TIP OFF GIRLS

The cast of "Tip Off Girls"

TIP OFF GIRLS (1938). Director: Louis King. 

Joseph Valkus (J. Carrol Naish) is head of a criminal outfit that hijacks trucks. He uses a hard-boiled gal named Rena (Evelyn Brent of Holt of the Secret Service) to snare drivers on the road and in coffee shops, then -- boom! Valkus' secretary, Marjorie (Mary Carlisle), is at first unaware of what's going on, but later works with undercover agent Bob Anders (Lloyd Nolan) to trip up the gang. Working for Valkus are Red Deegan (Buster Crabbe of King of the Congo), Tom Benson (Roscoe Karns) and chief enforcer, Marty (Anthony Quinn). Tip Off Girls certainly has an interesting and adept cast and is fast-paced and reasonably snappy. The plot seems strictly poverty row, but this was actually released by Paramount. Or course Pierre Watkin is in the cast -- as he seems to be in every other movie ever made -- and is as utterly forgettable as ever. Anthony Quinn makes an effective tough guy but you wouldn't necessarily have suspected that much bigger things were in store for him in only a few years.

Verdict: Not bad little melodrama. **12/

STAGE STRUCK (1948)

Kane Richmond and Audrey Long

STAGE STRUCK (1948). Director: William  Nigh.

Benny Nordick (John Gallaudet of Docks of New Orleans) who runs a night club and a acting school racket, murders hopeful Helen Howard (Wanda McKay) because she knows too much about his sleazy operation. Nick Mantee (Kane Richmond) helps Nordick cover up the crime and becomes his partner. Ignoring the advice of Lt. Williams (Conrad Nagel of All That Heaven Allows) and his assistant Sgt. Ramey (Ralph Byrd), Helen's sister Nancy (Audrey Long)  takes it upon herself to go undercover at Nordick's school. Dodging persistent passes from Mantee and suspicious glances from Nordick, she tries to find out what she can. Stage Struck is a passable Monogram entry with an interesting cast, most of whom were down on their luck. Lt. Williams' reason for being tough with Helen after she learns of her sister's murder makes no sense, and his piousness gets a little tiresome as well. The leads are fine in this cheap production, and Anthony Warde, Pamela Drake and Evelyn Brent [Holt of the Secret Service] have smaller roles and are equally effective. I've no doubt that acting and modeling schools that are more interested in taking gullible people's money than helping their careers still exist in every major city. Richmond and Byrd, of course, were major serial heroes. Richmond amassed over 100 credits, but this was his last film; he retired from movies to work in the fashion industry. Byrd did a few more films and died rather young in 1952.

Verdict: Distinctive Nagel, Byrd and Richmond help put this over. **.

THE PRESIDENT'S MYSTERY

THE PRESIDENT'S MYSTERY (1936). Director: Phil Rosen.

Lawyer James Blake (Henry Wilcoxon) goes fishing in a small town and runs into a young lady named Charlotte (Betty Furness of Magnificent Obsession). Charlotte is one of many who are trying to reopen the Springvale Cannery, so the townspeople can have jobs. Blake, who had never had much feeling for the common people or for labor, is ashamed of his feelings and returns home determined to do something about it. He cooks up a ridiculous scheme which amounts to him faking his own death, changing his name, and running back to Charlotte and Springvale. Poor Franklin D. Roosevelt got the blame for this terrible picture because he asked writers if they could come up with a way that a man could disappear yet retain his personal fortune. The result appeared in Liberty magazine, which Blake actually consults before he disappears. Meanwhile his wife, Ilka (Evelyn Brent) is accidentally killed and Blake is blamed for her murder. At one point we see him conveniently acquiring a corpse from a man in a basement for money (it does not appear to be a morgue or a hospital) so he can use it as his own dead body, but this aspect (not to mention its sheer criminality) is completely glossed over. The President's Mystery is so overwhelmingly preposterous, improbable, and stupid that it's sheer libel to blame this mess on FDR! The first half of the picture has some interest, but then it simply falls apart, a lousy mystery posing as a "message film." Sidney Blackmer is fine, as usual, as George Sartos, who is out to stop the cannery from reopening, and Wilcoxon is okay even if his British accent keeps coming and going. At one point Charlotte asks Blake if he's around fifty -- which is what he looks -- and he tells her that he's barely forty. In actuality, Wilcoxon  [Cleopatra] was only thirty-one (according to official bios) but looks considerably older even without the mustache he wears earlier in the picture. The prolific Phil Rosen directed a number of Charlie Chan features, of which The Scarlet Clue is one of the best. Wilcoxon was married to that "big-faced" gal Joan Woodbury for 31 years but the marriage ended in divorce.

Verdict: There are so many holes in this it's like a Swiss cheese! *.

MR. WONG, DETECTIVE

Boris Karloff and Grant Withers

MR. WONG, DETECTIVE (1938). Director: Hugh Wiley.

Mr. Wong is the third Oriental sleuth introduced after Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto. James Lee Wong originally appeared in stories that appeared in Collier's and was the subject of several pictures for cheapie studio Monogram (where Charlie Chan eventually wound up). In this first Mr. Wong movie, Wong (a well-cast Boris Karloff) receives a plea for help from the frightened Dayton (John Hamilton), who runs a chemical company and who is convinced that someone is out to get him. As usual in these pictures, the client winds up dead, and there are more murders to follow. The murder method is poison gas but the killer is especially clever in figuring out how to get the gas to the victim. Suspects and other characters include Captain Street (Grant Withers of Radio Patrol) who's investigating the case; his gal, Myra (Maxine Jennings); the bitter inventor Roemer (John St. Polis); the mysterious Olga Petrov (Evelyn Brent of Daughter of Shanghai); and Dayton's partners, Meisle (William Gould) and Wilk (Hooper Atchley). The performances are fine and the picture moves fairly quickly, although a musical score certainly would have helped. Withers and Brent also appeared together in the serial Jungle Jim. 

Verdict: Not bad intro to the Mr. Wong series. ***.

JUNGLE JIM (1936)

LEFT TO RIGHT: Rhodes, Brandon, Hatton and Withers

JUNGLE JIM (/12 chapter Universal serial/1937). Directors: Ford Beebe; Clifford Smith.

"I could send you to the whipping post, too." -- The Cobra.

"That's a mistake you would make only once!" -- Shanghai Lil. 

Jungle Jim (Grant Withers), who arrives on the scene warbling a tune (with dubbed voice), is importuned to go into the African jungle to find a missing heiress, one Joan Redmond (Betty Jane Rhodes). There are two things Jim doesn't know: Joan was raised by an evil brother and sister duo known as the Cobra (Henry Brandon) and Shanghai Lil (Evelyn Brent), and is herself known as the Lion Goddess to the natives; and one of her relatives, Bruce Redmond (Bryant Washburn) is also trying to find her so he can kill her off and acquire her inheritance. The Cobra operates out of a castle in the jungle, and aside from manipulating the natives via Joan, his motives and plans seem rather shadowy, but there's not much love lost between him and his sister. Joan's parents were killed during a ship wreck which is depicted in the first chapter, and features the startling sight of a tiger in the state room. [The serial is full of lively shots of beautiful lions, tigers and leopards, and the stock footage is generally well-integrated.] There's a nifty bit with a rope "bridge" -- actually just a cord of rope over a high chasm -- as well as a rock slide following a volcanic eruption, and neat footage of a tiger battling a gator. The acting from the leads is serviceable, but the serial seems full of missed opportunities. Brandon and Brent make an interesting pair of villains, but they really aren't given that much to do, and while this is fairly entertaining at times, it's not really one of the better Columbia chapterplays. Not to be confused with the full-length feature Jungle Jim, with Johnny Weissmuller playing the same role. Based on the Alex Raymond comic strip. Brent made more of an impression in Holt of the Secret Service four years later.

Verdict: If you've seen one jungle ... **1/2.

HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE

Evelyn Brent and Jack Holt

HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE (15 chapter Columbia serial/1941). Director: James W. Horne.

Jack Holt of the Secret Service (Jack Holt) is assigned to getting back some valuable plates stolen by counterfeiters, so to that end he pretends to be gangster Nick Farrell, and takes along agent Kay Drew (Evelyn Brent of Daughter of Shanghai) to pretend to be Farrell's wife. The most unusual feature of this serial is that the two leads are not typically "young and pretty" but are both middle-aged -- Holt, who'd been acting since silent movies, was 54 [and looks much older] and Brent was 43. Still, their performances are top-notch for this type of material, so their casting can not be faulted. Holt has a lot of gravelly presence as the secret service man, and Brent is saucy and thoroughly convincing both as agent and moll. Of the supporting cast, Tristram Coffin makes the best impression as a member of the counterfeit gang, and Stanley Blystone is effective as Garrity. The other henchmen and comparatively colorless leaders are all satisfactory if not especially memorable. After much rushing around with different factions trying to get their hands on those plates, the last few chapters take place on an island where the bad guys try to rile up the natives to their own ends, and thieves fall out. There are a few lively fight scenes and some more-than-decent cliffhangers. Holt of the Secret Service is entertaining, but not outstanding.

Verdict: Solid, enthusiastic lead performers never hurt. **1/2.

DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI

DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI (1937). Director: Robert Florey.

When her father is murdered and she herself is nearly killed by members of a gang who smuggle in illegal aliens (and sometimes just dump them out of a plane's cargo bay when the law gets too close), Lan Ying Lin (Anna May Wong) decides to go undercover as a dancer to track down the leader. Also on the villains' trail is agent Kim Lee (Philip Ahn); the two eventually team up due to the desperate circumstances they find themselves in. This interesting, if minor, suspense film is bolstered by fine acting, not only by the leads but by a very talented supporting cast: Anthony Quinn has a small role as a nasty pilot; Charles Bickford is a member of the smugglers who runs a seedy nightclub. Larry "Buster" Crabbe is perhaps more interesting than usual as a mustachioed, sneering brunet and J. Carrol Naish is as excellent as ever as his superior, Barden. Evelyn Brent makes an impression as a neurotic gal who's jealous of Bickford's attentions to Wong, and (Ms.) Cecil Cunningham all but steals the picture as Mary Hunt, who befriends Anna and her father but has some secrets of her own. Wong and Ahn make a good team, but further pictures detailing their adventures never materialized; too bad.

Verdict: Engaging thriller with some very good sequences. **1/2.