24 HOURS (1931)

Kay Francis and Clive Brook

24 HOURS (1931). Director: Marion Gering.

At a party Jim Towner (Clive Brook) turns to his wife, Fanny (Kay Francis), and asks her where things went wrong. Turns out both of them are seeing other people, with Fanny dallying with David (Minor Watson), and Jim fooling around with singer, Rosie Duggan (Miriam Hopkins). Rosie has thrown out her hoodlum husband, Tony (Regis Toomey), and trouble starts when he demands to be let back into her life again. One of the main characters winds up murdering another, with suspicion falling on a third. 24 Hours doesn't work as drama, mystery, or even melodrama, as it seems too long even at a mere 66 minutes. Of the cast Regis Toomey [Shopworn] comes off best, with Wade Boteler [The Green Hornet] also scoring as the doorman Pat, who is Rosie's brother. Clive Brook isn't bad, but he makes a rather dull leading man, and Francis is competent but not given very much to do as his wife. Miriam Hopkins [Lady with Red Hair] get a little more screen time as Rosie, bur her delivery of a couple of torch songs is almost ruined by her voice. Francis and Hopkins, although involved with the same man, don't have a single scene together, stripping the film of its main point of interest. Its stage origins are apparent, although one can't imagine this was ever any world-beater.

Verdict: This positively creaks. Even if you like Francis and Hopkins this is one you can miss. *1/2.

THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN

THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (15 chapter Universal serial/1940). Directors: Ford Beebe; John Rawlins.

This sequel to the first Green Hornet cliffhanger uses the same directors, most of the original cast, but has a new Hornet: Britt Reid and his masked alter ego the Hornet are now played by Warren Hull of Mandrake the Magician. Gordon Jones of the first serial might have had the slight edge, but Hull isn't bad. He also tries to affect a different voice when he tries to speak as the Hornet, but is less effective at it than Jones. The Green Hornet Strikes Again is as episodic as its predecessor, but it's also a more entertaining serial. Anne Nagel is back as "Casey," Reid's secretary, as are Wade Boteler as reporter Michael Axford [who always calls our hero the "Hahnet"] and Keye Luke as Kato. Eddie Acuff plays a new character, a reporter named Lowery. Although the Hornet doesn't know his identity until the very end, the audience is clued in to the fact that the head of the syndicate that has its fingers in many illegal pies -- the building business, oil wells, steel mills, heiresses subject to extortion -- is Boss Crogan (Pierre Watkin, who is effective if comparatively colorless). Roy Barcroft, Nestor Paiva, and possibly Grant Williams are also in the cast in small roles. There are exciting cliffhangers involving a moving bridge, the Hornet's plane being shot down, and a great bit with the Hornet and a hood plunging through the top floor when a building collapses. There's a very effective warehouse fire, as well as a lively fight when some hoodlums attack trucks distributing Reid's paper, the Sentinel. One chapter deals with a steel mill that is secretly making bombs for a foreign government. Jay Michael offers a notable turn as a sneering construction racketeer in chapter 14. The classical music on the soundtrack is sometimes disconcerting. This is definitely one of the better Universal serials.

Verdict: This one has a little more sting. ***.

MANHATTAN TOWER

Mary Brian in a pensive moment

MANHATTAN TOWER (1932). Director: Frank R. Strayer.

Inside the high stories of the Manhattan Tower the lives of several people begin to intersect. Mary (Mary Brian) and her boyfriend Jimmy (James Hall) are saving up to get married and buy a home in Kew Gardens. Mary is secretary to the lecherous and all around unpleasant Kenneth Burns (Clay Clement), whose wife, Ann (Irene Rich), has finally had enough and wants her freedom to marry lawyer David Witman (Hale Hamilton) -- whose office is also in the Tower. Whitman has a dizzy secretary who unwittingly causes a run on the bank in the building because of something she overhears. Then there's Marge (Noel Francis), another rather sluttish secretary who is not unwelcoming of Burns' oily advances. Mary asks Burns to invest some money for her, which does not sit well with Jimmy. It all culminates in a horrifying confrontation in Burns' office. The film is well-directed and edited and has an interesting cinematic technique in that the camera turns into film strips that go higher or lower depending on which floor the next scene occurs. There's a morally ambiguous ending in which one brash character pretty much gets away with causing another's death. While the victim may not have been an especially nice person, even he didn't deserve the awful fate he endures [and the other characters are much too blase about it all]. The only familiar faces in this are Wade Boteler as Jimmy's boss and Walter Brennan in a small role as Jimmy's stuttering co-worker. [Ironically, Brennan went on to fame while the others were all forgotten.] The film is full of more than competent actors who never achieved any kind of lasting fame. Mary Brian, who started in silents, had quite a few credits both before and after this film. Hall also started in silents; this was his last film credit and he died 8 years later at age 39.

Verdict: Entertaining trifle with some good actors and interesting developments. **1/2.

THE GREEN HORNET (1940)

Gordon Jones and Keye Luke

THE GREEN HORNET (13 chapter Universal serial/1940). Directors: Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor.

Britt Reid (Gordon Jones), who has inherited control of the Sentinel newspaper from his father, wages a war against incredible corruption in his city in the disguise of The Green Hornet. With his faithful butler.chauffeur and action partner Kato (Keye Luke) by his side, the Hornet smashes one racket after another in this episodic serial. The two men ride around in a car called Black Beauty and use a gas gun to put opponents quickly to sleep. The police and many of the crooks believe the Hornet is also a criminal eliminating rivals. Sentinel reporter Michael Axford (Wade Boteler) is one of the Hornet's detractors, convinced he's a bad guy, while Reid's secretary Lenore Case (Anne Nagel) insists that the Hornet is a true hero -- neither has any idea that they're working for the very fellow they're arguing about. There are protection rackets, flight school insurance scams where students are deliberately killed for insurance [an especially heartless business], and other nefarious schemes, headed by a guy named Monroe (Cy Kendall) who spends most of his time sitting behind a desk and -- judging from his size -- eating; he is a colorless antagonist. There are no great Republic-type fist fights [this would have been an even better serial had it been made for Republic studios instead of Universal] but there are some lively scenes, including a bit with a runaway bus, and some thrilling business involving an uncoupled train. Jones and Luke are excellent, with the former affecting a more dramatic voice when he puts on the mask of the Hornet [some sources say the Hornet's voice was actually supplied by Al Hodge, who played the character on the radio, but he is uncredited]. Boteler is amusing in his exasperation, and Nagel [The Secret Code] -- although not beautiful in the conventional Hollywood sense -- classes up this production as she does so many others. Alan Ladd and Anne Gwynne [Honeymoon Deferred] have bit parts. Ann Doran [The Man They Could Not Hang, among many others] plays a woman who pretends to be the dead men's fiancee in the flight school chapter. Gene Rizzi makes an impression as one of the mobsters.[NOTE: The Green Hornet first appeared on the radio, then appeared in comic books [as he still does today] then was made into two serials, a TV show, and finally a dreadful Hollywood feature film.

Verdict: More than acceptable serial fun; much better than the 2011 Hollywood version. ***.