Showing posts with label 1934. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1934. Show all posts
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| Charles Farrell and Bette Davis |
THE BIG SHAKEDOWN (1934). Director: John Francis Dillon.
Jimmy Morrell (Charles Farrell) owns a neighborhood drug store and employs his sweetheart Norma (Bette Davis) behind the counter. Along comes smooth operator and racketeer Dutch Barnes (Ricardo Cortez), who discovers that Jimmy can make toothpaste just the same and just as good as the best-selling brand. Jimmy agrees to go to work making duplicate toothpaste and other stuff for Barnes, but he assumes they'll be marketed under a new brand name. Instead Barnes simply puts the bogus stuff into tubes with the label of the original brand on them and distributes them as the real thing. Jimmy is nervous about this development, but he keeps making fake toiletries and cosmetics for Barnes to distribute, until one day Barnes decides to duplicate a famous antiseptic -- only without the specific ingredient that makes it antiseptic -- and there are worse things to come. The Big Shakedown has a good premise and there are some dramatic developments, but the picture doesn't present them with any flair or intensity. Farrell is fine, but while Cortez plays the very suave and polished villain with his usual aplomb, it's also a distinctly superficial portrait. This was one of the thankless roles that Bette Davis -- top-billed with Farrell although she hasn't much to do -- was handed in the early days. She looks cute and is quite adept; Glenda Farrell has a somewhat larger role as a girlfriend of Barnes' who gets into a zesty hair-pulling match with Renee Whitney as her rival Mae LaRue. Perhaps the best thing in the picture is Barnes' flamboyant death scene, even if it doesn't make too much sense. Many years later Charles Farrell was Gale Storm's father on My Little Margie; he was not related to Glenda Farrell.
Verdict: This had possibilities but it's nearly a snooze. *1/2.
Achieving the world's record for a solo flight, Dick Moreland (Richard Talmadge) decides to use the prize money to organize a voyage to search for his pirate ancestor's gold. Unfortunately, others get wind of his notion and try to snatch away the charts that he needs to reach the island in the south seas where the treasure is. Dick has a girlfriend, Dorothy (Lucille Lund), who takes the journey with him along with her father, and there is a nasty female who works with the bad guys named Marge (Beulah Hutton). Pirate Treasure is primitive but occasionally lively, such as a fight on top of a speeding train, a boat that smashes into a buoy, some gators in a lagoon, and an especially suspenseful sequence involving a falling crate in chapter seven. The fisticuffs are far below the Republic level -- everyone just flails their arms like children smacking each other and there is no nifty choreography. The island is full of angry natives. Talmadge's voice is kind of comical, like a German comedian, and hardly heroic-sounding.
Verdict: One of the serials you can probably miss. **.
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| Isabel Jewell and Regis Toomey |
Sally Bates (Isabel Jewell) makes her way to Hollywood and a hopefully better life, but would have wound up sleeping in her car were it not for the kindness of Bill Cutler (Buster Crabbe), who runs a food stand with his mother (Maidel Turner of State of the Union). Bill develops feelings for Sally, although he already has a girlfriend in wealthy, snooty Clara (Sally Blane). However he has a rival for Sally's affections in Jack Berry (Regis Toomey of Shopworn), who loves to drink and party. In the meantime, Bill's mother turns out not to be quite as nice as she at first seems. Jewell [The Seventh Victim] is an appealing performer, the other cast members are fine, but She Had to Choose becomes increasingly ridiculous and melodramatic. The funniest scene -- intended to be dramatic -- is when Sally rips off a dress she is wearing [unbeknownst to her it belongs to Clara] after an altercation and runs out of a nightclub in her slip. And things get more ridiculous after that! One assumes the title has to do with which man Sally will choose, as she really isn't given any other "choices" in the movie.
Verdict: Don't choose this movie. *1/2.
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| Lugosi surveys the scene as Wong |
THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG (1934). Director: William Nigh.
"Wong has dared many things -- he will continue to dare!"
According to legend, when Confucius was on his deathbed he gave twelve special coins to his friends. Whichever man collects all twelve coins will gain great power. A series of murders of "Chinamen" in Chinatown have police convinced that they are victims of Tong wars, but reporter Jason Barton (Wallace Ford) isn't so sure. Wong (Bela Lugosi) is a mysterious figure who runs about in disguise, and is behind more than one kidnapping; he even has a torture chamber hidden in his house. This all sounds like it might be fun but that's far from the case. Boris Karloff was given the entertaining and memorable The Mask of Fu Manchu to star in, but poor Bela Lugosi was handed this piece of crap for his "yellow peril/Oriental fiend" undertaking. [This is not to be confused with Karloff's "Mr. Wong" series.] There is far too much of Barton and a gal pal, Peg (Arline Judge) bantering and cracking wise and far too little atmosphere and mystery. The film runs a little over an hour but seems interminable at times. Attitudes toward the Chinese are horribly condescending and racist -- the dead "Chinamen" aren't even looked upon as particularly human -- and we've even got the fat, dumb Irish cop stereotype (Robert Emmett O'Connor) to boot. You can overlook these politically incorrect elements in old movies when they're entertaining, but when they're like The Mysterious Mr. Wong they just seem more glaring. Lugosi is fine, and aside from a few Oriental extras, is the only worthwhile thing in the movie.
Verdict: Another crappy movie that wastes the considerable talents of Bela Lugosi. *.