FRECKLES COMES HOME

Mantan Moreland and Laurence Criner

FRECKLES COMES HOME (1942). Director: Jean Yarbrough.

Summoned by his old pal Danny (Marvin Stephens of Borrowing Trouble), "Freckles" Winslow (Johnny Downs) comes back to Fairfield, Indiana, accompanied on the bus by a stranger named Muggsy Dolan (Water Sande of Blonde Ice). Muggsy pulled off a bank robbery in which a guard was killed, and has taken it on the lam, figuring quiet, isolated Fairfield is as good a place to hide out as any. He gets it into his head to rob the bank and brings in an associate, Quigley (Bradley Page). Danny lost money that he needed to pay bills for his hotel by buying an alleged gold-finding machine, and wants Freckles' help in using old girlfriend Jane Potter (Gale Storm) to convince her banker father, Hiram Potter (John Ince), to build a new highway into town, increasing business. Freckles is irritated because Jane seems to go for Quigley's oily charm. Meanwhile hotel porter Jeff (Mantan Moreland) has fun trying to convince Quigley's chauffeur, Roxbury (Lawrence Criner), to buy his phony machine. Freckles Comes Home has an amiable cast, including Betty Blythe [The Spanish Cape Mystery] as Hiram's wife and Irving Bacon as the ditsy town constable, but the picture is completely stolen by Moreland and Criner, especially in a very funny sequence when the two argue over which of them is to get the more comfortable bed in their hotel room. These are two great comic actors in their prime. Otherwise this is a typical Monogram quickie. Apparently this has nothing to do with the old Freckles newspaper comic strip.

Verdict: Short Monogram flick is fairly easy to take. **3/4.