THE SHADOW (1940)

Victor Jory as the Shadow

THE SHADOW (15 chapter Columbia serial/1940). Director: James W. Horne.

Criminologist Lamont Cranston (Victor Jory), who also masquerades as the underworld scourge the Shadow -- as well as Lin Chang, who owns a shop and is acquainted with many criminals -- is in a war with a mysterious figure known as the Black Tiger. Commissioner Weston (Frank LaRue), does not suspect Cranston of being the Shadow, but he's convinced that the Shadow and the Tiger are one and the same and is constantly trying to capture the former. The Black Tiger, who can make himself invisible, is one of a group of industrialists who are being targeted by the fiendish villain, who doesn't care how many lives are destroyed to achieve his goals.

Victor Jory as Lamont Cranston

Unlike in the terrible Rod La Rocque Shadow features, the pulp character returns to his roots in this excellent and exciting serial. Although the Shadow does not hypnotize people or display mystical powers as he does in the novels, he does dress up in a cloak and has two helpmates: his driver Harry Vincent (Roger Moore, not the British actor) and his secretary and assistant Margo Lane (Veda Ann Borg of Jungle Raiders). Victor Jory [The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady] adds some solidity to the serial with his strong portrayal of Cranston; Moore and Borg are professional and adept. Some of the more notable supporting performances include Jack Ingram [Terry and the Pirates] as the Tiger's chief lieutenant, Flint; Charles K. French as the nervous Joseph Rand; Constantine Romanoff as Henchman Harvey; and the ever-reliable Philip Ahn as Wu Yung, another of Cranston's helpful associates.

Victor Jory as Lin Chang

The Black Tiger (voiced somewhat over-dramatically by Richard Cramer) uses such weapons as a cigarette lighter with a miniature gun inside it, and a much bigger gun that fires rays that bring down airplanes. As for cliffhangers, there is a box-like trap that nearly shakes itself to pieces, almost dooming the Shadow; a descending freight elevator that nearly squashes Margo (and could not have been comfortable for actress Borg); and a laser-like beam that almost burns the hell out of Margo and Vincent. Interestingly, the Shadow does not manage to escape a number of death traps, but is fortunate to survive them anyway. Lee Zahler's musical score adds to the thrills.

Verdict: Another of Columbia's superior serials. ***1/2.

THE BIG HANGOVER

Van Johnson and Liz Taylor

THE BIG HANGOVER (1950). Written, produced and directed by Norman Krasna.

David Muldon (Van Johnson) had a strange experience in the war that left him so "allergic" to alcohol that he can get tipsy just with a sip of it. The sensible thing to do would be to tell everyone of the situation without going into details, so that he wouldn't feel required to drink a toast, for instance, and act silly. Instead his boss's daughter, Mary (Elizabeth Taylor), decides to try to help him overcome the problem. You would think from its title that The Big Hangover is a riotous tale with frequent scenes of an "inebriated" David making a comical fool of himself, and while there are such scenes in the movie, that's not really what the picture is about. David has gotten a job with a prestigious law firm because he is an honor student and valedictorian. In a touching and well-played sequence, he demonstrates the speech he'll give on graduation day to Mary, telling of his best buddy, who dreamt of being a lawyer, but who died in his arms overseas during combat. He is determined to follow in his footsteps. When a Chinese-American doctor (Philip Ahn) is locked out of his apartment with his pregnant wife by a racist manager, David assumes his law firm will side with the doctor, who is not a "Chinaman" but an American born in the U.S. But David learns that the law isn't always on the side of what's right. While one can't necessarily say that this ranks with the best of Frank Capra as a thoughtful comedy-drama, it is still an entertaining and worthwhile picture that has more on its mind than at first glance. Van Johnson gives another excellent performance, maintaining the perfect balance between humor and seriousness, handling every sequence with aplomb. Elizabeth Taylor, who is no comedienne, at first seems miscast, but once you settle into the true tone of the picture, she is very warm, winning, and adept. As for the supporting cast, we've got Percy Waram and Fay Holden as Mary's parents; Leon Ames [The Velvet Touch] as a public attorney who is outmaneuvered by high-priced lawyers and Rosemary DeCamp as his wife; Edgar Buchanan and Selena Royle [The Damned Don't Cry] as Davis's amusing aunt and uncle; and Gene Lockhart [A Scandal in Paris] as a senior partner in the firm who does his best to get David drunk at a swanky gathering (a scene that will make you want to reach into the TV set and give Lockhart a major bitch slap!). The supporting performances are all wonderful, with Leon Ames having a fine, underplayed moment when he admits to his mediocrity during the aforementioned dinner, and Philip Ahn is as dignified and effective as ever as Dr. Lee. If I have one quibble I wish that they film hadn't tacked on an unconvincing happy ending to the love story. One simply can not see La Liz happy with a husband who isn't wealthy and successful, and who tells him she admires him but doesn't want someone who's so noble. Still, it hardly ruins the movie. If Percy Waram is unfamiliar to most viewers, it's because he was primarily a British stage actor and had very few credits in pictures.

Verdict: A lost gem of a movie. ***1/2. 

THE ADVENTURES OF SMILIN' JACK

Jay Novello, Tom Brown, Marjorie Lord, Rose Hobart

 THE ADVENTURES OF SMILIN' JACK (13 chapter Columbia serial/ 1943). Directed by Lewis D. Collins and Ray Taylor. 

Columbia turned the popular aviation comic strip The Adventures of Smilin' Jack into a serial in 1943. In this exciting and action-packed cliffhanger,  Jack Martin (Tom Brown) is working in China just before the U.S. entry into WW2.  Mah Ling (Cyril Delevanti of The Night of the Iguana), the governor of Handan, a province of China in the Himalayas, knows the secret route of a passage into India which would be helpful to the allies. The Japanese group, the Black Samurais, a division of Axis Espionage, is anxious to get this secret as well. The Samurais are under the uneasy control of a German agent, Fraulein Von Teufel (Rose Hobart of Conflict), who is better-known to the allies as "Trudi Miller," a war correspondent. We learn early on in the serial that Trudi is a ruthless double agent, but neither Jack, his friend, Tommy (Edgar Barrier), nor his sister, Janet (Marjorie Lord), are aware of this. It seems that in every other episode the evil Fraulein is reminding Kageyama (Turhan Bey) that she is in charge of the Samurais despite the fact that she is German. Philip Ahn is Wu Tan, the loving aide to the elderly Mah Ling; Keye Luke is Captain Wing; and Sidney Toler is cast as the Chinese general, Kai Ling. The ever-versatile Jay Novello is a cast stand-out as the Japanese saboteur Kushimi, and David Hoffman [The Creeper] also scores as the weasel-like Blenker.  With his pudgy face and kind of geeky voice, Tom Brown is hardly perfect casting as the sleek, handsome Smilin' Jack, but his performance is okay, while Lord and Barrier are adept enough in somewhat pointless secondary roles. Rose Hobart, on the other hand, while lacking the viciousness and sensuality of Carol Forman of Black Widow, is quietly effective and quite venomous as the steel-hearted Fraulein, and pretty much walks off with the serial (even if she is saddled with a highly unflattering headpiece). At one point the Fraulein suspends Jack in a net in the water below a trap door, even as the tide comes in and sharp floating spikes rise up higher and higher toward his back. Tom also plunges out of a plane to find that his parachute won't open, and is locked into a leaky box that is thrown into the river. In two of the best cliffhangers, a clipper ship holding our hero and friends crashes into the ocean, letting in gallons of rushing water; and a Japanese sub with Jack and the others aboard is rammed by a huge ship that is also controlled by Jap agents. An amusing aspect of the serial is that Mah Ling seems to take forever to make up his mind to give up the secret of the Mandan route and comes up with one obstacle after another to prevent him from divulging it. With the participation of such actors as Hobart, Luke, Toler, Bey and others, Similin' Jack has a better and better-known cast for a serial than usual. 

Verdict: Decidedly one of the better Universal serials. ***. 

SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT

Cagney and Evelyn Daw

SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT (1937). Director: Victor Schertzinger.

"A Japanese who speaks better English than I do, with a weakness for wiener schnitzel. It's too much for me in my weakened condition." -- Terry. 

Terry Rooney (James Cagney) is a popular musical theater man who is tapped to go to Hollywood to make his first picture. Planning to send for his singing sweetheart, Rita (Evelyn Daw), he goes to the studio and meets publicity man Hank Meyers (William Frawley) and studio chief B. O. Regan (Gene Lockhart of A Scandal in Paris), as well as major star Stephanie Hajos (Mona Barrie of The Devil's Mask). After a blow out on the set, Terry walks out and marries Rita, only to discover his first film is a big hit and he's a big star himself. The only trouble is that his marriage must be kept secret ... Cagney is, as expected, swell in the picture, as are most of his supporting players, including Dwight Frye as a hairdresser and Philip Ahn, as his butler, Ito. There's an excellent scene when Ahn reveals that he speaks English perfectly (although in real life he was Korean-American and not Japanese). As for leading lady Daw, it's easy to see why she appeared in only one other movie. Despite a heavy chin, Daw was cute, and not unappealing in an amateurish way, but she has one of the the worst soprano voices I've ever heard -- shrill, nasal, and altogether awful (if not quite as bad as Florence Foster Jenkins). Director Schertzinger's discovery, she retired to get married not a moment too soon. Something to Sing About has some nice tunes, including the title number, Cagney does a lovely soft shoe routine with two professional dancers, and of course is given a chance to belt guys around to prove his "manhood." A shipboard sequence features an actual "cat fight" with two real cats boxing one another (!) and a sailor in drag is tossed over the railing!

Verdict: Frothy, mindless, and reasonably entertaining. **1/2.

HELL'S HALF ACRE

HELL'S HALF ACRE (1954). Director: John H. Auer.

Donna Williams (Evelyn Keyes) has always thought that her husband of a short time died during the war. But then she sees a story about a man named Chet Chester (Wendell Corey) who has been arrested for murder in Hawaii and who greatly resembles the dead man. Chester is a deserter, black marketeer, and shady criminal, and when Donna confronts him he insists that he is not her husband. Can Donna get the man she apparently still loves to tell the truth? Meanwhile her poking her nose into Chet's business is bringing her to the attention of assorted nefarious elements. "Hell's Half Acre" refers to a dangerous, crime-infested section of Honolulu where much of the action takes place. While the movie has an intriguing premise, Hell's Half Acre isn't very good. Knowing what she knows about "Chet," it seems incredible that she wouldn't just walk away from the creep, especially when she finds out he was a deserter. The scenes between Donna and Chet don't work because the two actors just walk through their roles, perhaps because even they weren't convinced by the script. Philip Ahn plays a gangster who slaps around Marie Windsor, and Elsa Lanchester [Les Miserables] is a spirited lady cab driver. Keye Luke is the police chief, and Jesse White, annoying and unimpressive as ever, plays another hood who comes to a bad end. Windsor [Swamp Women] probably comes off the best with her typically vital portrayal. John H. Auer also directed The Crime of Dr. Crespi and quite a few melodramas and musicals.

Verdict: Not half as interesting as it sounds. **.

THANK YOU MR. MOTO

Peter Lorre and Sig Ruman

THANK YOU, MR. MOTO (1937). Director: Norman Foster.

Charlie Chan had been appearing in motion pictures for some years when 20th Century-Fox and Monogram came out with competing series about Oriental sleuths. Boris Karloff's Mr. Wong appeared in films released by Monogram, while Mr. Moto had the more prestigious Fox at the wheel. Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) is a "confidential investigator" but his real profession, he claims, is "importer." Another character describes Moto as "an adventurer, an explorer, a soldier of fortune." In any case, Moto never quite seems altogether on the up and up although in essence he's a good guy. In this second Mr. Moto film, he is in Peping when it develops that certain parties wish to obtain scrolls that will lead to the hidden tomb of Genghis Khan in the Gobi desert and all of its treasures. Prince Chung (Philip Ahn) and his mother Madame Chung (Pauline Frederick) own the scrolls and will not part with them at any price because they fear the Great Khan's (!) tomb will be desecrated. Assorted individuals are murdered for the scrolls by an unknown party, but Thank You, Mr. Moto is less a mystery than a film of action and intrigue. Characters include Colonel Chernov (Sig Ruman), who tries to purchase the scrolls from the prince; his wife, Madame Chernov (Nedda Harrigan of Charlie Chan at the Opera); Periera (John Carradine), an antique dealer who knows more than he's telling; and Eric Koerger (Sidney Blackmer of The House of Secrets). The romantic interest is supplied by Thomas Beck and Jayne Regan. Lorre is fine as Moto, and Blackmer, Ruman, Harrigan and Carradine are also notable. The best performances, however, come from Ahn as the prince and Frederick as his mother; there's an especially good scene when the prince tries to keep his mother from being tortured. Philip Ahn [Red Barry] was an extremely talented actor, one of those who graces every film he appears in. There is a moving conclusion as well.

Verdict: Creditable if imperfect Moto vehicle. **1/2.

HONG KONG CONFIDENTIAL

HONG KONG CONFIDENTIAL (1958). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

Special Agent Casey Reed (Gene Barry of The War of the Worlds) works in a nightclub in Hong Kong as a singer as his cover. He is told that the Russians have kidnapped the young son, Abdul, of Thamen's King Faid, to force his cooperation in a deal that is also important to the U.S.. Reed is assigned to find the boy, and along the way pretends to be a crook who wants an alliance with Macao gold smuggler Elena Martine (Allison Hayes of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) and her associates, Chung (Philip Ahn) and Owen Howard (Noel Drayton). Casey's pretty accompanist, Fay (Beverly Tyler) is brought to Macao via subterfuge to put pressure on Reed. Hong Kong Confidential has obtrusive narration that tells us what we're seeing, and is on the level of a cheap TV production, but it does boast a tense scene when Reed, still pretending to be a crook, is told to prove his loyalty by killing the British agent John Blanchard (Michael Pate); the climax is also suspenseful and the movie is fast-paced. The performances are okay, although Hayes, without much of a character to play, seems a trifle bored at times. Ed Kemmer also appears as an old flame of Fay's. When Barry goes into his song and dance routine it looks as if he's doing a parody! Cahn directed a number of cheapie-creepies, some of which, like Voodoo Woman, were a lot of fun.

Verdict: Amos Burke meets the 50 Foot Woman. **1/2.

DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD

DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD (/13 chapter Filmcraft serial/1943). Directors: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor.

 "The Japs would give their eyeteeth to get this information."

"You mean their buck teeth, sir." [Oy!]

In this superior sequel to Don Winslow of the Navy, Winslow (Don Terry) is assigned to the Coast Guard and continues to battle the machinations of the Scorpion (Nestor Paiva) and his female lieutenant, Tasmia (June Duprez). Elyse Knox is cast as the plucky nurse, Mercedes, and talented Philip Ahn is rather wasted in the role of bad guy Hirota. Highlights include a fire in an oil derrick, a plane that smashes into a boat, another boat that is blown to bits, and a neat bit with a car that rolls down a hill backward and winds up in the drink. The Scorpion has an interesting headquarters located in a cliff behind a waterfall. An interesting aspect of the serial is that the story is conversationally recapped/reported at the beginning of the chapter by one of the supporting characters. Terry is more than adequate as the action-hero, and Paiva, in a rare villainous role, is adequate if a little bland. Full of WW2 lingo and stock sea battle footage.

Verdict: Much better than Don Winslow of the Navy. ***.

IMPACT

IMPACT (1949). Director: Arthur Lubin.

Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) has just had a triumph in the boardroom and hopes to take a trip with his wife, Irene (Helen Walker). Instead he winds up giving a lift to his wife's alleged cousin, Jim (Tony Barrett, a rather unlikely lover boy). The best scene in the picture vividly details the fateful things that happen on the mountain highway between the two men. The problem with Impact is that it starts out as a high-tension thriller, then  halfway through settles into an unconvincing small-town romance, and never quite recovers from this. It is also incredibly illogical, with one character being arrested for murder even though it's clear that the "victim" was killed in an accident -- with witnesses no less [who are never called to testify -- sure!] Donlevy isn't a bad actor, but he lacks the vulnerability to make the romantic scenes work, and Ella Raines, as the woman he falls for, is only adequate. Charles Coburn is miscast as an Irish cop on the case. He isn't terrible, but this is one of his rare unimpressive performances. Anna May Wong [Daughter of Shanghai] has a small but pivotal role as a maid, and Philip Ahn [Red Barry] turns up as her uncle. Clarence Kolb of My Little Margie appears in the opening boardroom scene. As expected, Helen Walker [Nightmare Alley] gives the most vital performance as Walter's wife.

Verdict: Lots of potential in this, but a weak script and some indifferent acting put paid to an interesting premise. **1/2.

RED BARRY

RED BARRY 13 chapter Universal [Filmcraft] serial (1938). Directors: Ford Beebe; Allen James.

"In the home of a friend it is too early for suspicion. In the home of an enemy, it is always too late."

This snappy serial is based on a King Features comic strip, and an interesting device has each chapter's recap told via comic panels. Red Barry (Larry "Buster" Crabbe) gets involved in a case regarding some valuable stolen bonds, against the wishes of the police commissioner (an excellent William Gould), who prefers his own man handle matters. Wing Fu (Cyril Delevanti) wants the bonds to buy needed planes for Chinese forces, while Russian dancer Natacha (Edna Sedgewick) insists that the bonds were wrongfully taken from her father. Others tied up in this case include intrepid reporter "Mississippi" (Frances Robinson); theater owner Mannix (William Ruhl); Wing Fu's son (Philip Ahn), an intelligent man who masquerades as the pidgin-English spouting "Hong Kong Charlie;" foppish if brave detective Valentine Vale (Hugh Huntley), the commissioner's favorite; and the sinister Qoung Lee (Frank Lackteen), who is also trying to get his hands on the bonds. The best cliffhanger has our hero tied to a bureau with a vial of explosive tottering on top as would-be rescuers, unaware of the danger, try to break through the wall behind him -- watch out! Crabbe is perfection in the title role, the other cast members are swell, the theme music is memorable, and the serial has a good plot full of interesting twists and characters. The very talented Philip Ahn gives another noteworthy performance.

Verdict: Buster is more than a "Flash." ***.

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.