Musical Monday with LostProphets

Part crime drama about small-time British crooks and part music video, "For He's a Jolly Good Felon" is the first chapter of a story about Simon (Sie Haworth) and a few other hapless men trying to get out from under the thumb of a vicious gangster/fight promoter, Harry (Alan Ford). It closes on a cliffhanger, and if I ever find Part Two, it will be featured in a future post here... because I liked both the music and film portions of this neat video--which is something of a throwback to the Golden Age of Music Videos during the 1980s and 1990s.

By the way, if you liked Alan Ford in "Snatch" (2000), you may like this one, too: He essentially plays the same character here as he did in that movie.

For He's a Jolly Good Felon (2010)

Starring: Alan Ford, Sie Haworth, Richard Sharpe, and Ian Watkins 

Director: Charlie Lightening

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

The Scottish Play, Retold

At some point during the mid-1950s, writer/artist Mort Meskin created the following retelling of Shakespeare's "MacBeth". Meskin's version moved the action from 11th century Scotland to 20th century America, and replaced the competing clansmen with gangers. Enjoy this rarity (and click on each page for a larger, more easily read version).

 
 
 

 

For more obscure (but fascinating) comics and art, check out The Bristol Board.

'Wedding Present' is a gift for Cary Grant fans

Wedding Present (1936)
Starring: Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, William Demarest, Edward Brophy, Gene Lockhart, Conrad Nagel, and Purnell Pratt
Director: Richard Wallace
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Charlie and Rusty (Grant and Bennett) are big-city journalists who are colleagues and lovers who spend as much time tracking down leads and working on stories as they do pulling pranks and staging elaborate practical jokes. When Charlie is promoted to editor, and he suddenly has to be serious about managing writers and assignments, his relationship with Rusty falls apart. It isn't until she's about to marry a stuffy author of self-help books (Nagel) that Charlie quits his new job, reverts to his previous self, and tries to win her back with the help of a notorious gangster (Demarest).

"Wedding Present" is a fast-moving, witty comedy. It's a little too fast-moving in some ways, as the first half of the film feels more like you're watching a series of loosely connected sketches rather than a movie. It put me in mind of some comedy television series, such as "Faulty Towers" or "'Allo, 'Allo" where most episodes unfolded with a series of almost free-standing sketches that were only united by a circumstance which framed them. 

As the film continues, the story begins to coalesce firmly around the rocky romance of Charlie and Rusty. At about the halfway-mark, the film ends up firmly in romantic comedy territory. It's almost like we're watching a sequel to the first half, as this part is comes complete with its own beginning, middle, and end. Some of the "skits" from the first half turn out to be crucial to the story here, but if we'd walked in late, we wouldn't have missed anything, because characters remind us of what went on and why they're doing what they're doing. 

This is not a great movie, but it's not a terrible one. Its odd structure is a bit distracting, but it's not a fatal flaw. In some ways, what I view as a flaw might make it more enjoyable for some viewers, especially those who are big Cary Grant fans.

"Wedding Present" is one of the first films where Grant was unquestionably the star. While Joan Bennett certainly holds an important role in the story, has lots of screen-time--most of it in scenes with Grant--it is Grant who carries the movie. His is the character the audience is primarily invested in, and the story that's ultimately told is that of Charlie's road to life-long happiness (if not maturity). It's also the film where, I feel, that he clearly has come into his own as a comedic screen actor. Thanks partially to the episodic nature of this film's first half, we get to see Grant perform in different comedic styles, playing off different actors and situations... and even being the straight man in a scene or two. 

Cary Grant is so much fun to watch in this film--especially in scenes shared with Joan Bennett (who gives as good as she gets, every single time) and William Demarest (who does a great job at walking the line between seeming funny and dangerous) that I almost gave it Seven Stars. The totality of the odd structure, though, made me decide to give it the highest possible Six Star rating. This is a highly entertaining, but flawed, film that contributes to making the "Cary Grant: Screen Legend Collection" well worth the purchase price. (I've watched three of the five films in the set so far, and each was almost worth the price by itself.)

Oh--a fun way to watch this film is to consider it a prequel to "His Girl Friday". It's very easy to imagine the lead characters from this film being those portrayed by Grant and Rosalind Russell in that one. Maybe you should get both and have a double-feature watch party with friends!

A Stranger's Final Moments...

Stranger (2013)
Starring: Gabriel Burrafato, Nathalie Ben-Kely, Rusty Meyers, and Billy Gilbride
Director: Brandon Christensen
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Stranger (Burrafato), a lonely hitman who is now a target for death himself, is resigned to spending his final moments, admiring Iris (Ben-Kely), the woman he secretly loves from afar. But then things take a turn....

"Stranger" is a short film from 2013 that set out to capture the look and mood of the film noir genre of the late 1940s and early 1950s. It is largely successful--especially during the shots of Gabriel Burrafato sitting at the bar while his character internally monologs. 

In addition to some great cinematography, this little film features a story and characters that's portrayed effectively enough that not only will you be able to imagine what has gone before and what will follow the events shown on screen, but you may find yourself wishing there was more time with Stranger, Iris, and whoever Stranger has crossed than just these few minutes.

As enjoyable and well-done as I found this film to be, there were a couple things about it that bothered me--admittedly small things but one still bugged me enough to rise above the level of a nitpick.

There needed to be a difference in sound quality between Stranger's narration and the conversation he has with Iris. Stranger's internal monolog happens against an audio backdrop of total silence, which makes sense since it's in his head, but the same is true of the exchanges he has with Iris. The parts where Stranger isn't narrating would have benefitted tremendously from a little ambient sounds drifting in from nearby tables or other patrons at the bar.

Despite that highly technical complaint, I think "Stranger" is an excellent short film, and I think you'll find the four minutes it will take you to watch it well worth your time. It may even brighten your day... because who doesn't like a love story (even one between a hitman and a hostess... perhaps *especially* one between a hitman and a hostess)? 

Hey, I think you'll like it so much that I've embedded it below, via YouTube, so you can watch it right now!

Musical Monday with the Melbourne Ska Orchestra

The Melbourne Ska Orchestra (MSO) is fun-loving big band that's been performing infectious ska since 2003, first as a side project by its core group, but eventually as the main focus. Led by Nicky Bomba, the MSO is 36 members strong, but have been known to perform with as few as 17 musicians on stage. However many are up there swinging and shimmying, the music they put out will make you want to dance.

Even a song about a bloody gang war is a fun time when coming from the guys and gals of the MSO! Please enjoy it right now, with our hopes that you have a great week!

Trivia: Lygon Street is the heart of Melbourne's "Little Italy" neighborhood. We find it interesting  that Italian immigrants seem to give rise to the same stereotypes no matter where they are in the world.

(Oh... and if anyone ever makes a gangster/mafia comedy set in Melbourne, they should just go ahead and use this song and video and just lay opening credits over it, because you're probably not going to come up with anything better.)

For more on the MSO, visit their website by clicking here. Also, by clicking here, you can check out the fun video for their excellent arrangement of the "Get Smart" theme that first brought them to our attention.

The stars of 'Corsair' give strong performances, but are let down by a flawed script

Corsair (1931)
Starring: Chester Morris, Thelma Todd (as Alison Loyd), Frank McHugh, Mayo Methot, Fred Kholer, Ned Sparks, and Emmett Corrigan
Director: Roland West
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

It's Prohibition Era America. John Hawks (Morris), a one-time college football star grows angry and disgusted with the predatory business practises of his investment banker boss (Corrigan), and the way his boss's daughter, Alison (Todd), seems to treat him like her property and possible living sex doll, he decides to turn the tables on them by becoming a predator himself: Teaming up with the mistreated and disgruntled employees (Sparks and Methot) of bootlegger Big John (Kohler), with whom the banker is secretly in business, Hawks launches a pirating operation geared toward intercepting Big John's shipments and selling the stolen booze to the investment banker, thus making him pay for the same illicit goods twice.

As the summary above might indicate, "Corsair" is a complicated story. It is full of twists and turns and reversals. Some of these are surprisingly tragic. It's also a story that's populated with great characters... but, unfortunately, the most important of these characters are not developed to their full potential--the two main characters, John Hawks and Alison Corning.

Thelma Todd is best remembered today for her roles in comedies, but she proves in "Corsair" that she could tackle dramatic roles with just as much effectiveness. Her man-eating character in this film is so cold and self-assured that she doesn't even try to hide her dark heart and lusts. While watching the film, I had the sense that Todd's character was more than just a spoiled rich girl with a wild and independent streak, but was actually a sociopath or perhaps even a psychopath.

Unfortunately, we never see enough of Todd interacting with other characters to really know if my interpretation of her is right or wrong. She comes onto Hawks, who sees her for what and who she is and rebuffs her advances again and again. This only makes her come at him harder, and it's what eventually puts her in the middle of Hawks piracy operation, and everyone in danger (including herself and her feckless fiance).

Speaking of John Hawks, as mentioned, his character is woefully underdeveloped. We know he's an ex-football star, we know he's a man of high morals and is willing to stand by those morals... but it's never made obvious why he goes to the extremes he does, becoming a pirate with the express purpose of robbing a powerful and dangerous bootlegger just so he can stick it to a rich banker who happens to have a sociopathic daughter who set her sights on him. Maybe something happened between  Alison and John during the months he worked for her father that we aren't privy to, or maybe John saw more dirty dealings on the part of his employer beyond hard-selling little old ladies on risky investments that made more money for the firm than for them? Who can say, because there's nothing in the film to give a clearer reason for why John does what he does.

This lack of depth to John and Alison, or any dimension to their relationship with each other, makes them boring lead characters, and it causes them to be overshadowed by John's "insiders" in the bootlegger's operation--a couple, Sophie and Slim (played by Mayo Methot and Ned Sparks), who help John rob their boss because their cut will allow them to escape the yoke of crime they are laboring under. Methot, for example, has a couple of really effective scenes that deftly define her character's motivation, her relationship with Sparks, as well as inspire a great deal of sympathy from the viewers. If only Todd or Morris had been given such well-crafted scenes to perform.

Aside from the underdeveloped main characters, "Corsair" is mostly an excellent film. It's a different sort of gangster movie that's beautifully and creatively filmed--with some surprisingly modern-seeming techniques given that this is a film from 1931, from a director whose career was over at this point--and it delivers tension and suspense found all-too-rarely in the B-pictures of this period.

I say "mostly excellent" because the great parts of the film are sandwiched between absolute dreck. The opening scene is dragged out and annoying because the filmmakers obviously and clumsily try to conceal Thelma Todd's identity for as long as they could--she made this film under what was supposed to be her "new stage name", so I suspect they were going for a Big Reveal and failed. And the film's finish is absolutely awful and out of step with the rest of the movie. I won't say anything more, for risk of spoiling it, but Morris and Todd's final scene together is perhaps one of the worst bits of cinema the public has ever been subjected to.

All in all, the good in "Corsair" outweighs the bad, and I think it's worth checking out for anyone who likes 1930s crime dramas. It's also worth watching for the performances given by Ned Sparks and Mayo Methot, as well as those of Chester Morris and Thelma Todd. In each case, we get to see them play types of roles that they were rarely seen in... and they get to show that they were actors with greater range than their professional pigeon-holes allowed them to show. (One can only imagine how great Morris and Todd could have been if they had been graced with the sort of material that Sparks and Methot had to work with.)




Trivia
Alison Loyd is better known as Thelma Todd. This was the one and only time she used that "stage name", reportedly at the urging of her boyfriend, director Roland West, and a numerologist who claimed it would help her career.

Also, this was the first film role for Mayo Methot. She would go onto have a minor film career that would be over by 1940, thanks to her alcoholism and bad temper. (Once, in a drunken rage during her short marriage to Humphrey Bogart, she threatened him and dinner guests with a loaded gun.)

Finally, "Corsair" was director Roland West's last movie. His career had been waning since silent movies fell out of favor, and in 1934 he went into business with Thelma Todd as co-owner of a cafe. Following her death in 1935, he broke for good with everything Hollywood related. 

This 'Conspiracy' isn't worth uncovering

Conspiracy (1930)
Starring: Bessie Love, Ned Sparks, Hugh Trevor, Gertrude Howard, Rita La Roy, and Donald MacKenzie
Director: Christy Cabanne
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

After killing a drug kingpin, Margaret (Love) is hiding from both the drug syndicate and the police, her identity as the killer still unknown. Then a crime writer turned amateur detective, "Little Nemo" (Sparks), decides to solve the case, gets onto her trail, and may expose her to cops and crooks alike.

When I reviewed "The Sawdust Ring", I said that I could easily see why D.W. Griffith was sure Bessie Love was going to be a star from the moment he first saw her, and why she did indeed become a huge star during the 1920s. In that film, she had a certain charisma that almost seemed to make her leap off the screen. In "Conspiracy", however, very little of that aura is evident... in fact, the performance she gives here barely distinguishes her from a generic "damsel in distress"-type character. (I might even argue that her performance seems a bit off, since she's playing a character who's been undercover with a drug gang for several months. Sure, she's just stabbed someone to death as the film starts, and later she's been cooped up with an obnoxious asshole for two weeks, but I would still expect something more than confusion and panic to each and every situation she encounters.)

Perhaps Love was modulating her performance to be complimentary to the boring, bland stock hero played by Hugh Trevor. Maybe she was trying to be lowkey so Ned Sparks' supremely annoying, grumpy old man character would seem even more annoying and grumpy. Or maybe she knew she was in a badly directed third-rate movie with a weak script full of squandered opportunities and only one mildly interesting twist, and she wasn't giving it her all. Whatever the reason, there are only two times in "Conspiracy" where we see glimmers of the Love that graced the screen 15 years earlier: During the obligatory insta-romance-sparking scene where she tells her tale of woe to Trevor's dull alleged man of action, and during the scene where Sparks' character threatens to turn her over to the police, and she in turn threatens to bash his brains in with a paperweight.

Still, even if Love had given the performance of her career, she probably couldn't have saved this movie which leads with its very best scenes and then steadily goes down hill. The biggest problem here, really, is that the filmmakers couldn't decide if they were making a comedy or a thriller or a melodrama; or if the central character was Margaret, Love's caught-in-the-middle woman on the run; Little Nemo, Sparks' annoying and obnoxious and played-strictly-for-laughs crime writer; or Trevor's boring feature section reporter. It also doesn't help the movie that anything remotely suspenseful happens off-screen or in a flashback (where we already know the outcome).

As terrible as this movie is, and as disappointed as I was with Bessie Love's performance, I did keep watching. Ned Sparks as Little Nemo was entertaining in a train-wreck sort of way... and I watched with captivated awe while Sparks and Gertrude Howard (as Little Nemo's beleaguered black housekeeper) played through a series of comedic (but extremely unfunny) and deeply racist exchanges. Also, Rita La Roy's femme fatal-ish character that shows up at about the halfway point as an agent of the drug ring trying to milk Little Nemo for information and seduce him into turning Margaret over to the gang when he finds her, was a lot of fun.

Unless you're a huge Ned Sparks fan (I think this was the closest this accomplished character actor ever came to playing the lead); want an opportunity to be able to tell exactly how brilliant Bessie Love is in some of her other roles; or are looking for an old movie with some racists scenes to fill you with righteous outrage, there are far better movies to spend your time on. (But if you do decide to check it out, I recommend you watch it for free on YouTube.)

'Hit the Ice' has Bud & Lou at their finest

Hit the Ice (1943)
Starring: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Ginny Sims, Patric Knowles, Sheldon Leonard, Elyse Knox, Mark Lawrence, Joe Sawyer, and Johnny Long
Director: Charles Lamont and Erle C. Kenton
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A pair of photographers (Abbott & Costello) accidentally become entangled in a bank heist and are mistaken for the robbers. As they try to clear their names, the actual thieves want to tie up loose ends by eliminating them when they cross paths again at a ski resort in Sun Valley.

"Hit the Ice" is a solid Abbott & Costello film. Almost every routine is perfect from set-up through execution, the plot that carries us from gag to gag is just enough to keep things moving, with the schemes of the villains providing suspense and connecting the various characters to each other as the paper thin story unfolds. The film is further lifted by the fact that, unlike in several other films that Abbott & Costello made together, their characters are written in such a way that viewers can believe that they're friends, because Abbott isn't as cruel and vicious toward Costello as his characters sometimes are. In fact, this may be one of the most cheerful A&C movies, because sympathetic character truly is smpathetic, Abbott and Costello are both portraying characters who are genuinely nice, and everyone comes out ahead in the end (except the bad guys of course); they get theirs in an extended and very funny and cartoonish skiing sequence.

As with many (most?) of Abbott & Costello's films, there's an attractive couple or two in the supporting cast that are acting out a romantic subplot. While the attractive couples are here, the romantic subplot is so light so as to be non-existent... while Costello becoming smitten with songstress Ginny Sims more or less erases her romance with band leader Johnny Long until the very end of the movie. It's a nice change of pace, and it's even nicer to see Abbott try to help his buddy impress and obtain the unobtainable girl instead of just dismissing him.

Unfortunately, for all its strengths, the weak parts of this movie are really weak... and they are all related to the film's musical numbers. Singer Ginny Sims, together with Johnny Long and His Orchestra, perform five different songs, each less interesting than the one before. The movie even more-or-less ends with them performing a song, ensuring that the final impression the movie will leave you with is boredom instead of cheerfulness--despite the great performances from Abbott & Costello. The boring musical numbers make the one sequence in the film that drags on seem even longer. About halfway though the movie, the ice-skating hijinx implied in the title arrive, but they quickly become unwelcome as Costello's pratfalls grow repetitive, the ice dancing goes on for too long, and it's all set too the seemingly never-ending and absolutely terrible song "The Double-Slap Polka" performed by Sims and Long's orchestra. The boring musical numbers cost this film a Star, and if it hadn't been for the superior material that Abbott & Costello had to work with here, they could have ruined the whole movie.

"Hit the Ice" is a really fun movie that I think lovers of classic comedies will enjoy... so long as they keep in mind that the reward for sitting through the boring songs is getting to see Abbott & Costello at their best.

Left behind by time: 'Julius Sizzer'

Julius Sizzer (1931)
Starring: Benny Rubin, Gwen Lee, Maurice Black, Matthew Betz, and Lena Malena
Director: Edward Ludwig
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Immigrant twin bothers (Rubin, in a dual role)--one innocent and naive, the other a notorious gangster-- are targeted for assassination by a rival gang.

So this is what films like "Hot Shots" and "The Naked Gun" will look like to viewers in 2068 when the contemporary pop cultural references the jokes are based around have all but faded from collective memory.

"Julius Sizzer" is a parody of gangster movies that derives its humor from puns, sight gags, recent immigrants to the United States mangling English and Yiddish, a smattering of literary and Shakespeare references, and an assumption that the viewer is familiar with "Little Caesar", which was a popular novel and hit movie from the day. For those who aren't familiar with the main target of spoofing here, this short film comes across as a mildly amusing bit of absurdist humor that uses old-time gangsters as a framework.

Whether you're familiar with "Little Caesar" or not, "Julius Sizzer" is fast-paced enough, and has enough gags that it'll keep you entertained throughout its 18-minute run-time. The title character and his weapon of choice are particularly amusing both times they come into play. Every actor gives a fine performance--and you can feel that Rubin and Lee are having fun as they butcher the English language in their scenes together.

My only major complaint with the film is that every character in the story gets a resolution but the treacherous gun moll, Cleo (played by Gwen Lee). After setting the films climax in motion, she just drops out of the story. Additionally, the scene where the innocent Sizzer brother is rousted by police detectives hoping to catch the wicked Sizzer brother goes on for just a little too long... but it's the only one that commits this error, so it's just a minor issue over all.

If you like the classic Abrahams-Zucker films referenced above, I think you'll enjoy "Julius Sizzer." When rating this film, I wavered between a Six and Seven rating. I ultimately settled on the lowest Seven, because, although flawed and out of its time, I found the film very entertaining.

'The Undie-World' is fun, but surprisingly mild

The Undie-World (1934)
Starring: June Brewster, Carol Tevis, Grady Sutton, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, Dewey Robinson, and Will Stanton
Director: George Stevens
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A gangster (Williams) recruits a violinist (Sutton) to help him impress a pair of sexy roommates (Brewster and Tevis) who live in the apartment across the courtyard from his, by showing them that he's sophisticated and romantic. The girls, however, end up falling for the dorky musician, assuming he's a dangerous Bad Boy. In an effort to salvage his plan, the gangster suggests the four of them go on a double-date. A comedy of errors ensues.

"The Undie-World" is an almost sweet little film that's surprisingly mild, given the title and subject matter. In fact, I can't imagine a more wholesome film where the majority of the main characters are on the make. It's got slapstick, it's got puns, it's got class-based humor... but what it doesn't have is any double-entrendres or anything from the blue category. We get within a mile of "mature" when June Brewster gets knocked down during her first encounter with Grady Sutton and her robe rides up to show some leg, but that's it. Everything though is well-staged and the actors are all perfect in their parts. For the dorky among us, the film even dpresents a little bit of wish-fulfillment as it's the dorky violin teacher who gets the girl(s) in the end.


"The Undie-World" is the first film on the Blondes and Redheads: Lost Comedy Classics DVD collection, but it was the fourth in a series of films that were tied together by featuring as their central characters a pair of young women--one blonde, one redheaded. Although the same actors and actresses appeared in most of them, and usually played characters named after the performers, each film was actually about different characters.

Time's passage may have left 'Lucky Ghost' behind

Lucky Ghost (aka "Lady Luck") 1942
Starring: Mantan Moreland, E.F. Miller, Maceo Bruce Sheffield, Florence O'Brien, Arthur Ray, Jessie Brooks, Nappie Whiting, and Henry Hastings
Director: William Beaudine (as William X. Crowley)
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Riding an incredible wave of luck in craps games, two vagabonds (Miller and Moreland), have the chance to become set for life when the irritable operator of an illicit club and casino (Sheffield) bets his entire operation against them on a single winner-takes-all die roll. The ghost of the former owner (Hastings) may have other plans, however.

"Lucky Ghost" may be one of those films that's more interesting as a historical artifact than something that modern viewers should seek out for entertainment. It's rife with the common mid-career weaknesses of most William Beaudine-helmed films--like scenes and jokes that could have been impactful or funny but which are padded well-past the point of even being interesting--and a whole lot of race-based humor that will cause the 21st Century Woke Set to suffer strokes before the halfway mark.

That last bit is perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the film. "Lucky Ghost" is what is termed a 'race picture'--a film made specifically for a black audience during a time when the United States was racially segregated, so there was a market for films to be shown at movie theaters for all-black audiences. Despite this, the all-black line-up of characters in "Lucky Ghost" are almost without fail what today is viewed as racially insensitive and negative stereotypes, far more so than other 'race pictures' I've watched (which, admittedly, aren't very many). Perhaps these caricatures were to the audience back then as stoners or nerds are to viewers of comedies today and were recognized as exaggerations of existing people and not something to get huffy over?

One thing that should still speak just fine to modern audiences, and the best part of the film, is the interplay between stars Mantan Moreland and E.F. Miller. This is one of a handful of films they were teamed in, and they function as a black version of Abbott & Costello, with Miller being the straight man and Moreland providing the antics. I think I've expressed my affection for Moreland in every review of a movie I've seen him in, and it's no different here. All by himself, Moreland brings this film from a Low Four rating to a Low Five... and his presence might have made an even stronger impact if not for some of the scenes where I am certain that Beaudine padded the running time by including all takes on a bit where only one, or two at most, should have been included. Moreland is particularly funny during the gambling scenes, and in a couple of scenes where he is leering at the butts or cleavages of the casino's hostesses and making not-so-subtle innuendos. While the film is labled as having passed the Review Board in the opening credits, one wonders which Hayes Commission censor was sleeping on the job that day!

Another aspect that lifts this film a bit above many other horror-comedies of the period is the nature of ghosts. More often than not, hauntings in these pictures turn out to be hoaxes or misinterpretations of perfectly normal and natural events. No so here; in "Lucky Ghost", the filmmakers go fill-tilt with the phantoms, even treating the audience to what special effects the meager budget could allow. It's a nice change of pace.

Two careers cross in 'King of the Underworld'

King of the Underworld (1939)
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis, James Stephenson, Jessie Busley, John Eldridge, and Raymond Brown
Director: Lewis Seiler
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

When her husband (Eldridge) is killed in a raid on a gangster hide-out and is revealed to have been their physician of choice, Dr. Carole Nelson (Francis) has her reputation tarnished and career destroyed when no one believes she was ignorant of his activities. When she discovers the gang is hiding in a small town, she relocates there as well, in the hopes of finding the means to clear her name. When Carole discovers the megalomaniac gang-leader (Bogart) has kidnapped writer Bill Forrest (Stephenson) to force him to write his biography, she knows that more is now at stake than just her reputation and livelihood--the gangster is not going to let Bill live once the book is finished.

When "King of the Underworld" was made, Humphrey Bogart's star was on the rise, and Kay Francis' was quickly falling and burning out. Some sources indicate that this film was cast as it was because Warner Bros. executives were trying to force her to abandon her contract because of the non-glamorous nature of the part, and because she was given second billing to an actor with a far lesser stature than she had obtained. But, like the character she portrays in this movie, and like the strong women she had built her career on playing during the 1930s, Francis kept plugging on against the odds and in defiance of those who would bring her down. Despite the best efforts of studio suits, Francis still comes across as every bit the movie star that she was.

Part of the reason that Francis comes off looking so great in this movie is that Bogart's character, Joe Gurney. is a stereotypical, brutish and socipathic gangland thug with the mildly interesting character quirk of being obsessed with Napoleon Bonaparte, and considers himself the French general's modern-day intellectual counterpart. Of course, Joe doesn't really understand half of what Napoleon did during his lifetime and some houseplants are smarter than him, but what he lacks in intelligence he more than makes up for in animal cunning and brutality. Joe's gang isn't much smarter or classier than he; at least "Scarface" had George Raft playing a gangster possessing an air of class and intelligence... Joe Gurney's gang seems is a collection of dim bulbs with Joe merely being the smartest and toughest guy in a collection of idiots. He is so dumb that I kept expecting one of the other gang members to shoot him and take over when it became apparent their hideout had been compromised.

As a launching pad for stardom, this was not the greatest of choices... but, for Bogart, "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon" were just around the corner, and with them finally came the great parts he'd been begging for.

Francis, on the other hand, portrays a character whose only flaw is that she is a little too trusting of the people close to her. She is brilliant, sensitive, and possessed with an unwavering sense of personal honor... and a sharp mind married with a drive to succeed with her honor intact that the likes of Joe Gurney wished he had. These traits not only let her outsmart petty "community leaders" in the little town she relocates to, but also outsmart Joe and gang in a clever, if mildly far-fetched way.

The best part of this movie, in fact, is the interaction between Joe and Carole. These are very tense and suspenseful scenes, because both Bogart and Francis were great acting talents and they both conveyed their characters so strongly that viewers have a sense throughout those scenes that this could all end very badly for Carole at any moment.

Francis' Carole is so stubborn that her drive to clear her name won't be stopped. Bogart's Joe is such a vicious monster that when he is being gregarious it feels forced and that he would rather kill someone than walk across a room. Each scene they have together feels like the unstoppable force is about to collide with the unmovable object with all the disaster that would follow such an event.

These two great screen talents are what makes this movie worth seeing, as it emerges as proof of the fact that great actors can transcend the material they are working with. It features Francis' last great role at Warner Bros. even though it was intended to be a bad part, and Bogart takes a bad part and makes it spectacular.


This review is part of Forever Classic's Humphrey Bogart Blogathon (Bogarthon?). Click here to see links to other entries.

'Baby Face Morgan' makes crime funny

Baby Face Morgan (1942)
Starring: Richard Cromwell, Robert Armstrong, Mary Carlisle, and Chick Chandler
Director: Arthur Dreifuss
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When Edward Morgan (Cromwell) is installed as president of his dead father's insurance company, he decides to offer "racketeer insurance" to the city's truckers. Little does he know that he's been installed as the head of a crime syndicate's legitimate front... and the money he's paying out to truck company's being extorted by the gangsters is the very money that is being extorted from them.

"Baby Face Morgan" is a dippy, far-fetched mob comedy. The humor is mostly derived from the way the mobsters and Edward continue to work at cross-purposes, and it's made all the more funny by the fact that the mastermind of the scheme (Armstrong) would have known Edward was handing the extortion money (and much more!) straight back to the truckers.

I kept expecting the film to go in a direction it didn't--I found myself wondering if Edward could get large policies at the drop of a hat, why didn't the mobsters just go into insurance--but the film never did go there.

It also never quite went as far in the screwball direction as I would have liked it to go. The film is full of great ideas that are not quite used to their fullest potential, due to a weak script and a cast of so-so actors.

Still, the film is short, fast-moving and never boring.