Blow The Horn, Stan!

 

 (imdb)

SAPS AT SEA-1940-Mr. Hardy (Ollie) is diagnosed with hornaphobia and is allergic to horns. This is bad because he and Mr. Laurel (Stan) work at a horn factory. His doctor (James Finlayson) suggests he go on a sea trip but Hardy won't do it so Laurel suggests they stay on a docked boat. So after wrecking their room, they go rent a boat. For some reason they take a goat with them. After some antics, wanted gangster Nick Grainger (Dick Cramer) boards the ship. Then the goat chews away the rope mooring the boat and the three are set out to sea. When Nick almost kills Hardy, Stan plays his trombone and Hardy beats the thug up. They are entitled to a reward but still wind up in jail thanks to Laurel's storytelling! 

Gordon Douglas directed this outing with the team in another crazy, hilarious situation. Several people worked on the story and screenplay, including Harry Langdon and Felix Adler. Stan Laurel added some uncredited input.

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Them!

 

THEM!-1954-In this classic 1950's "giant bug" science fiction story giant ants are breeding in the New Mexico desert (9 years after a nuclear bomb blast) and killing humans. After police Sargent Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) finds a shell shocked little girl (Sandy Descher) wandering around and his partner is killed, FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) is called in. So is ant expert Dr. Medford (Edmund Gwen) and his daughter Patricia (Joan Weldon). They discover and kill one of the ants and later with the help of General O'Brien (Onslow Stevens) and Major Kibbee (Sean McClory) the army wipe out the colony. 

Unfortunately a couple of queens escape and take up residence in the sewer drains of LA. A frantic search ensues and along the way many familiar characters show up (Fess Parker, John Beradino, Willis Bouchey, Olin Howland, Richard Deacon, Ann Doran, Dean Fredericks, William Schallert, Dub Taylor, Dick Wessel, Harry Wilson and of course Leonard Nimoy.

The finale in a crumbling section of sewer, where besides destroying the nests, they must rescue two boys trapped there.

Arguably, this is the best giant insect mov-ie. It's very forward, scientific and has solid acting. Director Gordon Douglas had a varied and interesting career, making entries into "The Great Gildersleeve", Our Gang shorts, ZENOBIA (with Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon), ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (with Brown & Carney) be-fore THEM! Later in the '60's, he made bigger budgeted movies for Bob Hope, Sinatra and Jerry Lewis, IN LIKE FLINT, two Tony Rome detective movies (also with Sinatra), the missing link drama SKULLDUGGERY, THE CALL ME MR. TIBBS and SLAUGHTER'S BIG RIPOFF! Some res-ume!

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Slaptick Dictator

THE DEVIL WITH HITLER-1942-This 44 minute slaptick comedy from Hal Roach studios has Gesatan, the devil (Alan Mowbray) trying to save his job as boss of Hell because the other devils want to replace him with Adolf Hitler! He goes to Earth to try and make Hitler (Bobby Watson) do a good deed. Joe Devlin is Mussolini and George E. Stone is Suki Yaki. There's a lot of slapstick, one liners and jokes about executions. The freaky part is when Hitler talks about how horrible concentration camps are!

It's very much in the vein of the 3 Stooges shorts YOU NAZTY SPY! and I'LL NEVER HEIL AGAIN (both made first). Douglas Fowley plays an insurance salesman and Herman Bing is a Nazi astrologer who's executed. Philip Van Zandt, John Miljan and Rudolph Anders have un-credited roles. In the end Hitler is chased by devils with pitchforks and Gesatan promises: "This is only the beginning, folks!".

Director Gordon Douglas had made SAPS AT SEA with Laurel & Hardy the year before and later made THEM!. Watson portrayed Hitler at least 9 times during the 1940's.

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Zombies Rule OK-Part 3

ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY-1945-Two stupid publicity agents (Alan Carney & Wally Brown) get in trouble with a gangster (Sheldon Leonard) when they promise a real life zombie will appear at the opening of his nightclub and then can’t deliver. He sends them to the island of San Sebastian to get a real zombie and they meet a mad scientist Dr. Renault (played by Bela Lugosi) who’s trying to make his own “scientific zombie” in his lab.

Darby Jones (from I WALK WITH A ZOMBIE) is Renault’s living dead servant. Also with Anne Jeffreys, Ian Wolfe and Frank Jenks.

Brown & Carney made a series of RKO comedies between 1943 and 1946. They are usually described as a “lower case Abbott & Costello” but are more like a lower case Bud Abbott & Curly Howard! 

Lugosi would be in the team’s GENIUS AT WORK the next year too. Director Gordon Douglas later helmed the giant ant fest THEM. 

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CaveDog Calling Dick Tracy...

DICK TRACY-1937-This is the first film adaptation of Chester Gould’s famous comic strip detective. It’s actually a 15-chapter serial that was later condensed and re-released as a feature in the early ‘40’s. Ralph Byrd isn’t bad as the square jawed detective, trying to find out who’s behind “The Spider Murders” but most of the “classic” supporting characters from the strip are left out. He’s assisted by Fred Hamilton as Steve Lockwood, Smiley Burnette as Mike McGurk, Kay Hughes as Gwen Andrews and Lee Van Atta as Junior. The villainous Spider (who’s identity is kept secret till the final chapter) keeps Dick busy trying kill him, blow up bridges and even turning Tracy’s own brother against him and into a hypnotized slave! Like most serials it’s very far fetched and some of the acting is very bad. Former silent matinee idol Francis X Bushman appears as Chief Anderson. John Picorri is the hunchbacked mad scientist Moloch and Byron Foulger, Ray Bancroft and William Hopper also have roles.

Two more serials followed: DICK TRACY RETURNS and DICK TRACY’S G-MEN (both with Byrd, a busy character actor in other films until is untimely death in 1951 after filming a Dick Tracy TV series).

DICK TRACY-DETECTIVE-1945–Not to be confused with the above reviewed DICK TRACY from 1937 that was a feature condensation of the serial starring Ralph Byrd, this one has the inadequate Morgan Conway playing the comic strip detective. Lyle Latell (as Pat Patton) and Anne Jefferys (as Tess) are there. Junior too. This time Tracy is on the trail of Splitface (Mike Mazurki), a vicious murderer with a nice facial scar. It’s all right but Conway just isn’t “squared jawed” enough for the role. Director William Berke directed and/or produced nearly 100 pictures from the early ‘30’s till the late 1950’s (he was also an actor in silent films) including many Westerns and the “Jungle Jim” series. He died in 1958 at the age of 55.

DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL-1946-Another installment of Chester Gould’s comic strip character, this time with the badly miscast Morgan Conway in the title role. Tracy and partner Pat Patton (Lyle Latell) are after a jewel thief and murderer Cueball (Dick Wessel with no hair). Not much happens in the mundane storyline but Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart is always good for a few laughs. Anne Jeffreys is Tess, Dick’s girlfriend who has a little more to do than usual. Esther Howard is Filthy Flora, a floozy bar owner and Douglas Walton is Percival Priceless, an antiques dealer. Also with the great Byron Foulger and the creepy Skelton Knaggs. Director Gordon Douglas later on made the giant ants epic THEM!, Bob Hope comedies, blaxpoltation and many other films. Screenwriter Robert Kent later wrote and/or produced many Edward Cahn movies.

DICK TRACY’S DILEMNA-1947-Second to last in the series (star Ralph Byrd died suddenly of a heart attack in 1951), it features Tracy and partner Pat Patton (Lyle Latell) on the trail of “The Claw” (Jack Lambert), a hook handed murderer and fur thief. Ian Keith as ham actor Vitamin Flintheart is a highlight. Kay Christopher doesn’t have much to do as Tess. Not much happens but The Claw’s death is fairly memorable. Sean McClory and Jason Robards Sr. have small roles. Journeyman director John Rawlins also made THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN!, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR and the last in the Tracy series, DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (with Boris Karloff as the title villain). 

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