FASHION MODEL

Robert Lowery, Tim Ryan, Marjorie Weaver

FASHION MODEL (1945). Director: William Beaudine.

Not long after model Peggy Rooney (Marjorie Weaver of Great Alaskan Mystery) gets into a fight with rival Yvonne (Lorna Gray of The Perils of Nyoka), the latter is found strangled inside the fashion house where they work. Peggy is the first major suspect in the murder, but as more deaths occur, her boyfriend Jimmy (Robert Lowery) catches the eye of dogged Police Inspector O'Hara (Tim Ryan). There's also a missing broach that was given to the dead woman by her rather disinterested fiance, Davis (John Valentine), which engenders a frantic search for the expensive item by Duval (Edward Keane), head of the fashion house, and his employee, Madame Celeste (Dorothy Christy). Fashion Model is a comedy-mystery with a few chuckles, some cold-blooded characters, and an interesting if lower case cast. Tim Ryan could probably have played the role of the inspector in his sleep by now. Robert Lowery registers his usual suave charm, and Marjorie Weaver proves she's definitely no Lucille Ball. Nell Craig and Harry Depp [Black Magic] are fun as a bickering couple who are in the fashion house during the first murder, and Jack Norton nearly steals the picture as the tippling window dresser, Herbert. The most amusing sequence has Herbert trying to undress two mannequins who are actually Peggy and Jimmy in disguise. The ending is kind of nifty and well-done. Dorothy Christy was the evil queen in The Phantom Empire and also appeared in Sons of the Desert with Laurel and Hardy.

Verdict: It's not Blood and Black Lace but it has its moments. **.

MEETING AT MIDNIGHT/BLACK MAGIC

Sidney Toler and Helen Beverly

MEETING AT MIDNIGHT (aka Black Magic/1944). Director: Phil Rosen.

"Mr. Chan, I've been leavin' ever since I got here." -- Birmingham Brown.

During a seance, the lights go out and the medium is found shot to death. The strange thing is that an autopsy reveals there's a gunshot wound in the body but no bullet! [The explanation for this is clever even if today's forensics people might scoff.] The suspects include the widow, Mrs. Bonner (Jacqueline deWit of The Damned Don't Cry); Norma Duncan (Helen Beverly), who bore the man a grudge; assistants Tom and Vera Starky (Charles Jordan and Claudia Dell); mousy fan manufacturer, Edwards (Harry Depp); and two victims of blackmail, Hamlin (Frank Jaquet) and Harriet Green (Geraldine Wall), who had a brief fling with the murdered man. The cops are Rafferty (Ralph Peters) and Matthews (Joseph Crehan of The Case of the Black Parrot). A suspenseful scene has another victim hypnotized into throwing herself off of a roof, something which nearly happens to Charlie in the film's best sequence and climax. Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland of On the Spot) is along for the ride but Tommy Chan has been replaced by his sister Frances (coincidentally played by a not-very-talented actress named, believe it or not, Francis Chan. A decade earlier she also played a Chan daughter in the lost film Charlie Chan's Greatest Case with Warner Oland.). This is another rather mediocre Monogram cheapie but it does pick up a bit towards the end. NOTE: Actress Jacquline deWit spelled it "DeWit," "de Wit" and probably others.

Verdict: Neither Charlie's best nor worst. **1/2.