Change Your Image
csteidler
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934)
Fast talking street vendors merge with classy lipstick distributor
Traveling hucksters Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey sell Dr. Dudley's Flavored Lipsticks from the back of their truck. Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee also sell lipstick, with the rather more respectable firm of Maiden America Beauty Products.
Through what may be called a misunderstanding, the two businesses merge. A bag of lipstick samples is accidentally switched with a banker's bag of treasury bonds. A couple of detectives set out after Wheeler and Woolsey, who flee and eventually find themselves driving a fast car in a cross country auto race. It never really make sense but the wild climactic car chase is fun.
Wheeler and Woolsey are their usual comic selves - Wheeler more mild-mannered and romantic, Woolsey the cigar smoking blowhard. Their frequent costar Dorothy Lee is fine as the girl who finds goofy Wheeler irresistible. Thelma Todd mostly plays it straight as manager of the lipstick firm - unfortunately her role offers little opportunity for Thelma to show her comic skills.
Fast moving and very silly but the hectic pace does not always equal hilarity.
Behind the Mask (1932)
Undercover agent takes on smugglers
Hard boiled Jack Holt escapes from prison. His gangster contacts set him up with a job as chauffeur at the large estate of one of their associates who is getting a little nervous. Holt's job is to keep an eye on said associate - whose attractive daughter Constance Cummings already knows there is something fishy going on.
It doesn't take long before we discover that Holt is not a real crook but an undercover agent hoping to track down the smugglers' big boss, the mysterious Mr. X.
Boris Karloff is fun as the loyal but not too bright henchman who does Mr. X's dirty jobs. Edward Van Sloan is a bit creepy as a suspicious-looking doctor running a very shady hospital. There's also a nurse named Bertha Mann at the house who spies on the family and phones in reports which she leaves on a very cool answering machine in an unknown location.
Constance Cummings has a good role as the daughter who is not content to sit back and let Holt chase the bad guys. Cummings and Holt are an effective pair of heroes in this fast-paced crime drama that offers few surprises but does feature some suspenseful moments, including an exciting climactic scene in the hospital.
The Death Kiss (1932)
Solid murder mystery set on a movie lot
David Manners and Adrienne Ames prove a capable leading couple in this standard but enjoyable who done it. Ames is a movie actress suspected of murder; boyfriend Manners is a studio writer who seeks the real killer.
A great opening shot shows us the murder and also establishes that we are watching a crew make a movie: Ames approaches a man on the sidewalk, gives him a big kiss then walks away, and a moment later the man is shot and falls dead. Suddenly the camera pans to the right - and we see the director and film crew watching and we realize it's all part of a movie.
It quickly develops that the fallen actor actually has been shot dead. Not surprisingly, the dead actor had several potential enemies in the studio. Ames is a suspect but so is everyone else, including studio executive Bela Lugosi and director Edward Van Sloan.
Cameras, sets, prop managers and electricians - real or not, this picture is a fun behind-the-scenes look at a movie set.
Manners is effective as the sharp young writer who always seems one step ahead of the cops. Lugosi and Van Sloan look a bit out of place in a modern non-horror setting but they both give solid performances too. Overall, this is very lightweight but nevertheless a fun and fast-paced mystery.
The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)
Uncomfortable melodrama of deceit and suspicion
Lawyer Frank Morgan defends friend Paul Lukas on a murder charge. There's no question that Lukas murdered his wife after having discovered her in an affair. But Morgan has an idea that he can get Lukas acquitted on an insanity plea, and presses Lukas for all the sordid details.
Meanwhile, Morgan's own wife Nancy Carroll is behaving suspiciously - or at least Morgan thinks so. What would he do if he discovered her in an affair of her own?
Plenty of bedroom mirrors in this picture, as characters catch reflected expressions and stare into their own faces. Numerous closeups of those faces, particularly Morgan's and Carroll's, illuminate their uncertainty, fretting, and scheming. Neither character is totally sympathetic, although the story does rather steer us toward understanding Morgan but siding with Carroll.
A courtroom climax is appropriately tense if not completely surprising. Overall, excellent performances and superb camera work keep this one interesting despite a rather grim story.
Cracked Nuts (1931)
Wheeler and Woolsey navigate fictional kingdom
Mild-mannered millionaire Bert Wheeler sails for the fictional kingdom of El Dorania. On the ship over, he romances fellow American traveler Dorothy Lee, and while Lee reciprocates, her aunt Edna May Oliver most decidedly does not approve. Wheeler hopes to find a way to win the aunt's approval.
Meanwhile, fast talking con man Robert Woolsey unexpectedly finds himself crowned king of El Dorania. When Wheeler and company arrive in port, the plot thickens:
Wheeler is approached by some revolutionaries who would like to make him king; Woolsey discovers that the average life span of a king in these parts is very short; and Wheeler and Woolsey bump into each other down on the docks and it turns out that they are old buddies from back in the States.
The plot is kind of wild and of course completely fantastic. The romantic subplot between Wheeler and Dorothy Lee is silly but cute. The cast includes Boris Karloff as a henchman named Boris.
The best bits are a couple of extended scenes in which Wheeler and Woolsey engage in the sort of rapid-fire pun-filled banter that they clearly perfected back in their vaudeville days. The jokes are not that fresh, even for 1931, but the delivery is perfect.
Lots of fun even if it leaves you wondering what you just saw.
The Wild Party (1929)
Popular college girl encounters sober minded professor
Clara Bow is the most popular student at this staid women's college where classroom lectures are somber affairs but the dorm rooms are filled with personal drama. When the girls are able to sneak off campus and hit a party, they have some good times but run into danger as well.
This semester, all the girls are in love with handsome new professor Fredric March. A cautious friendship develops between March and Bow, but he tells her she is wasting her potential with all this partying. Eventually, Clara has a chance to prove her true worth - but will he understand the sacrifice she is making?
The plot here is fairly stodgy and the production is definitely early talkie era. As a fantasy of university life it's not too convincing but still, it's kind of fun.
Clara Bow is very much the center of the picture and she gives a good performance as the young woman who seems shallow when the story begins but grows into someone more mature, thoughtful, and generous. It's not a dramatic masterpiece by any stretch but Bow's character at least shows some development.
Fredric March, on the other hand, scowls his way through the whole picture. Why are all these girls in love with him?
Overall, it's a bit slow moving but not without interest.
Mama Steps Out (1937)
Pleasant romance overshadowed by noisy comedy
Wealthy American businessman Guy Kibbee takes his family on that broadening trip to France. Kibbee is content to take what comes but his wife Alice Brady is downright annoyed by the number of Americans they run into over here. She wants to see some foreigners.
Meanwhile, daughter Betty Furness has spotted old school friend Dennis Morgan, who is now a band singer - talented but not living up to his potential. Morgan is not interested in Betty but she keeps chasing him, seeing something good.
Brady finally meets some artistic types, who hang around the rented villa and make life difficult for the servants. Furness persists in encouraging Morgan to be his best self and eventually he starts to come around. Kibbee, meanwhile, does his best to keep the wife happy but finally reaches his limit.
It's an okay plot but unfortunately this riotous comedy is not so much hilarious as just noisy. Alice Brady is funny but also a little shrill, even for a ditzy rich lady. The three European artists are eccentric - but not that eccentric, and not that funny either.
Betty Furness is fine, and Dennis Morgan (billed as Stanley Morner at this early point in his career) is actually fun to watch - his arrogance turns to uncertainty as he reconsiders his plans and attitude. Guy Kibbee is excellent as usual, although a stronger role for Kibbee might have made this picture stronger as well.
The Nurse's Secret (1941)
Comedy-mystery is routine but fun
Hospital nurse Lee Patrick is sent on special assignment to care for a fragile old lady out at her spooky mansion. Patrick doesn't mind taking the job - she had a date for the evening but her boyfriend the police detective stood her up again.
It's not too surprising, however, when she arrives at the house and finds boyfriend Regis Toomey already there: He's on a case and he has particularly requested her for this nursing job. He's checking into the recent suicide in the house - or was it a murder? - and he wants her help snooping around the place.
Lee Patrick is fine as the clever nurse who readily embraces her role as undercover detective (or Miss Pinkerton, as Toomey calls her, in a nod to the earlier movie version). She mostly plays it straight while the actors around her attempt various levels of eccentricity.
Toomey's role is a mix of serious detective stuff and snappy wisecracks directed at Patrick as well as the houseful of suspects. The dialog isn't especially great but Toomey gives it a game effort.
The rest of the characters really are the usual suspects - doctor, lawyer, victim's girlfriend, butler. It's a well worn plot and so sadly short on surprises, although there is plenty of suspenseful sneaking around in the dark. Overall, a competent if not very exciting B mystery.
Dangerous Number (1937)
Chaotic comedy is more loud than funny
Actress Ann Sothern and silk importer Robert Young are madly in love but total opposites. The picture opens with Young returning from a business trip just in time to find Sothern marrying somebody else: Naturally, he crashes the wedding and he and Sothern run off together and get married themselves. That's where their troubles begin.
Young has business to attend to, while Sothern enjoys partying with her show business friends. Lifestyles clash, arguments ensue. And then they spend the rest of the picture breaking up, reconciling, and arranging fantastic schemes to make each other jealous. A madcap idea for a movie, maybe, but unfortunately it just isn't very funny.
Reginald Owen is Young's cousin and business partner, a scientific type who is working on an artificial silk product that he has yet to perfect. The silk business is relevant to the plot because Owen's latest attempt at a fake silk product looks nice but dissolves when wet.
Cora Witherspoon is fine if somewhat wasted as Sothern's showbiz mother. Both Witherspoon and Owen are capable of great comedy - but neither really has much of a role here except to stand at one side of the action and make the occasional silly comment.
The stars are all likable enough and the picture is certainly fast paced. However, loud and fast does not automatically equal funny. This is one of those comedies that just doesn't quite click.
The Black Camel (1931)
Early Charlie Chan features Bela Lugosi as fortune teller
An actress is found murdered. Detective Charlie Chan is on the scene to ask some questions. The case may be related to the unsolved murder of another movie star three years earlier.
Bela Lugosi is fun as Tarneverro, a fortune teller who has been advising the murder victim. He owns a crystal ball but makes no real pretense to having actual supernatural powers - he even admits he's no magician in a fun exchange with Chan: "We are both detectives," Lugosi suggests. "You look backwards, I look forward." Chan nods. "Possible," he agrees.
Robert Young and Sally Eilers are the usual young couple - she knows something, he wants her to tell, it's complicating their love life. Dwight Frye has a brief role as a butler whose key scene is the most surprising moment of the film.
Warner Oland is already right at home as the Chinese sleuth in this early series entry. There's no Keye Luke yet but we do get a glimpse of the Chan family at breakfast - a table full of kids all pestering Pop with questions about the case. ("Aw, that's a lot of applesauce. Come on, Pop, spill the beans.")
The mystery plot is nothing too special but the cast and dialog are solid. It was a few years yet before the series really hit its stride but this picture is nevertheless a very good B mystery.
She's Got Everything (1937)
Standard plot, entertaining cast
Impoverished heiress Ann Sothern is happy to pick up a job as secretary for confident young coffee magnate Gene Raymond. The young couple hit it off but don't know that they are being set up by Sothern's aunt and Raymond's bookie friend.
Aunt Helen Broderick and bookie Victor Moore hit it off themselves, meanwhile, as they manipulate the romance between the younger couple. Also hanging around are a trio of Sothern's creditors, eager to see Sothern marry Raymond and thus acquire the cash pay off her debts. Billy Gilbert, Parkyakarkus, and William Brisbane are amusing as the creditors - they are greedy, yes, but also inept enough that they allow Victor Moore to talk them into investing $500 each in his scheme to arrange the rich match.
Misunderstandings abound, naturally - Raymond figures out it's a set up, Sothern doesn't know it but he thinks she does, and so on. It's a cute plot that doesn't need to make much sense and is happily rushed along without too much worry about logic or reality.
The familiar cast does well, with Broderick and Moore looking perfectly comfortable as the second couple, and Raymond fine as the handsome if not overly interesting leading man. Sothern is definitely the star here, funny and likeable.
Bonus: Sothern sings a pretty song called "It's Sleepy Time in Hawaii," a quiet moment in an otherwise noisy and hectic picture.
There Goes the Groom (1937)
Wacky comedy offers a few laughs
Burgess Meredith gives a good effort as a newly minted millionaire rushing home from the gold fields of Alaska - only to find his sweetheart engaged to a stodgy doctor. Ann Sothern is the sweetheart's kid sister who always had a crush on Burgess. Will he notice her this time around?
Sothern is the nominal star of this comedy-romance but mostly finds herself playing it straight to a bunch of other screwballs. Mary Boland is moderately amusing as the girls' bossy mother; unfortunately, her character is mostly annoying rather funny. William Brisbane as a cash-hungry brother and Onslow Stevens as the dull doctor are equally unfunny.
One bright spot is Roger Imhof as Meredith's gold mining buddy, an old prospector type who has tagged along home and offers Meredith advice, mainly of the let's-get-out-of-here-and-go-back-to-Alaska variety. Imhoff gets most of the picture's best wisecracks.
It's a decent enough plot if not particularly original. However, the characters here - especially the two leads - are a little short on believable motivations. Meredith is indifferent to Sothern, and then suddenly he is engaged to her, and then...
Burgess Meredith is actually quite fun to watch, especially in the sequence where he pretends to have amnesia. More interaction between him and Sothern might have made this picture more believable and more fun too.
Miss Pinkerton (1932)
Fair nurse-as-detective genre entry
Nurse in white uniform Joan Blondell is bored, bored, bored at the hospital, and so she is thrilled when given an assignment to care for the rich old lady at that big spooky house. There was just a suicide in that house - or was it a murder?
Blondell reports for duty and is quickly pulled aside by handsome young police detective George Brent, who urges her to keep her eyes open for suspicious characters - he wants her to be his deputy. Am I a copper now?, she wants to know. You're Miss Pinkerton, Brent announces. They giggle a bit and set off to investigate.
The flirting between Blondell and Brent is kind of fun if maybe a little too cute. The rest of the picture is mainly a lot of people sneaking around in the dark, often being followed by other people also sneaking around in the dark. The suspects include the usual - the family doctor, the lawyer, the butler, a pair of young lovers.
The plot really has no great surprises but there are some suspenseful moments, and Blondell's enthusiastic performance is easy to watch.
One great scene: The picture opens with a quick expository bit in which a newspaper editor (played by a very young Lyle Talbot) takes the details of the recent death-at-the-mansion over the phone and repeats them for our benefit as he jots them down. In about ten seconds, we are given an entire back story needed to follow the plot from here. Talk about efficient scene setting!
There Goes My Girl (1937)
Screwball newspaper comedy is familiar fun
Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond make a pleasant team as a pair of newspaper reporters whose wedding plans are delayed while they investigate a couple of murders. Richard Lane is frantic and loud as Sothern's editor, gleefully stooping to any trick to keep from losing his star reporter.
The capable supporting cast includes Frank Jenks and Gordon Jones as fellow reporters caught between pal Sothern and boss Lane. Bradley Page is the smoothly sinister nightclub owner who is up to no good.
Sothern has a couple of wild scenes where she throws a righteous fit at Lane's interference; Lane himself has some deliciously wicked moments in which he rubs his hands together and chuckles over his next scheme for separating Sothern from Raymond (who, after all, works for a rival paper). Raymond is fine if predictable as his usual fast talking self.
The plot moves fast but never really offers any surprises - maybe it's just too similar to every other newspaper crime-comedy made around the same time. In any case, while certainly enjoyable enough for fans, it's all too familiar to be very exciting.
Smartest Girl in Town (1936)
Predictable plot, charming and enthusiastic cast
Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond are the handsome young leads who are bound to get together eventually in this good-natured, slightly manic comedy.
Sothern plays a model determined to find and marry a rich man. She meets handsome millionaire Raymond during a modeling job on his yacht - but mistakenly assumes he is the male model supposed to meet her there. Raymond (immediately smitten, of course) quickly gathers that it will be more fun if she thinks he is a peer rather than a millionaire, and he begins an elaborate scheme to win her heart as a poor working sap.
A big part of Raymond's scheme is enlisting his valet, Eric Blore, to pretend to switch roles with him. Blore is hilarious as the scandalized employee gradually leaning into his assumed role as boss instead of servant. Helen Broderick is equally good as Sothern's tart-tongued sister and manager. Erik Rhodes has a couple of extremely goofy scenes as a baron with money who would be an eligible suitor for Sothern if he could just stop talking about birds and eggs all the time.
The plot holds hardly any surprises, but there is a neat scene where Sothern washes Raymond's wild mop of hair in her bathroom sink, realizing as she does so that he has become more than just a co-worker. And despite the standard plot, clever dialog and enthusiastic performances throughout make this one lots of fun.
Earthworm Tractors (1936)
Natural born salesman vs. hard boiled customer
Joe E. Brown stars as the irrepressible Alexander Botts, self-proclaimed "natural born salesman." He sets out to sell a fleet of tractors to hard-boiled lumber yard owner Guy Kibbee, who most emphatically does not believe in these newfangled tractor things. But our hero does not give up quickly - partly because Kibbee's daughter keeps offering him advice and encouragement.
June Travis is just fine in the predictable but pleasant role of the attractive daughter. Kibbee is great fun to watch as the flustered businessman who is given more than one unwanted ride on Brown's machine (a piece of equipment that we today might call a bulldozer rather than a tractor).
Other familiar faces appear in supporting roles, including Gene Lockhart and Joseph Crehan as Earthworm Tractor Company employees, and Carol Hughes and Dick Foran as an old flame and old rival back in Brown's hometown.
Joe E. Brown has a unique screen presence that is possibly not for everyone, I suppose, although I always find him easy to watch. The lightweight story is very silly but moves along nicely. The action actually gets pretty wild a couple of times when Brown gets behind the controls of that big tractor.
Make Me a Star (1932)
Surprisingly sentimental comedy-drama
Stuart Erwin is enthusiastically dense as Merton Gill, a young man who has gotten himself a mail order diploma from an acting school and ditches his small town for Hollywood, determined to make it big.
It's harder than he expected, of course, but Erwin persists in hanging around the movie studio. Eventually studio star Joan Blondell takes pity on him and convinces a director to give him a bit part in a western. When star and director get a load of Erwin's comical overacting, they get an idea - and suddenly Erwin is starring in his own western picture, taking himself very seriously while everyone around him is well aware that the picture is intended to be a farce. As production wraps up, Blondell - who, it turns out, really is pretty softhearted - grows increasingly worried what will happen when Erwin figures out that everyone is laughing at him.
Blondell is fun to watch and quite good as the movie actor with a conscience. Stuart Erwin is just fine as Merton, a bit dopey but still a sympathetic figure. In fact, while the movie feels like it should be a comedy - with all of Erwin's "serious acting" scenes drawing laughs from those around him - it turns out to be more drama than comedy, and finally builds to a climax that aims to be moving rather than hilarious.
It's no classic, and the story feels like kind of a chestnut even for 1932, but still - it's hard not to feel yourself really rooting for Merton in the end there.
Jim Hanvey, Detective (1937)
Guy Kibbee as folksy detective
Guy Kibbee is pretty much the whole show in this fast-paced B mystery. The plot involves some stolen pearls, a young couple who want to get married, and a murder. Kibbee looks perfectly comfortable as retired detective Jim Hanvey, famous but reluctant sleuth who takes the case more out of a personal interest in the young people than any urgent desire to solve a mystery.
The supporting cast includes Ed Gargan and Ed Brophy as a couple of shady characters; sadly, they're not as funny a pair as you might expect from those two veteran comic relief specialists. The rather bland sweethearts are played by the mostly forgotten Lucie Kay and Tom Brown.
It's certainly enjoyable enough, especially for fans of Guy Kibbee or cheapie 30s mysteries. However, the low budget really shows, and ultimately this one is not too memorable.
Hooray for Love (1935)
Uneven comedy with musical interludes
Brash college man Gene Raymond is a would-be producer of musical shows. Ann Sothern sings in a nightclub. Thurston Hall is Sothern's father, another would-be producer looking for some money to put on his show, Hooray for Love, which will star his daughter. Raymond manages to borrow a bunch of money to finance the show, and the trio set about putting on an extravaganza.
Along the way, the show is off-again, on-again. The producers may be wanted by the police. Raymond gets to be great pals with Sothern and they exchange silly dialog. ("If this hadn't have happened, I'd have never discovered what a sap I am, would I?" "Oh yes, you would. I would have told you.")
The action slows way down for a series of musical numbers shown in rehearsal. A ballet bit with the famous Maria Gambarelli is impressive but feels out of a place. It's followed by a comic relief song delivered by Pert Kelton while her manager Etienne Girardot looks on fondly and musical director Lionel Stander makes rude comments. Sadly, it's just not too funny.
Later on, we do get a real musical highlight called "Living in a Great Big Way," with Bill Robinson, Fats Waller, and an almost forgotten dancer named Jeni Le Gon who is sensational. Again, it has nothing to do with the story but it sure is fun.
The plot, such as it is, finally reaches its conclusion and provides the expected answers to questions like, Will the show go on? And Will the stars get together? Overall, it's not great but has some good moments.
The Law in Her Hands (1936)
Good premise turns out so-so
As this picture opens, we see fresh law school grads Margaret Lindsay and Glenda Farrell taking the oath and becoming lawyers. "All we need now's an office and a client," Farrell says.
They do set up an office but the clients don't come, so Lindsay works as a waitress and discovers that her boss is being shaken down for protection money. What can she do?
She soon encounters smooth talking Lyle Talbot, who runs the Restaurant Owners Benevolent Organization. Talbot doesn't like to do rough stuff but with an organization name like that, we know what his business is. However, instead of putting the pressure on this lady lawyer, he decides to put her on the payroll. Lindsay resists the idea but soon enough the lure of easy money has her working for Talbot - and she and Farrell have moved into a nice big fancy office.
Meanwhile, assistant district attorney Warren Hull has taken an interest in both the protection racket and in Lindsay herself. In fact, he would like her to quit lawyering and marry him. She resists him too but eventually, of course, things come to a head and Lindsay is forced to make a choice.
The cast do their best and they all talk very fast, but the silly plot here really defeats their efforts. Eddie Acuff has an amusing comic role as a process server who helps out his pals Lindsay and Farrell. Talbot as the crook is quite a bit more interesting than poor Warren Hull as the straight as an arrow prosecutor. Glenda Farrell is - most annoyingly - pretty much wasted as Lindsay's partner in law who apparently is little more than an assistant. Isn't she supposed to be a lawyer here too? You'd think they would have at least written in a few choice wisecracks for Glenda to deliver. Lindsay herself is good enough in the lead role but the whole thing is never remotely believable, even for a B movie.
It does move fast and has an exciting courtroom climax. Overall, though, not as much as fun as it sounds like it would be.
Nine Lives Are Not Enough (1941)
Familiar but pleasant B comedy-mystery
Ronald Reagan is fine as a quick-thinking, high energy newspaper reporter looking for a scoop and investigating a murder.
A fun cast of supporting actors includes Edward Brophy as a dim-witted cop and James Gleason as his perpetually exasperated superior officer. Howard Da Silva is also good as Reagan's blustery city editor.
The plot involves a missing rich guy who turns up dead in a locked boarding house bedroom. Reagan is on the track of the killers--gangster Ben Welden and his henchmen, who happen to live next door. The victim's beautiful daughter, Joan Perry, is impressed by Reagan's efforts; meanwhile, rival reporter Charles Drake keeps trying to muscle in on Reagan's scoop.
It's all pretty standard stuff but the dialog is not bad and the plot moves right along. The entire cast is good, with Reagan talking fast and flashing that winning grin.
The Lone Wolf Returns (1935)
Reformed gentleman thief outsmarts cops and rivals
Melvyn Douglas is suave, daring, and sometimes surprising as Michael Lanyard, the notorious but possibly reformed jewel thief known as the Lone Wolf.
Having stolen Gail Patrick's valuable pendant during a ritzy party, Douglas later sneaks back into her bedroom, replaces the pendant and steals her portrait instead. Was he just protecting the pendant from the real crooks, who are also lurking?
Raymond Walburn offers excellent assistance as the Lone Wolf's resourceful gentleman's gentleman. The always wily Douglas Dumbrille heads up the rival team of crooks, which includes dark and slinky Tala Birell. Gail Patrick is very good as the rich girl whom Douglas finds even more interesting than her jewels. Meanwhile, police inspector Thurston Hall knows that the Lone Wolf is in town and sees his chance to finally catch an old nemesis.
It's a pretty standard B mystery plot but has some fun dialog. (Douglas and Birell know that they have encountered each other somewhere before: "Did I catch you going through my desk or was it the other way around?")
The excellent cast and well-defined characters make this a high class entry in the series mystery genre.
Secret Service of the Air (1939)
G-Men in airplanes
A bold gang is smuggling in aliens via airplane. The Secret Service needs a new agent to infiltrate the gang and find out how they operate. Veteran agent John Litel knows a young pilot who has just been waiting for a chance to join up:
Ronald Reagan is the energetic young flyer who jumps at the chance for some adventure. The G-men cook up a scheme where Reagan is arrested for counterfeiting and put in prison - where he can make some contacts and do some investigating.
The dialog isn't too good but a fairly decent plot moves along quickly. Reagan is fine as the brash undercover hero. James Stephenson is predictably suave and cunning as the head bad guy whom Reagan must outsmart. Eddie Foy Jr. Tries hard but gets few laughs in a comic relief role that's more annoying than funny.
Nothing too exciting but Reagan is undeniably fun to watch.
Blond Cheat (1938)
Lively comedy features cute stars, clever plot
Good-natured Cecil Kellaway runs the Trafalgar Loan Company. His employee Robert Coote has his eyes on Kellaway's daughter but the girl is currently interested in Derrick De Marney, another clerk who happens to have some blue blood.
One day at closing time a man rushes in, says he desperately needs a loan, and offers his daughter's earrings as security. De Marney takes a look at the daughter--Joan Fontaine--and hands over the money. As the man races out the door, De Marney realizes that the earrings don't come out and the man has left Fontaine herself as security. De Marney had plans to dine with the boss--but he can't very well let those earrings out of his sight.
Joan Fontaine is excellent as the beautiful but also resourceful young woman who is attached to De Marney for the evening. De Marney is very funny as the conscientious but rather hapless young man who really wants to be a good employee.
The entire cast is good, including Kellaway as the slightly mischievous boss, and Coote as the sharp-witted fellow clerk. ("My dear chap, I know a wild oat when I see one," he smirks at De Marney upon discovering him and Fontaine in a café booth.)
The plot contains some neat surprises and clever twists, with plenty of enjoyable interaction between Fontaine and De Marney, who are both quite charming. Overall, it's silly but fun.
Love Is on the Air (1937)
Radio personality also fights crime
Racketeers and gamblers are wreaking havoc in the city. Business leaders hold an emergency meeting to discuss. Civic-minded radio reporter Ronald Reagan is right there, hoping to gather "a bit of the inside story for my broadcast tonight." Reagan has a popular show but sponsor Addison Richards would like to shut him up--Richards is one of the crooks.
Keeping the sponsor happy, station manager Robert Barrat reassigns Reagan to the kiddie show where he can't make any trouble. Disappointed, Reagan nevertheless sets out to make the most of his new assignment, while always keeping his eyes open for a chance to break that big corruption story.
Ronald Reagan is fun as the irrepressible radio announcer who knows how to make the most of his opportunities. A good supporting cast includes Eddie Acuff as Reagan's loyal but sleepy assistant, and June Travis as another announcer who does the kids' show until Reagan takes it over. Travis and Reagan of course have an ongoing love-hate romance.
Reagan's best scenes are a couple of remote broadcasts where he sets up the radio equipment at a kids' bike race and boxing match. He interviews the participants and some fans, looking very much at home behind the microphone and mingling with the kids. When one of the kids turns out to have some info about the crooks in town, Reagan is back on that case, with exciting results.
Nothing brilliant but full of good humor and enthusiastic performances. Most enjoyable.