WITH LOVE AND KISSES

Pinky Tomlin

WITH LOVE AND KISSES (1936). Director: Leslie Goodwins.

Homer "Spec" Higgins (Pinky Tomlin), a farmer and songwriter in Huckabee, Arkansas, sends his latest number to radio singer Don Gray (Kane Richmond of Behind the Mask). Months later Homer hears Gray not only singing his song but attributing its composition to himself. An angry Homer takes off to New York to confront Gray, and winds up getting a contract with both Gray and then a shifty nightclub owner named Draper (Kenneth Thomson), with the terms being distinctly unfavorable to Homer. An added complication is that Homer needs his cow Minnie for inspiration, and is also falling for nightclub songstress Barbara Holbrook (Toby Wing), whose brother, Gilbert (Arthur Housman) is a drunken lawyer. Can Gilbert stay sober long enough to get Homer out of his lousy contract?

Toby Wing with Pinky

For those who have been anxious to see a Pinky Tomlin film -- and who hasn't? -- With Love and Kisses is one of a few films the musician starred in in the thirties, with a few further appearances in the forties and fifties. When I first saw Pinky I thought he might be bandleader Kay Kyser, whom he somewhat resembles even down to the spectacles, performing under a different name, but, no, Pinky is Pinky. As a performer Tomlin is perfectly affable, and perhaps a bit more polished than Kyser. Pinky's leading lady in this, Toby Wing, who was briefly affianced to Pinky in real life, is a perky singer with a cute chubby face. As for the other cast members, Housman does an expert and classic drunk act and Olaf Hytten [Shanghai Chest] is very amusing as the butler Dickson. Kane Richmond does little more than look handsome and perturbed. Si Jenks as Sheriff Wade and Robert McKenzie as the deaf Mayor Jones make a silly couplet, and the African-American Peters Sisters Singers offer a snappy number. Morey Amsterdam of The Dick Van Dyke Show does an unfunny radio routine. Billy Benedict has the small role of a dizzy farm boy who tries to give Barbara directions. The songs in this are pleasant, with "The Trouble with Me is You" being the snappiest. Leslie Goodwins directed everything from Mexican Spitfire features to Mummy movies.

Verdict: I have a feeling if you've seen one Pinky Tomlin film you've probably seen them all. **1/2. 

DRUMS OF FU MANCHU

Henry Brandon as the Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu

DRUMS OF FU MANCHU (15 chapter Republic serial/1940). Directors: William Witney; John English.

Taking its cue from the feature-length film starring Boris Karloff, The Mask of Fu Manchu, this serial is also loosely based not on Sax Rohmer's "Drums of Fu Manchu" but rather his "Mask of Fu Manchu." In both film and serial Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon) is out to get certain artifacts from the tomb of Genghis Kahn that will give him the power to conquer all Asia -- in the serial's case it is a sacred scepter. To that end there is a lot of back and forth dallying over not only the scepter, but the "kardac segment," a piece of a tile that will lead to the location of the tomb. Fu's chief adversary, as in the books, is Sir Dennis Nayland Smith (William Royle), with assistance from Dr. Petrie (Olaf Hytten of Detective Kitty O'Day) and young Allan Parker (Robert Kellard of Escort Girl), whose father was murdered by Fu. Other characters include Professor Randolph (Tom Chatterton); his daughter Mary (Luana Walters); Fu Manchu's loyal assistant, Loki (John Merton of Radar Patrol vs Spy King), who actually has fangs; and Fu's daughter, Fah Lo Suee (Gloria Franklin). One carry over from the novel "Drums of Fu Manchu" is the way one hears the nerve-wracking sound of beating, steadily louder drums whenever someone's doom is approaching. Fu, who is more sadistic than in the novels, employs gelatinous darts; a cage with rats inside of it (known as "the gates to paradise"); a fire-branch trap that threatens to snap Allan in two; and a deadly gas in Kahn's tomb. Especially memorable cliffhangers include two trains about to collide in chapter one; the attack of a kind of octo-squid in a watery chamber below Fu's HQ in chapter two; a pendulum that nearly cleaves Allan in twain in chapter four; a jeep that sails over a cliff during a fight with Arabs in chapter eight; a deadly heat device from the sun's rays that nearly frizzles Mary in chapter nine; and a whole ceiling of stalactites that comes crashing down on the good guys in chapter ten. There's a little too much running about the desert in the final chapters, and the score is mediocre. This is not necessarily top-drawer Fu or a top-drawer serial, but it is good and entertaining. Once you get used to the odd voice Henry Brandon affects for Fu, he is quite effective.

Verdict: Great fun to watch Fu Manchu carry out his diabolical manipulations -- always with class. ***.

DETECTIVE KITTY O'DAY

Jean Parker and Peter Cookson

DETECTIVE KITTY O'DAY (1944). Director: William Beaudine.

Kitty O' Day (Jean Parker) works for Oliver Wentworth (Oliver Earle), who has also hired her boyfriend, Johnny Jones (Peter Cookson), to deliver some important papers. Wentworth is murdered and the papers are missing, and Kitty determines to find out what's what and clear both her and Johnny's names. Suspects include Veda Ann Borg as Wentworth's much-younger widow; Douglas Fowley as her possible love interest; Herbert Heyes as another attorney; and Olaf Hytten [Shanghai Chest] as the butler, Charles. Blowsy Kitty keeps tripping over bodies as she investigates, and winds up balancing on a ledge with Johnny in a scary-funny sequence set in an apartment building. Parker [Flying Deuces] isn't bad, Cookson is as good (and wasted) as ever, Tim Ryan (who co-wrote the screenplay) is fine as typically harried Inspector Clancy, and Edward Gargan scores as Clancy's befuddled and put-upon assistant, Mike. Followed by a sequel.

Verdict: A monogram picture that actually has a few real laughs in it to go with some good acting. **1/2.

SHANGHAI CHEST

Parsons, Sen Yung, Moreland and Winters

SHANGHAI CHEST (1948). Director: William Beaudine.

Judge Armstrong (Pierre Watkin) is stabbed in his study by a shadowy figure. More murders follow, but what is odd is that the fingerprints of an executed man keep showing up at the crime scenes. Charlie Chan (Roland Winters) is on the case! Suspects and others include the judge's secretary, Phyllis (Deannie Best); the butler, Bates (Olaf Hytten); Armstrong's nephew, Victor (John Alvin); the lawyer Seward (Tristram Coffin); and Walter Somervale (Erville Alderson). Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland), Charlie's chauffeur, and his son, Tommy (Victor Sen Yung/Young), get involved in the action [such as it is] along with Lt. Mike Ruark (Tim Ryan of Who's Guilty?). There's also a snarky funeral director played by the ever type-cast Milton Parsons. This is a mediocre mystery, but as usual the darn thing is nevertheless entertaining. Aside from the regulars, the supporting cast in this is especially obscure.

Verdict: Chan soldiering on. **1/2.