THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR

Hugh Herbert and Eddie Quillan

THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR (1939). Director: Joseph Santley.  

George Pierce (Hugh Herbert of We're In the Money) runs a small-town household consisting of wife Rose (Ruth Donnelly), daughters Susan (Juanita Quigley) and Laura (Joy Hodges), and sons Sammy (Eddie Quillan) and Rufus (Benny Bartlett). While aspiring singer Laura has some romantic problems, son Sammy conspires with his mother to cash in some bonds in order to buy property that he is sure will become valuable once a railroad stop is erected. Alas ... In 1937 MGM started their long-running Hardy Family series with A Family Affair while 20th Century Fox beat them out with the first Jones Family entry, Every Saturday Night the year before. The Family Next Door was released by Universal, and perhaps there was some hope that it would be as successful as the other studios' entries, but this picture was not developed into a series. On its own terms, The Family Next Door is a very funny movie bolstered by fine comic performances. Ruth Donnelly especially stands out as the mother who goes to some extreme lengths for her pretty daughter, who has fallen for newcomer Bill Trevis (Thomas Beck), and there's an amusing party scene that reminds one a bit of Alice Adams (in other ways as well). Cecil Cunningham makes an impression as Bill's disapproving Aunt Cora. There is also an adorable family pet named Baby, who in one charming scene commiserates with the (temporarily) heartbroken Laura, and Lillian Yarbo, as usual, is very amusing as the maid Blossom. The dramatic developments are fairly predictable, but The Family Next Door is quite entertaining.

Verdict: Fun, old-fashioned family comedy with expert players. ***.

THINK FAST, MR. MOTO

Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto

THINK FAST, MR. MOTO (1937). Director: Norman Foster.

"Half of the world spends its time laughing at the other half -- and both are fools." -- Mr. Moto.

"Strange people, these Americans." -- ditto.

On a liner heading for China, a mysterious Japanese man named Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) encounters a pleasant young fellow named Bob Hitchings (Thomas Beck), whose father owns the steamship company. Bob falls hard for another mysterious person, Gloria (Virginia Field), who is employed as a singer at the International Club in Shanghai. Gloria's employer, Nicolas Marloff (Sig Ruman) is up to some skulduggery and Mr. Moto seems to have an uncertain role in this. Is he good guy or bad? Although Think Fast, Mr. Moto, the first of the Mr. Moto films, has a workable script and a fast pace, its primarily the performances that put it over, with Lorre superb as the importer who dabbles in detective work as a sideline, especially where his own concerns are involved. Thomas Beck is quite appealing as Bob, and Virginia Field [Repeat Performance] offers another of her expert portrayals as the mystery woman who has, perhaps, gotten herself in too deep. John Rogers scores as ship's steward, Carson, who may be hiding a shiv under his likable exterior, and there are nice turns from J. Carrol Naish as an assassin; Murray Kinnell as a business associate of Bob's father; and Lotus Long [Mr. Wong in Chinatown] as a hotel switchboard operator who helps Moto and is nearly killed for her troubles. Thomas Beck and Murray Kinnell both appeared in Charlie Chan in Paris.

Verdict: Good, snappy introduction to the Mr. Moto series. ***.

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.

CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS

CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS (1935). Director: Lewis Seller.

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) comes to Paris to investigate some counterfeit bank bonds when his associate, the Apache dancer Nardi (Dorothy Appleby), is murdered at the end of her act. Then Yvette (Mary Brian of Manhattan Tower), the fiancee of Chan's handsome young friend Victor (Thomas Beck of Every Saturday Night) gets in trouble when she goes to get some compromising letters from a former boyfriend, Henri Latouche (Murray Kinnell), who is also murdered. Chan now has at least two murders to solve, with the help of Inspector Renard (Minor Watson) and his irrepressible son Lee (Keye Luke). A weird old beggar goes around causing mayhem, and there's a scene in the Paris sewers. The cast is good, and Erik Rhodes is especially memorable as the ever-amusing artist Max Corday. The best scene has Corday assuming Chan can't speak English well and asking him if he wants a "little dlinky," after which Chan makes clear that he speaks English quite well, thank you. Kinnell often appeared in Charlie Chan movies in a variety of roles. This was the first appearance of Keye Luke as Lee Chan.

Verdict: Acceptable if minor Charlie Chan mystery. **1/2.

CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT

Warner Oland and Rita Cansino (Hayworth)

CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT (1935). Director: Louis/Luis King.

Charlie Chan is investigating the theft and forgery of certain antiquities when he discovers that archaeologist Professor Arnold (George Irving) has been missing for weeks. Then the professor turns up in an unexpected place, setting in motion a series of often clever murders. There's the tomb that has hidden secrets and time-lost chambers that hold their own promise of death. Characters include Arnold's daughter, Carol (Pat Paterson), her sensitive violin-playing brother, Barry (James Eagles of The Story of Temple Drake), the family physician Dr. Anton Racine (Jameson Thomas of The Curtain Falls), Carol's fella Tom Evans (Thomas Beck), and Snowshoes, the whiny if lovable servant (Stepin Fetchit of Show Boat). A young Rita Hayworth, billed here as Rita Cansino, plays a servant girl, and is fine. There are perhaps not enough suspects, and some of the cast members over-act badly, but Charlie Chan in Egypt is fun.

Verdict: Not even dank tombs can stop Charlie. ***.

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK

Keye Luke and Warner Oland

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK (1936). Director: H. Bruce Humberstone.

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) uncovers skulduggery surrounding a race horse when its jockey (Frankie Darro of Burn 'Em Up Barnes) throws a race, and that's only the beginning. On shipboard, the horse's owner is found trampled to death but Chan quickly deduces that it was not an accident and the horse is not to blame. Suspects and other characters include Lee Chan (Keye Luke) who pretends to be a steward to help/hinder his father; Alice Fenton (Helen Wood), Bruce Rogers (Thomas Beck), jockey Eddie Brill (Junior Coghlan of The Adventures of Captain Marvel); horse owner George Chester (Alan Dinehart of Seven Days Ashore); and his daughter, Catherine (Gloria Roy). There's also a mischievous monkey called Lollipop; a groom named Streamline (John Henry Allen, who seems to be doing a Stepin Fetchit imitation); and when offered refreshment, Chan asks not for spirits but sarsaparilla. Charlie actually discusses blood spatter evidence at one point, proving such matters were invoked decades before CSI and Henry Lee.

Verdict: Fun, as usual, if not topnotch Chan. **1/2.

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT

Jack gets advice from his granny

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT (1936). Director: James Tinling.

When 20th Century-Fox came out with this adaptation of the stage play about a warm and loving family with their share of minor disagreements, they probably had no idea it would make enough money to engender no less than sixteen sequels! That means that there was one more entry in [what became] the Jones Family series than in MGM's Andy Hardy/Hardy Family series (even when you count the much-later Andy Hardy Comes Home and don't count a couple of Andy Hardy shorts), which began with A Family Affair (also from a play) the year after Every Saturday Night debuted. Ironically, the Jones Family series is pretty much completely forgotten, while everyone has heard of Andy Hardy, probably thanks to the irrepressible Mickey Rooney. 

In Every Saturday Night the name of the family is actually Evers, but it was changed for subsequent entries, although when the film was re-released as a "Jones Family" feature the "Evers" name wasn't over-dubbed. Evers/Jones (Jed Prouty) is a small-town pharmacist who, as his mother (Florence Roberts) tells him, raises his children as if it were twenty years earlier, and forgets the trouble he got into himself when he was a boy. His oldest daughter, Bonnie (June Lang) is dating a guy named Clark (Thomas Beck) who drives drunk and nearly kills a girl. The younger daughter, Lucy (June Carlson) wants to be an actress and is always imitating Hepburn, Garbo or someone else. Oldest son Jack (Ken Howell) gets in hot water when he takes Dad's car without permission, and borrows money from his serious younger brother Roger (George Ernest) at high interest. Then there's a near-crisis when little Bobby (Billy Mahan) gets a serious cut. Mrs. Evers (Spring Byington) is wise enough to know when to intercede and when to keep quiet. Every Saturday Night is certainly not a masterpiece, but it is surprisingly touching at times in its warmth and honest sentiment, and the obvious love these characters feel for one another is almost palpable, thanks to very adept performances by the entire cast.

Verdict: A lost bit of Hollywood history. **1/2.