Up There

UP IN THE AIR-1940-Comedy drama/murder mystery set in a radio studio. When the vain, pain in the ass Rita Wilson (Lorna Gray), star of a popular radio show is killed, Frankie, a page (Frankie Darro) and Jeff, a janitor (Mantan Moreland) team up to solve the murder. Some suspects include the show’s producer (Tris Coffin), cowboy Tex (Gordon Jones) and the radio company's boss RJ (Dick Elliot). At one point Frankie and Jeff perform a routine based on one that Moreland did with his real comedy team partner FE Miller, with Darro in black face. When their boss makes Darro clean his face, Moreland says “Don't touch me. I don't rub off.'' Rita's replacement is newcomer Anne (Marjorie Reynolds). When the killer is found out Moreland foils his plan of escape (though accidentally). 

This was one of several short movies Darro and Moreland starred in together. Director Howard Bretheton directed mostly westerns and the Charlie Chan mystery THE TRAP.

Thanks for reading! 

Chan On The Air

THE SCARLET CLUE-1945-This time Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is on the trail of spies who want to steal radar plans. While he and a local police Capt. Flynn (Robert Homans) find a spy they were tailing dead, it seems the murderer drove off in a stolen car belonging to radio actress Diana Hall (Helen Deveareaux) and her friend Gloria (Janet Shaw). A footprint leads Charlie to believe that the killer works at the radio station. He’s right! The manager Bret (I. Stanford Jolley) is the killer but he takes his orders from someone who communicates by a telegram machine. When Gloria tries to blackmail Bret she dies from poisoning. When Chan connects Bret to the murder the manager falls to his death from a trapdoor in an elevator! There's also a scientific contraption that simulates different types of weather. On an “experimental” TV program Jack Norton does a drunk routine but is poisoned before he can give Charlie any info. This story features a lot of science tech and talk about TV. 

THE SCARLET CLUE also features no. 3 son Tommy (Benson Fong) who messes up several times and Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) who does 2 routines with his real life vaudeville partner Ben Carter. (They also do this in DARK ALIBI). Phil Rosen was once again in the director's chair. Followed by THE SHANGHAI COBRA.

Thanks for reading!

Chan The Man

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM-1940-Gangster Steve McBirney (Marc Lawrence) is convicted of murder  thanks to the work of famous Chinese detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler). McBirney manages to get a gun and “shoot his way out”. He and his buddy hide in a wax museum run by Dr. Cream (C. Henry Gordon) and his female assistant Lily (Joan Valerie). He wants Cream to give him a new face (Cream used to be a surgeon). Later while Charlie confers with police inspector O’Matthews (Joe King), son Jimmy (Sen Yung) comes by. With him are Dr. Cream and reporter Mary Boland (Marguerite Chapman) who want Chan to be on a radio show where he and the pompous Dr. Von Brom (Michael Visaroff) will  try to determine if an innocent man Joe Rock was executed for a crime he didn't commit. It’s really just a trap set by Cream and McBirney to kill Chan. They gather for the broadcast but  unbeknownst to the rest, Joe’s widow is there too. McBirney and his friend convince the crazy caretaker to help electrocute Chan but Von Brom insists on sitting in Chan’s chair and seems to be electrocuted but Charlie deduces that he was shot with a poisoned dart and it is the work of Butcher Deegan, a criminal thought to be dead! 

This is a nice little whodunit with a cool wax museum backdrop but Jimmy's dumb antics (he faints twice) get a little annoying. Funny, unexpected final scene though. Director Lynn Shores was a little bit of a mystery man. He directed several short subjects and an early talkie THE JAZZ AGE (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and also THE SHADOW STRIKES (1937) but not too much else. He died in 1949.

Next installment: MURDER OVER NEW YORK

Thanks for reading!

Everyone Loves a Mystery

I LOVE A MYSTERY-1945-This murder mystery is based on a very popular radio show created by Carlton E. Morse. Jack Patton (Jim Bannon) and Doc Long (Barton Yarborough) investigate the murder of Jefferson Monk (George Macready) who rightly predicted his own decapitation death. His invalid wife (Nina Foch) says that earlier he'd been attacked by a scary faced peg-legged guy. In a flashback (which also features a flashback) it's learned Monk had an encounter with Mr. G (Lester Matthews), a (phony) Asian leader of the “oldest secret society”. Apparently Monk looked like the society's mummified “sacred one” and they offered him 10 thousand dollars for his head! It seems his wife was trying to drive him mad to inherit his money but she succeeded too well! 

This was the first of three low budget movies based on the radio show. Former dialogue director Henry Levin directed all of them and had worked with female lead Nina Foch earlier on the disappointing CRY OF THE WEREWOLF. 

Like I said before in my review of their second feature THE DEVIL'S MASK, Jack and Doc make a good team and the the story had some weird twists. Of course as usual I reviewed the second movie first!

Thanks for reading!

Who Doesn't Love a Mystery?

THE DEVIL'S MASK-1946-This murder mystery is based on the radio show I LOVE A MYSTERY (created by Carlton Morse) . Two cool investigators Jack (Jim Bannon) and Doc (Barton Yarborough) help Janet Mitchell (Anita Louise), the widow of a missing explorer who thinks she has been targeted for murder by her step-daughter (Mona Barrie) and her boyfriend. A panther, a shrunken head and a crazy taxidermist are all part of the part.

This was the second of three I LOVE A MYSTERY dramas produced, based on the popular radio show. It's short and to the point and Jack and Doc are a pretty good team. Director Henry Levin was busy in 1946 (he made 5 other movies) but later when he slowed down he made JOURNEY TO THE ENTER OF THE EARTH and THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM.

Barton Yarborough (Doc) also played the role on radio and in addition was featured on another radio show ONE MAN'S FAMILY for almost 20 years. He's the ill fated Dr. Kettering in THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN. He died suddenly of a heart attack in the early '50's after filming a few episodes of Jack Webb's DRAGNET. 

Co-star Jim Bannon (Jack) was also a radio star who made many low budget films (some with no credit) and later went into TV. He was a regular on the series CASEY JONES in 1957 and died in 1973. Topped bill Anita Louise had been in THE GORILLA with The Ritz Brosthers and THE LITTLE PRINCESS with Shirley Temple. She made a lot more movies and in the '50's was a regular on TV's MY FRIEND FLICKA.

Thanks for reading!