WAKE UP AND DREAM

Jun Haver and John Payne

WAKE UP AND DREAM (1946). Director: Lloyd Bacon. 

Jeff Cairn (John Payne) lives with his little sister, Nella (Connie Marshall), on a farm during WW2. Although he could get a deferment, he enlists in the Navy and says good-bye to his sort of sweetheart, waitress Jenny (June Haver). Then a notice comes saying that Jeff is Missing in Action. Nella and Jenny, in convoluted fashion that never quite makes sense, wind up on a drydocked boat built by the old curmudgeon, Henry Pecket (Clem Bevans). With the aid of Howard Williams (John Ireland), Peckett is able to set sail (sans permit or any special plan) and Jenny, Nella and Howard go with him. Nella is hoping they will sail to some beautiful island where she will be reunited with her brother, but instead they wind up literally stuck in the mud. 

Haver with John Ireland 

Say one thing for Wake Up and Dream, one of the oddest musicals I've ever seen, it is unpredictable. Oh it's no great surprise that Jeff turns up alive after missing most of the movie (a pretty much wasted role for Payne),  but other events are not so certain. Payne introduces the song "Give Me the Simple Life" early in the picture, and Haver warbles the pretty "I Wish I Could Tell You" but then in a much later sequence a chorus starts singing "We're Off to See the Wizard" [!] as the group trek into the swamp after a hermit that Nella has discovered. One could argue that the movie offers a message of hope, but when you consider that most men listed as missing in action were actually dead, it's perhaps not in the best of taste. In any case, all of the performances are quite good, including Charlotte Greenwood as a widow who takes in boarders and Irving Bacon as a toll gate attendant. Lee Patrick is in the picture but I must have blinked and completely missed her. Based on a novel by Robert Nathan, this has all the earmarks of a screenplay that was cut and pasted together. Some good dialogue, however. 

Verdict: 20th Century-Fox was no MGM when it came to (semi) musicals. **1/2. 

HIGHWAY 13

Pamela Blake as Doris with Robert Lowery

HIGHWAY 13 (1948). Director: William Berke.

A series of mysterious accidents are plaguing a truck company, although the head of the outfit seems unconcerned. Another executive in the firm, Frank Denton (Michael Whalen), finds out that his wife's car has been driven off a cliff and feels he was the real target. Even an undercover detective (Steve Pendleton) hired to investigate comes to a bad end. Driver Hank Wilson (Robert Lowery), who is engaged to personable, pretty waitress Doris (Pamela Blake), is determined to get to the bottom of things. Other characters include Doris' uncle, known as "Pops" (Clem Bevans); his wife, Aunt Myrt (Mary Gordon); the trucking firm's personnel manager, Mary (Maris Wrixon of The Face of Marble); and detectives played by Lyle Talbot and Dan Seymour. Highway 13 could be dismissed as a typical minor "B"  thriller were it not for the fact that it has a good script, interesting characters and performances, and it isn't obvious from the first who the bad guys are. Pamela Blake [Ghost of Zorro] offers a very appealing portrait of the waitress Doris, Lowery is the stalwart hero, and Clem Bevans [Gold Raiders] pretty much steals the picture as the dyspeptic old Pops.

Verdict: Entertaining and suspenseful, with a few surprises and a satisfying wind-up. **1/2.

YOUNG FUGITIVES

Wilcox, Davenport and Kent at the parade

YOUNG FUGITIVES (1938). Director: John  Rawlins.

"You got enough money there to get so educated you won't have a brain in your head."

After the death of his old buddy, Tom (Tom Ricketts), Joel Bentham (Harry Davenport of Son of Fury) is the last surviving Civil War veteran in his southern town. He is given a check for $50,000 and moves into Tom's farm with his buddy, Benjie (Clem Bevans of Gold Raiders).  The two men sort of adopt a young female "bum" named Meg (Dorothea Kent), and then Tom's grandson Ray (Robert Wilcox) comes along and also moves in. But Meg, who is attracted to him, wonders if he really wants the simple life, or is he chiefly interested in old Joel's $50,000? The performances are good -- the always reliable Davenport has a good scene when he thinks of the war, the past, and all the dead young men -- but the movie is contrived and a bit on the dull side. Wilcox and Kent make an appealing couple. Mira McKinney scores as the landlady, Letty, as does Mary Treen as Joel's friend, Kathy. John Rawlins directed everything from cliffhanger serials to Sherlock Holmes movies to Dick Tracy features such as Dick Tracy's Dilemma.

Verdict: Some nice moments, but nothing special here. **.

GOLD RAIDERS

GOLD RAIDERS (1951). Director: Edward Bernds.

Silent star and cowboy actor George O'Brien plays a character with the same name in this pretty terrible "comedy" supposedly starring the Three Stooges. Moe, Shemp and Larry are out in the wild west in the town of Red Mesa where they interact (minimally) with O'Brien; a pretty gal named Laura (Sheila Ryan); her father, who's an elderly doctor (Clem Bevans of She Couldn't Say No); and a bad guy involved in gold hijacking named Taggert (Lyle Talbot, who seems very out of place in this milieu). The Stooges are strangely subdued in this, and are completely lost in a dull story that is busy without ever being funny. There are literally no laughs in this. The stooges become insurance salesmen, but no great routines result. This is boring even for fans of the stooges. Sheila Ryan also appeared in Great Guns with Laurel and Hardy.

Verdict: Terrible. 1/2*.

SHE COULDN'T SAY NO (1940)

SHE COULDN'T SAY NO (1940). Director: William Clemens.

Alice Hinsdale (Eve Arden) is the fiancee of a lawyer, Wally Turnbull (Roger Pryor), who doesn't have much business. When an opportunity for a case with an important pay-off comes in when Wally is out of town, Alice poses as the non-existent partner (the one who "handles" all the bills) and travels to a small town to defend an elderly man, Eli Potter (Clem Bevans) against a breach of promise suit. Unfortunately, it turns out that Wally has already decided to represent the woman, Pansy Hawkins (Vera Lewis) who is suing Eli, making for an uncomfortable situation, to say the least. This is a very cute picture with amusing performances and many funny lines (although some might find it a bit much that Alice gets rid of Pansy's tippling lawyer by exposing him to alcohol.) Other stand-out cast members include Zeffie Tilbury as Pansy's mother; Cliff Edwards as Turnbull's associate Banjo Page; Chester Clute as Ezra Pine; and Irving Bacon (Ethel's father on I Love Lucy) as Abner Prestler. One senses that smart and sassy Alice can do a lot better than Turnbull. Funniest moment: Pansy says she's 26!

Verdict: Lots of fun. ***.