O’Shea (Ruby), Peter Butterworth (drunk), Sebastian Cabot (foreign traveller), George Crawford (Freddie), Joan Grindley (maid), Sidney Benson (Sneyed), Charles Irwin (Lew).

      Director: EDWARD G. WHITING. Co-director: Alf Goulding. Screenplay: Alf Goulding, Con West, Edward G. Whiting. Based on the Daily Mirror comic strip by Norman Pett. Photographed in black-and-white by Jackson Rose. Film editor: Edward Scott. Music composed by Stanelli. Art director: Jack Floyd. Producer: Edward G. Whiting.

      A New World—Keystone Production. Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A., but available to television through both Hyams and UCC Films. U.K. release through Eros: floating from January 1950. Never theatrically released in Australia, but issued in New Zealand through British Empire Films. 5,061 feet. 56 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Jane is a cartoon character who comes to life and gets involved with diamond smugglers in Brighton.

      VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: In the days of my picturegoing childhood, I always imagined that every English-language film newly made would sooner or later (and sooner rather than later) find its way to my local neighborhood cinema. It never occurred to me that there existed a whole group of British movies, distributed by an Australian company, that were never shown in Australia at all. Held in bond at Australian customs, these movies, accompanied by Australian-printed daybills and one-sheets, were eventually shipped to New Zealand, where they were received, if not with acclaim, then certainly with profit.

      All Mancunian Productions were included in this group of all-British product. So Kiwis had a chance to admire the work of many music-hall-type comedians whose very names (aside from avid readers of the weekly Film Fun comics) were completely unknown to Australians. And still are. I’ve never seen Frank Randle or Jimmy Jewel or Ben Warriss or Nat Jackley (though Jackley did play on the stage in Sydney and Melbourne) or Harry Korris or Robby Vincent or Two-Ton Tessie O’Shea. The loss of Frank Randle from my picturegoing experiences is one I especially regret. Gracie Fields once described Frank as the greatest character comedian that ever lived! Certainly, he had an adoring public. In Northern England, he was a bigger box-office draw in most towns than Stewart Granger or James Mason or Errol Flynn.

      You can add to the Frank Randle-and-his-cohorts list, movies like The Adventures of Jane. From memory, the buxom brunette of the comic strip was forever getting involved in sexually innocent escapades and situations in which she was forced to strip down to her lingerie. This propensity, alas, was not fully transferred to the film, which has opted for a straight thriller format and is further negated by miserable production values, including fuzzy camerawork and poor sound recording.

      One of the most amazing things about the motion picture industry is the way prestigious A productions which made a fortune for their makers and distributors can completely disappear off the face of the earth a decade or so after their initial release. The list of so-called lost films is absolutely mind-bending. On the other hand, many Poverty Row movies seem to live forever. Like this one, they never disappear!

      OTHER VIEWS: This quota quickie emerges as a below-standard comedy-drama in all departments except brevity.

      — Eric Sarten.

      --

      Afraid To Talk

      Eric Linden (Ed Martin), Sidney Fox (Peggy Martin), Tully Marshall (Anderson), Louis Calhern (Wade), Berton Churchill (Manning), Edward Arnold (Jig Skelli), George Meeker (Lennie), Mayo Methot (Marge), Ian MacLaren (chief), Matt McHugh (Joe Skelli), Frank Sheridan (commissioner), Gustav von Seyffertitz (Berger), Reginald Barlow (Judge MacMurray), Edward Martindel (Major Jamison), Robert Warwick (Jake), Tom Jackson (Benchley), Joyce Compton (Alice), King Baggot (police officer), John Ince (Bill), George Chandler (Pete), Arthur Housman (a drunk), Ben Taggart (Detective Burke), G. Pat Collins (Archie), Kernan Cripps, Hal Price (arresting detectives), William Farrel, Robert Homans, Jack Dougherty, Lew J. Kelly (third degree detectives), Jim Farley (police sergeant), Lita Chevret (Molly), James Eagles (Sam), Joe Bonomo (party guest), Walter Brennan (sign carrier), Lynton Brent (Wade’s secretary), Ralph Brooks, Gladden James, William Wagner (reporters), Edward Thomas (bartender), Harry Tenbrook (Spike), Philip Sleeman, Pat Harmon (prison patients), Olin Francis (prison hospital guard), Clarence Geldart (third degree doctor), Charles Giblyn (doctor), Huntley Gordon (governor), Dorothy Granger (Kippie), Perry Ivins (unemployed man), Lew Kelly (mailman), Lew Meehan (jail official), Margaret Lindsay (bit), Fred Kohler, Jr (elevator operator), Monte Montague (electrician), Frances Morris (nurse), Lee Phelps (taxi-driver), Lorin Raker (Mike), Jack Richardson (editor).

      Director: EDWARD L CAHN . Screenplay: Tom Reed. Based on the 1932 stage play Merry-Go-Round by Albert Maltz and George Sklar. Photographed in black-and-white by Karl Freund. Supervising film editor: Maurice Pivar. Film editor: Milton Carruth. Art directors: Charles D. Hall, Edgar G. Ulmer. Camera operator: Richard Fryer. Assistant cameraman: Jack Eagan. Stills: Sherman Clark. Music: James Dietrich. Sound recording supervisor: C. Roy Hunter. Sound recording: Jess Moulin. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Executive producer: Carl Laemmle.

      Copyright 31 October 1932 by Universal Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Winter Garden: 18 December 1932. U.K. release: 29 April 1933. Australian release: February 1933. 69 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: See below.

      NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Avon, after a sensational off-Broadway debut on 22 April 1932 at Provincetown where it attracted record-breaking crowds and an unusually large volume of press attention. It ran 56 performances before transferring to the Avon where it lasted five weeks. It tells of a hotel bellboy (Elisha Cook Jr) who witnesses a murder by an influential crime czar (Harold Huber), who has the witness imprisoned and finally killed by the policemen who are supposed to be guarding him. Walter Hart and Michael Blankfort produced. Hart also directed.

      VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.

      COMMENT: Hard-hitting drama of judicial and political corruption, directed with surprising verve by Edward L. Cahn some years before he became a dreary director of inescapable, low-low-budget B movies. The cast is unusually strong, with stand-out performances from Tully Marshall as the cowering District Attorney, Louis Calhern as his corrupt assistant, Berton Churchill as the shifty mayor, Frank Sheridan as Police Commissioner Garvey, and Edward Arnold in the Harold Huber part.

      Superbly photographed by Karl Freund, Afraid to Talk is an excellent example of the socially-aware Hollywood movie of the early 1930s. One’s only quarrel with Hollywood is the substitution of a happy ending for the play’s more effectively dramatic downbeat curtain.

      Fortunately, it now appears that two endings were filmed. A happy one for American release and a version close to the stage play’s for the European market.

      For some reason, this brilliant film noir has not made anybody’s list. Why? Too old? Hardly. Underworld (1927) is frequently cited as a classic example of the genre. Does this movie lacks an appropriately noirish mood and atmosphere? Again, no. In fact cameraman Karl Freund is often quoted as a master of film noir lighting

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      After the Thin Man

      William Powell (Nick Charles), Myrna Loy (Nora Charles), James Stewart (David Graham), Joseph Calleia (Dancer), Elissa Landi (Selma Landis), Jessie Ralph (Aunt Katherine Forest), Alan Marshal (Robert Landis), Sam Levene (Lieutenant Abrams), Penny Singleton (Polly Byrnes), Dorothy Vaughn (Charlotte), Maude Turner Gordon (Helen), Teddy Hart (Floyd Casper), William Law (Lum Kee), William Burress (General), Thomas Pogue (William), George Zucco (Dr Adolph Kammer), Tom Ricketts (Henry, the butler), Paul Fix (Phil Byrnes), Joe Caits (Joe), Joe Phillips (Willie), Edith Kingdon (Hattie), John T. Murray (Jerry), John Kelly (Harold), Clarence Kolb (Lucius), Zeffie Tilbury (Lucy), Donald Briggs, Fredric Santley, Jack Norton (reporters), Baldwin Cooke, Sherry Hall, Jack E. Raymond (photographers), Ed Dearing (Bill, the San Francisco policeman), Dick Rush (San Francisco detective), Monte Vandergrift, Eddie Allen, Jimmy Lucas (men), Heinie Conklin (trainman), Mary Gordon (Rose, the cook), Ben Hall (butcher boy), George H. Reed (porter), John Butler (racetrack tout), Vince Barnett (wrestler’s manager), Ethel Jackson (girl with fireman), Arthur Housman (man rehearsing welcome speech), Jack Daley (bartender), Bert Scott (man at piano), George Guhl (San Francisco police captain), Norman Willis (fireman), Edith Craig (girl with fireman), Kewpie Martin (boy friend of girl standing on hands), Bert Lindley (station agent), James Blaine (San Francisco policeman), Guy Usher (chief of detectives), Bob Murphy (arresting detective), Harry Tyler (fingers), Bobby Watson (leader of late crowd), Eric Wilton (Peter, the butler), Henry Roquemore (actor’s agent), Constantine Romanoff (wrestler), Sam McDaniel (Pullman porter), Ernie Alexander (filing clerk in morgue), Louis Natheaux (racetrack tout), Jonathan Hale (night city editor), Jennie Roberts (girl who works with Jerry), Charlie Arnt (drunk), Harvey Parry (man who stands on hands), Jesse Graves (red cap), Alice H. Smith (Emily), Richard Powell (surprised policeman), Cecil Elliott, Phyllis Coghlan (servants), Frank Otto (taxi driver), Jack Adair (escort of dizzy blonde), Irene Coleman, Claire Rochelle, Jean Barry, Jane Tallant (chorus girls), Sue Moore (sexy blonde), Edith Trivers (hat check girl), George Taylor (Eddie), Lee Phelps (flop house proprietor), Chester Gan (Chinese waiter), Richard Loo (Chinese headwaiter), Lew Harvey, Jimmy Brewster (thugs), Harlan Briggs (Burton Forrest), Billy Benedict (newsboy), Murray Alper (kid), Charles Trowbridge (police examiner), Eadie Adams (girl), Asta and Mrs Asta.

      Director: W.S. VAN DYKE. Screenplay: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett. Based on the 1934 novel The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. Photographed in black-and-white by Oliver T. Marsh. Film editor: Robert J. Kern. Music score composed by Herbert Stothart and Edward Ward. Songs: Blow That Horn (Singleton) by Nacio Herb Brown (music) and Arthur Freed (lyrics); Smoke Dreams (Singleton) by Walter Donaldson, Chet Forrest, Bob Wright. Dances staged by Seymour Felix. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Harry McAfee. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Costumes designed by Dolly Tree. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Hunt Stromberg.

      Copyright 21 December 1936 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 24 December 1936. 110 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: No sooner do Nick and Nora Charles return to their San Francisco home from New York than they are confronted by family problems. Selma Landis, Nora’s cousin, pleads with Nick to help find her husband, Robert Landis, who has been missing for three days. Nick locates him in a Chinese cafe, and learns from the intoxicated man that he has been having an affair with cafe singer Polly Byrnes. David Graham, Polly’s former sweetheart, gives Robert $25,000 in bonds to go away and leave Selma alone. Robert accepts the funds and prepares to leave town when he is shot.

      NOTES: Second of the six-picture series. (See Song of the The Thin Man later on in this book).

      One of the top forty box-office attractions in North America for 1937.

      Goodrich and Hackett were nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for their Screenplay, losing to Story of Louis Pasteur.

      VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.

      COMMENT: All of us are a bit too hard on sequels. All of us. Critics, fans, general moviegoers, we all tend to judge the sequel by the standard of the original movie. Thus the thumbs down to Son of Kong, Belle Starr’s Daughter and The Return of a Man Called Horse. Yes, it’s certainly true that studios often skimp on production values when they have a ready market for a sequel. It’s equally true that the script is often hastily written and the film directed by a man whose emphasis is on celerity rather than meticulous craftsmanship. But many of these scruples do not apply to After the Thin Man. Here we have the same leads, the same director, same writers, same producer, even the same film editor. Mr Powell is the same sharp, inebriated, self-indulgent Charles, and Miss Loy continues to be gorgeously gowned by Dolly Tree. Only the supporting cast has changed. Instead of Nat Pendleton’s reasonably intelligent, co-operative police lieutenant, we now have Sam Levene’s more aggressive yet equally co-operative police lieutenant. Instead of Maureen O’Sullivan’s pleadingly lovely damsel-in-distress, substitute Elissa Landi’s slightly more hysterical yet equally attractive damsel-in-distress. Instead of a missing father, make it a missing husband. Instead of a more mature low-life friend for dad, introduce a more hoydenish bit of low-life for hubbie. Instead of a bookish brother for the heroine, conjure up a more sensitive, more helpful ex-lover. Don’t forget the matriarch and the blackmailer, they’re virtually the same. Mix them all together and round them all up for a final confrontation and there you have After the Thin Man. Never was there a truer title!

      Yes, same plot, same characters — but less action and more songs — why are we complaining that the sequel isn’t as bright, as witty, as agreeable as the original?

      I like it as much anyway. Maybe it’s a bit too talky — and loudmouthed Sam Levene does get on our nerves a bit — but it does have at least three incomparable advantages: — James Stewart, Penny Singleton and Jessie Ralph.

      To catch Jimmy Stewart in an unsympathetic role — I believe this is the only time he ever played a heel in his entire screen career — is reason enough to see After the Thin Man. But he does the part really well. In fact, it’s a performance that actually improves the more you watch it, full of subtleties that you miss on a first viewing: little bits of business, fleeting facial expressions, body movements and gestures that give more than a clue to the character’s real persona behind the oh-so-friendly and politely diffident mask.

      In another turn-up for the books, Penny Singleton here essays a characterization as far removed from Blondie as Peter Ibbetson from Count Dracula. She’s not only totally convincing, bogus accent and all, she doesn’t even look like Mrs Bumstead. And she has a couple of songs as well. What a wonderful bonus!

      For matriachal roles, you simply can’t go past Jessie Ralph. She’s the queen. Minna Gombell, by comparison, can rise no higher than upstairs maid. Admittedly, Jessie did occasionally step off her pedestal (for example, as the scourge of W. C. Fields in the 1940 The Bank Dick), but never lost her dignity.

      To these three reasons for catching After the Thin Man, add Bill Powell, Myrna Loy and a marvelous support cast. If Van Dyke’s direction isn’t quite as stylish, and if you tend to agree with some reviewers that too much time is wasted on the dogs, surely this rich assembly of favorite players more than compensates?

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      Alerte au Deuxieme Bureau

      Frank Villard (Captain Thierry), Genevieve Kervine (Martine Duverger), Marc Cassot (Inspector Lombard), Jean Tissier (Edgar Clement), Martine Sarcey (Helene), René Clermont, Hugues Wanner, Gerard Buhr, Alfred Goulin, Jacques Eyser, A. Medina, J. Montaine, P. Amiot, Dinan.

      Director: JEAN STELLI. Screenplay: Jean Kerchner. Photography: Marc Fossard. Film editor: Jean-Charles Dudremet. Art director: Daniel Guéret. Music: Marcel Landowski. Casting director: Tonio Sane. Production manager: Jean Kerchner. Producers: Michel Kagansky, Jacques Lebaudy, Evrard de Rouvre.

      A Films Serius Production, not copyright in the USA 1956. Never theatrically released in the USA but available to television stations through American-International. 85 minutes.

      American TV title: Nest of Spies.

      SYNOPSIS: The mysterious death of a well-known criminal sparks an investigation into national security.

      NOTES: First of the popular Deuxieme Bureau series, this entry was followed by Deuxieme Bureau contre Inconnu (1957), Rapt au Deuxieme Bureau (1958), Suspense au Deuxieme Bureau (1960), Deuxieme Bureau contre Terroristes (1961).

      COMMENT: It’s certainly odd to find the screenwriter doubling as production manager, but that’s indeed the case here. Frankly, it is the writing that would have benefited from a more professional approach. The proceedings are not only juvenile but dull. And despite much shooting on actual locations, Stelli’s direction comes over for the most part of the movie as disappointingly leaden, though it does spark into sudden life at unexpected moments. However, a compensating factor is the presence of two attractive blondes in the cast in the persons

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