SIX OF A KIND

SIX OF A KIND (1934). Director: Leo McCarey. "

According to you everything I like to do is illegal, immoral, or fattening." -- W. C. Fields. 

 A bank employee, "Pinky" Whinney (Charlie Ruggles), and his wife (Mary Boland) advertise for another couple to share expenses as they go on a second honeymoon and drive all the way from the east coast to California. Who shows up but George (Burns) and Gracie (Allen), an unmarried couple with a humongous, if lovable, dog. The foursome and the beast have assorted, funny misadventures as they travel westward, especially in a small town where John Hoxley (W. C. Fields) is sheriff, Mrs. Rumford (Alison Skipworth) is the hotel proprietress, and "Pinky" is accused of stealing $50,000 from the bank where he works -- and of having a mistress! Fields gets to perform his famous pool routine as he explains how he got the nickname of "Honest" John, and it's a delight to see the formidable Boland squaring off against him. One of the funniest bits has Boland falling off a cliff onto a tree. Everyone in the cast is in top form! 

Verdict: This will put you in a good mood if nothing does! ***.

THE MAGNIFICENT FRAUD

Akim Tamiroff and Mary Boland

THE MAGNIFICENT FRAUD (1939). Director: Robert Florey.

Sam Barr (Lloyd Nolan) is friend and aide to Alvarado (Akim Tamiroff of After the Fox), the president of San Cristobal. When Alvarado is killed by a bomb, Sam importunes actor Jules LaCroix (Akim Tamiroff again) to pose as the president until some papers are signed and a certain loan secured -- only Sam has his own plans for the money. But there are complications in the form of Duval (Ernest Cossart) of the French Surete, who wants LaCroix for murder, and two females who are recent arrivals in San Cristobal: Geraldine (Mary Boland of Nothing But Trouble) is a former opera singer who knew Alvarado -- whom she knew as "El Toro" -- quite well in her youth, and is determined to see again. Then there's her younger friend, Claire (Patricia Morison), whom Sam begins to fall for, even though he knows he really isn't right for her. The biggest complication is that LaCroix is beginning to enjoy his performance -- the best of his life -- a little too much and delays and delays in signing those papers ...

Patricia Morison and Lloyd Nolan

The sad fact about The Magnificent Fraud -- at least for me -- is that even with an interesting plot, a good director, and several of my favorite actors -- Tamiroff, Boland, George Zucco as a doctor -- in the cast, the movie is an effort to sit through. Time and again I thought of stopping and putting it in my next Films I Just Couldn't Finish post, but I somehow managed to make it through. True, it's not the fastest moving of movies, but it's not that slow. Perhaps it's that movies like this which are basically serious in tone yet have a kind of comical premise either work for you or they don't, and this one just didn't. It doesn't help that Lloyd Nolan is simply too homely to make a convincing lover boy. Tamiroff is wonderful, but Boland isn't given that much opportunity to be fun, although she and Tamiroff have a splendid dramatic moment together at the very end of the film. Morison doesn't make much of an impression in this flick; she was more scintillating in later films.  Remade as a comedy entitled Moon Over Parador. The prolific Robert Florey also directed Johnny Weissmuller's last appearance as the Ape Man, Tarzan and the Mermaids.

Verdict: Not one of the classic films of 1939. **. 

COLLEGE HOLIDAY

Jack Benny and Jed Prouty

COLLEGE HOLIDAY (1936). Director: Frank Tuttle.

J. Davis Bowster (Jack Benny) somehow winds up in business with Mr. Smith (Harry Hayden), whose daughter Sylvia (Marsha Hunt), has just encountered a young man, Dick (Lief Erickson), whose name she doesn't know. In the meantime, Carola B. Gaye (Mary Boland) and Professor Hercules Dove (Etienne Girardot) are looking for perfect physical specimens for their eugenics experiments at Cornucopia college and the hotel co-owned by Smith. However, the boys and girls must be kept apart. After appearances by the likes of George Burns and Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, Johnny Downs [Trocadero], and Jed Prouty (of The Jones Family films), as well as a host of male and female dancers, there is a climactic show to save the hotel which involves putting half of the cast in a freezer. Could this movie get any worse? Well, there are blackface numbers as well. For the most part, this is just plain awful. Benny [George Washington Slept Here] seems lost and somewhat disinterested throughout the movie. Marsha Hunt and Lief Erickson make an unlikely musical comedy team.

Verdict: A mish mosh with just a few funny moments. *1/2.

GUILTY BYSTANDER

Zachary Scott

GUILTY BYSTANDER (1950). Director: Joseph Lerner.

Max Thursday (Zachary Scott) is a divorced ex-cop who spends his time drinking in a rundown boarding house. But he is galvanized to action - sort of -- when his ex-wife, Georgia (Faye Emerson), comes to tell him that their little boy has been kidnapped. Max goes to see Dr. Elder (Jed Prouty of the Jones Family movies), who may have some information, but the man winds up murdered. And there are other complications. Frankly, Guilty Bystander is a bit confusing as we follow Max's convoluted path from person to person, although there are some interesting characters and actors along the way: Mary Boland has a very different role to play than usual as the tough, tippling landlady, but she does it well. Sam Levene is Max's former boss on the force, Captain Tonetti, and perhaps the biggest surprise is a young Kay Medford as a sexy moll with whom Max dallies in his quest for answers. Scott [The Unfaithful] gives a very good performance, with Boland, Prouty and Medford [Two Tickets to Paris] not far behind him, but the movie is very minor film noir, although there are a couple of surprises before the conclusion.

Verdict: Perhaps too murky for its own good. **1/2.

FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE

Colbert gives a come hither look in "Four"

FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE (1934). Director: Cecil B. DeMille.

"This is practically virgin territory."

"Perhaps that's why Corder doesn't like it."

When bubonic plague breaks out on a ship, four passengers escape in a small boat and wind up in Malaya, where they have to go through a jungle with various pitfalls to, hopefully, make it to civilization. The four are geography teacher Judy Jones (Claudette Colbert), reporter Stewart Corder (William Gargan), society do-gooder Mrs. Mardick (Mary Boland), and unhappily married Arnold Ainger (Herbert Marshall). Leo Carillo plays Montague, who guides the four through the jungle. The prim, unsophisticated Judy blossoms into a woman during the trek, and soon Corder and Ainger are competing for her, even as some natives want to keep portly Mrs. Mardick prisoner until the others can return with her weight in rice. The rather dull narrative [despite all the goings-on] is briefly enlivened by the appearance of a carnivorous plant that eats a cute animal, and a playful chimp [probably played by the famous, talented Cheetah] who steals Judy's shoes. Colbert is initially quite good in the film, completely de-glamorized, but later on becomes shrill and irritating, overplaying every scene; the other actors are fine. Colbert gave some fine performances, but this is not one of them. DeMille made some great movies, but this is a tiresome throwaway, pretentious and often predictable.NOTE: This is the shorter 78 minute version, which is quite long enough.

Verdict: One trip through the jungle you can avoid. **.

NOTHING BUT TROUBLE (1944)

NOTHING BUT TROUBLE (1944). Director: Sam Taylor.

As the film starts in 1932, Laurel and Hardy have so much trouble finding work as chef and butler (they come from a long line of same) that they go to Europe. Returning in 1944, the find that their skills are now much in demand. An anxious Mary Boland hires them for her household and to prepare a special dinner party for visiting royalty. (Frankly, much more could have been made of their escaping with Boland from the other anxious wannabee employers at the employment office.) Going shopping, the boys encounter the young King Chris (David Leland), who would rather play football than rule his country. This leads to a protracted football sequence that is completely devoid of laughs. However things pick up with the disastrous dinner party itself -- featuring a rubber steak that resists all efforts to cut it -- as well as a genuinely suspenseful and hilarious ending with the boys and the king forced out on a ledge by a usurper. Stan and Ollie are great, young Leland gives an appealing performance, and Mary Boland is delightful as Mrs. Elvira Hawkley. Good supporting performances as well. Although Leland looks around 14 years of age, he was actually 23 at the time!

Verdict: Despite flaws, a charming and entertaining movie. ***.