IN THE MEANTIME, DARLING

Jeanne Crain and Frank Latimore

IN THE MEANTIME, DARLING (1944). Produced and directed by Otto Preminger.

Maggie (Jeanne Crain of State Fair) is a somewhat spoiled, upper-class gal who arrives at a seedy hotel off base to marry Lt. Daniel Ferguson (Frank Latimore). Maggie loves Danny, but she is dismayed by the lack of privacy and living conditions in the hotel, which is run by the widow Armstrong (Jane Randolph), whose husband was killed overseas. Maggie tries to pitch in with the other gals but finds she has little training for anything. Then Danny mistakenly believes that Maggie has gotten pregnant ... In the Meantime, Darling is a minor but still significant film that looks at the problems of women who every day have to face the fact that their husbands may go off to war and never come back, and there is an air of poignancy and sorrow because of it. There is an especially lovely and sobering scene when Maggie goes into Mrs. Armstrong's apartment and sees the wedding pictures and other photos, then comes upon the announcement of her husband's posthumous awards from the Army. Crain and Latimore both give excellent performances as the lead couple, and there is nice work from Gail Robbins [The Fuller Brush Girl] as another wife named Shirley. (One can't realistically imagine this marriage lasting, however, as Shirley's husband, Phil, played by Stanley Prager, is not only fat and homely but rather insensitive to his wife's needs as well.) Clarence Muse is also notable as Henry, the black porter for the hotel, who does not play in a subservient fashion and whose character's son is also in the Army overseas. Henry is treated as a three-dimensional African-American character, a rarity in this time period. Other cast members include Eugene Pallette, Mary Nash (as an especially disagreeable mother-in-law), Olin Howland, Elisabeth Risdon, Glenn Langan, and even Blake Edwards in the acting phase of his career in an uncredited bit. This was the first picture for Latimore, who also appeared in 13 Rue Madeleine with James Cagney, Shock with Vincent Price, and ultimately amassed 70 credits.

Verdict: Warm and sentimental in the right way, and very well-performed. ***.

JEALOUSY

Nils Asther and Jane Randolph

JEALOUSY (1945). Director: Gustav Machaty.

Peter Urban (Nils Asther of Storm at Daybreak) was a successful author before he fled Europe, but in the U.S. he has become a bitter, alcoholic and suicidal failure. His wife, Janet (Jane Randolph of The Mysterious Mr. M) drives a cab to make ends meet. One afternoon she meets a kindly doctor, David Brent (John Loder), and the two fall in love. Although she feigns happiness over this development, Brent's assistant, Monica (Karen Morley of The Mask of Fu Manchu), is secretly heartbroken. Then someone gets shot in the head ... Jealousy is an interesting romantic melodrama with some poetic touches that just misses being really special. The screenplay could have used more development (and more running time) and the two leads -- Randolph and Loder -- are barely adequate as the lovers. Asther is more effective as Peter, and the best performances come from Morley as the complicated Monica and Hugo Haas (who directed quite a few cheap thrillers) as Peter's amiable friend, a minor actor named Hugo Kral. There's a lovely scene when Monica first learns that David is in love with someone else, and she goes into the bedroom to change, making happy talk for his sake, but we see in the mirror a true reflection of her inner feelings. Another interesting moment occurs when Monica, who has written a medical tome, inscribes it lovingly to her "friend," Janet, as Janet and David talk of their plans in the next room. Director Machaty, who was responsible for Hedy Lamarr's Ecstasy, does his best to add some stylish camera angles and the like to the low-budget production. The story was by Dalton Trumbo. Machaty also directed Within the Law, but much of his directorial work in the U.S. went uncredited.

Verdict: Interesting entry from Republic pictures. ***.

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M. 13 chapter Universal serial/1946). Directed by Lewis D. Collins and Vernon Keays. 

Anthony Waldron (Edmund MacDonald of Great Guns), who is presumed dead by the police, is holed up in his wealthy grandmother's estate with an evil brother and sister team who are helping him with his plans. Calling himself "the mysterious Mr. M," Waldron uses a drug called hypnotreme to keep the old lady (Virginia Brissac of The Scarlet Clue) compliant and get many others to do his bidding even while he piles up corpses in the river from his experiments. He is particularly interested in getting the plans for a device that will enable submarines to be as large as ocean liners and do more than forty knots an hour. But Waldron and his cronies get a surprise when somebody else calling himself "Mr. M" sends them recordings giving them orders and threatening to tell the cops Waldron is alive if they don't comply with his wishes. As the gang wonders who this new "Mr. M" could be, agent Grant Farrell (Dennis Moore) is on the case, especially after his brother, Jim (William Brooks/Ching), is hypnotized and killed; Farrell is aided by Detective-Lt. Kirby Walsh (Richard Martin) and insurance investigator Shirley Clinton (Pamela Blake of Ghost of Zorro). 

The Mysterious Mr. M is an entertaining and suspenseful serial with Moore in good form as the hero, Waldron suitably gruff, and Jane Randolph [Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein] and Danny Morton [The Royal Mounted Rides Again] effective as the nasty brother and sister team. Byron Foulger [The Master Key] scores as Grandmother Waldron's lawyer, who nearly becomes a victim of Mr. M more than once. Memorable sequences include the fight between the Farrell brothers as electricity discharges all around them; a bit with a cigarette lighter that has a dart inside it; a cliffhanger concerning falling high-tension wires; and another in which Grant's car goes hurtling down a high shaft in a parking garage. The best cliffhanger -- one of the best ever, in fact -- has Waldron and Grant struggling on one parachute after they fall out of a plane even as a train races towards them on the ground below, with Grant eventually falling off the chute right into the path of the express!The serial also keeps you guessing as to the true identity of "Mr. M."

Verdict: Universal's very last serial is one of its best. ***.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948). Director: Charles Barton.

Costello (to pretty Lenore Aubert): How can you look me in the face and say that?

Abbott (to Aubert): How can you look him in the face?

Abbott and Costello's greatest movie pits them against Dracula (played by Bela Lugosi for only the second time), who wants to transplant Lou's brain into the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange) so he'll have a more controllable ally. Lon Chaney plays Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, for the fifth time, and is better in this film than he was in the "serious" ones. Talbot knows what Dracula's up to, and wants the boys to help him stop the evil count. Aiding the count is Dr. Sandra Aubrey (Lenore Aubert), who pretends she's smitten with Lou to keep him -- or rather his simple brain -- at the ready. Charles Bradstreet plays an out-of-the-loop doctor-associate of Aubert's, and Jane Randolph is an insurance investigator who attaches herself to the boys in the hopes of finding out what happened to the contents of two coffins the boys delivered to a House of Horrors. (Frank Ferguson is very good as the angry, exasperated owner of the House of Horrors.) Glenn Strange is effective and even has a couple of lines as The Monster (who only spoke in Bride of Frankenstein and in Ghost of Frankenstein after Igor/Lugosi's brain was transplanted into his head). Vincent Price has a very funny cameo.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is not a parody a la Young Frankenstein so much as it's a Universal horror film into which the boys have been inserted. The guys do their amusing routines, while everyone else mostly plays it straight -- and it works! Funny, atmospheric, and creepy in equal measure, it has some genuinely suspenseful sequences and is bolstered by a terrific score by Frank Skinner. Bud and Lou are in top form and Bela Lugosi is simply splendid!

Verdict: Terrific horror comedy! ***1/2.