Destination Murder (1950)

 

A killer has only one destination --- MURDER

Frustrated by the seeming lack of action by the police, Laura Mansfield (Joyce MacKenzie) is determined to find the people that ordered a hit on her father in this speedy little low-budget crime drama cum B noir produced and directed by Edward Cahn for RKO.

Rather than identifying hit man Jackie Wales (Stanley Clements) to the police, Laura starts dating him(!) him to (I guess) find out who his boss is. After Jackie gets beaten up by eponymous gangster Armitage (Albert Dekker), Laura suspects his involvement & takes a job at his night club. Complications ensure when Laura falls in loves with No. 2 man Stretch Norton (Hurd Hatfield), initiating a triangle with Armitage's mistress, Alice Wentworth (Myrna Dell), who is also putting the moves on Stretch and hoping that he’ll rub out Armitage for her.

Joyce MacKenzie and Hurd Hatfield

Like any good femme fatale, Alice also has her own hidden agenda. She cons Jackie into writing a confession that they can use to blackmail Armitage, but that she’ll hold onto. By doing so she plans for Jackie and Armitage to knock each other off – and hopefully the bothersome Laura as well – leaving Stretch to her and the business to both of them. In the background is the film’s only sensible character, police lieutenant Brewster (James Flavin) who seems to be two steps ahead of everyone, but is stymied by Laura’s rogue determination to solve the case on her own.

Much like The Big Sleep (1946), trying to justify the logic of the plot and the characters actions is a mug’s game in a film where internal logic is trumped by a forward momentum that will keep you hooked. Destination Murder has enough solid film noir touches to keep you from noticing when Joyce MacKenzie’s wooden performance applies the brakes to any scene that she is in. But otherwise, it’s full speed ahead in this fun, minor B film.

Hatfield and Albert Dekker

Classic noir scenarios include Jackie Wales stepping out on his date during a 5 minute movie intermission to kill Laura’s father. Later he is beaten by Armitage as a player piano drowns out the violence, while a disinterested Alice coolly adjusts her makeup. Cinematographer Jackson Rose gave this and other scenes featuring Myrna Dell his best Nicholas Musuraca-like noir lighting touches.

Director Edward Cahn is best known for directing the Our Gang comedies from 1939 to 1943. He always knew how to get the most out of the low budgets that he had to work with, rarely turning out a less than highly entertaining film. His work in the horror and SF genre during the 50’s produced a series of minor, but much loved B movie classics such as The She-Creature (1956), Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), and many others including Invisible Invaders (1959) that is seen today as a precursor to Night of The Living Dead (1948) a decade later.

Top-billed Joyce MacKenzie once described herself as "a poor man's movie star". Destination Murder was a rare top billing for her, but she made her mark on a number of A films, including being the only female character (uncredited) in Twelve O'Clock High (1949) and supporting roles in Broken Arrow (1950) with Jimmy Stewart, The Racket (1951) with Robert Mitchum and Deadline U.S.A. (1952) with Humphrey Bogart.

Stanley Clements is best remembered as Leo Gorcey's replacement as the leader of the Bowery Boys in the final entries of the film series, although he appeared in a number of bigger budget films before WW II.

Despite the leaden acting of MacKenzie, most of the film’s other character actors deliver solid, if unremarkable performances. The exceptions being the galvanizing Myrna Dell’s conniving bad girl Alice and James Flavin’s measured police lieutenant.  

Gorgeous blonde Myrna Dell had enough charisma to become a bigger starlet, but she often found her best film roles playing the hard-bitten, bad girls that all low budget B noirs thrived on. When called on she could be evil incarnate as she was playing the ruthless daughter of rancher Lon Chaney in Bushwackers (1951).

Destination Murder suffers a bit when both her Alice and Clement’s Jackie are bumped off  relatively early in the film when their blackmailing double cross goes sour. This leaves the film to wrap up with at least one semi-surprising character revelation and a humbled Laura finally realizing how really deep over her head she had actually been. Although all of the bad guys get their due, viewers will be left scratching their heads as to why the screenwriter, Don Martin, had Laura’s father murdered in the first place.

I can’t let this review conclude without praising the work of James Flavin (above). Flavin appeared in 100’s of films during his career, but rarely got a screen credit. He was typecast as no nonsense policemen and most of his appearances were brief, but he shared screen time with almost every big star in the 30’s and 40’s including Carole Lombard and William Powell (My Man Godfrey, 1936), Henry Forda (Grapes of Wrath, 1940), famously hitting Fonda in the face, Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce, 1945) and King Kong (1933) (“Hey, it’s Kong, Kong’s coming”). His comedic side shone through in larger roles such as Errol Flynn’s fast-talking, pugnacious brother in Gentlemen Jim (1942). Here Flavin gives a grounded performance as Lt. Brewster. Although most of his scenes are in his office, he arrives at the film's climax to go mano a mano with the criminal mastermind to save Laura who finally learns to her chagrin who ordered her father killed.

Lastly, a tip of the hat has to go to composer Irving Gertz who worked on many notable productions including The Alligator People (1959), Curse of the Undead (1959), The Leech Woman (1960), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) and Land of the Giants (1968).

Is the Destination Murder Worth My Time? The prefect film to wind down the day with. Ignore the convoluted plot and enjoy the ride watching Myrna Dell and James Flavin walk away with this untidy, but entertaining film.

Availability: Not on DVD as far as I know, but a watchable copy is currently available at Archive.org

DESTINATION MURDER. Prominent Features Inc. 1950. Staring  Joyce MacKenzie, Stanley Clements, Hurd Hatfield, Albert Dekker, Myrna Dell & James Flavin. Written by Don Martin. Directed by Edward L. Cahn. Distributed by RKO Pictures. 72 minutes

Richard Conte in The Spider (1945)

 

Richard Conte stars in The Spider (1945), a noir-ish, by-the-numbers murder mystery from 20th Century Fox that also features Faye Marlowe as the quasi-femme fatale, and teases us with a brief appearance by noir-legend, Ann Savage.

Chris Conlon (Conte) gets caught in the middle of a set up by his dodgy partner, Flo Cain (Savage), to sell info to the not-who-she-appears-to-be ‘Judith Smith’ (Marlowe) proving that her long missing sister was murdered. When Chris goes to pick up the proof, Savage ends up dead, and Chris, of course, goes on the run to find the real killer with the police close on his trail. Poor Chris has the typical noir hero’s luck in that every person he finds who could potentially help him gets murdered within minutes of his visit.

    Faye Marlowe and Richard Conte   

Given that the film runs just a quick 63 minutes, there aren’t quite enough characters to keep us guessing as to who the real killer is. Could it actually be sweet 'Judith', aka Lila Neilsen, who works as The Spider Woman, a phony mind-reader? Could it be her partner, The Great Garoone (Kurt Kreuger), for whom Lila’s sister was the original Spider Women before she suddenly (apparently) skipped town, breaking his heart? Or how about the every creepy Martin Kosleck (The Mummy’s Curse, 1944; The Frozen Ghost, 1945; House of Horrors, 1946) as Garoone’s business manager, Mihail Barak, who is always lurking in the shadows whenever one of the Chris’s leads is murdered? With a foreign name like Barak he must be the bad guy! And was Lila’s sister really murdered? Could all these new murders have something to do with her mysterious disappearance? Of course they do!

Fortunately, Chris has one thing working in his favour – his ever faithful assistant, Henry, played by the great Mantan Moreland using his patented scaredy cat act. Henry swallows his fear (reluctantly) to help Chris out – even if means smuggling Savage’s corpse out of sight of the police. Moreland's style of black-sterotyped humour has been criticized as insensitive, but Mantan carries it off with enough dignity that he is never the butt of his own schtick. 

In a better version of this movie, Moreland would have remained Conte's sidekick throughout the film, just as he did with Sidney Toler’s Charlie Chan. Instead Mantan gets dropped halfway in so that Conte and Marlowe can play cute with each other until their inevitable clinch at the finish.

Given that Henry continually gets Chris out of one fix after another, I was disappointed that he got relegated to the sidelines so quickly. Ditto to Ann Savage’s brassy private eye who should have remained part of the action rather than being discarded just to get the story rolling. Savage had just finished making the now iconic film noir Detour (1945) with Edgar Ulmer over at poverty row studio, PRC, before starting her work on The Spider. Had the producers known what a classic that would become, I'm sure that Ann would have played a bigger part here. I would happily watch Savage playing a world-weary female version of Mike Hammer. And how could no producer not have thought of the teaming her with June Havoc in a Savage & Havoc – Crime Busters series?

The Spider doesn’t offer anything original in its plot or script, but Conte has enough screen energy to hold our interest even when we know how every scene will play out. All of the other players offer solid performances, with even the walk on character actors investing their roles with a spark - notably Jean Del Val and Ottete Vigne as the hotel manager and his wife.

The film is capably directed by Robert Webb who keeps the action moving through its slightly dry, unsettling claustrophobic atmosphere. The Spider looks much better than it has any right to thanks to the chiaroscuro black & white cinematography of Glen MacWilliams who had previously shot the original Front Page (1931) and had been Oscar Award nominated for Lifeboat (1944), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The introduction of Lila as the Spider Woman is particularly impressive and shows the creative team squeezing the most out of their modest production budget. And, I enjoyed the film's closing button that called back to the opening scene between Marlowe and Moreland, giving a symmetry to the film that I had not expected from it.

Conte made his Broadway debut in 1939 and became a contract player with 20th Century-Fox in 1942, where he remained until the 1950’s. After featured performances in a series of ‘A’ pictures, he got his first headline billing in The Spider playing the tough noir character that he became noted for. Faye Marlowe (below left) only made eight films between 1945 –1955. She is best remembered for her first film, The Lodger (1944), where she played the unsuspecting girlfriend of Laird Cregar’s Jack the Ripper.

Next to Mantan Moorland, the biggest scene-stealer in the film is the pert and bubbly redheaded Cara Williams (above right) playing Savage’s attractive neighbour. Conte uses her to good effect in distracting bit player James Flavin’s ubiquitous cop. Williams excelled in these small roles early in her career, but eventually graduated to meatier fare, highlighted by an Academy Award nomination for her touching supporting role as a widowed mother in the classic The Defiant Ones (1958) playing opposite Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. You’ve seen Flavin in dozens of films (he has over 500 credited IMDB appearances!), but he is likely best known for playing 2nd Mate Briggs in King Kong (1933) where he announces the arrival of the giant gorilla (Hey, Look Out! It’s Kong! Kong’s Coming!) just before Kong breaks down the wall on Skull Island.

The Spider has been suggested to be a scaled down remake of the 1931 film of the same name by directors Kenneth MacKenna and William Cameron Menzies, but the two films have little in common, other than featuring a phony mind reading act. The mind reading gag would be a prominent plot point in the classic Nightmare Alley (1947), but it was already a common storyline in films like The Mind Reader (1933) and The Clairvoyant (1935). Finally, The Spider is unrelated to the pulp hero, The Spider, who had featured in two serials (1938, 1941) from Columbia, both starring Warren Hull in the title role.

Is The Spider Worth My Time? For a relatively low budget B mystery, The Spider will entertain you for its hour running time. It’s essential if you’re a completest for seeing the output of Richard Conte, Ann Savage or James Flavin (I almost am).

Availability: The film is in the public domain so watchable copies are up on Archive.Org and other on-line platforms.

THE SPIDER. Fox, 1945. Starring Richard Conte, Faye Marlowe, Kurt Kreuger, Martin Kosleck, Mantan Moreland, Ann Savage. Written by Lowell Brentano, Anthony Coldeway, Irving Cumings Jr., Scott Darling, Jo Eisinger, Fulton Oursler and Ben Simkhovich. Directed by Robert D. Webb. Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox

GIRL MISSING (1933) with Glenda Farrell

 

“WE DIDN’T SAY WE WEREN’T MIXED UP IN ANY RACKET. WE SAID WE WEREN’T MIXED UP WITH THIS RACKET”

Ex-chorus girls, Kay Curtis (Glenda Farrell) and June Dale (Mary Brian), are gold digging their way through a Palm Beach holiday when their frustrated sugar daddy (Guy Kibbee) walks out on them leaving them stuck with a big hotel bill. Seeing that their former chorine colleague Daisy Bradford (red-headed firecracker, Peggy Shannon) is about to marry a rich playboy, Henry Gibson (bland Ben Lyon), they put the touch on her, only to be rebuffed when she doesn’t want to give away her true background.

When Daisy goes missing on her wedding night and mafia bookie, Jim Hendricks (Harold Huber), turns up dead outside her window, Kay smells a rat (“There's something haywire about this. Looks like a fake to me!”). Kay then hatches a plan to figure out the mystery of Daisy’s disappearance and snag the $25,000 reward offered by Henry.

There several possible scenarios. Has Daisy really disappeared or, now that she’s slept her way into a rich lifestyle, is she up to something more sinister? What’s up with Daisy’s gigolo ex-boyfriend, Raymond Fox (Lyle Talbot), who’s suspiciously drinking highballs in the background and is very anxious to settle Kay’s hotel tab and pack her off out of town? Or, could it be that since Henry only received his inheritance upon getting married that Daisy is now just a liability to be disposed of?

For such a short film (69 min.), not a lot happens in the first half of Girl Missing, with Daisy not even disappearing until the halfway point. We get to know the characters and their dynamics, and any time spent with the quick-tongued Farrell is time well spent, but the film would have benefited from engaging with the actual plot from the start. But, Girl Missing is more pasta salad than gourmet meal. It’s not so much about solving the mystery, but rather enjoying an uncomplicated and pleasant story when your brain needs a rest. The question foremost in my mind while watching this film was how two down on their luck chorines could afford all those gorgeous Orry-Kelly dresses that they wear in every scene?

The film can be faulted for rushing supporting actor, Guy Kibbee, off the screen too fast. Not only is he fun to watch, but he’s instrumental in establishing our heroines as gold diggers trying to string along rich saps without giving anything in return (“I spent a lot of money on you. What do I get? Nothing but promises”). Mary is the shy, pretty bait while Glenda is her expert handler (“Don't bother Mother when she's making business”) who always steps in when things get too steamy. Kibbee specialized in playing characters whose stallion-sized libido didn’t realize that it was stuck in the body of a fat, red-faced, old man. Once he walks out on the girls leaving them with a $700 hotel tab that they can’t pay, the plot of the film starts rolling, but it’s also loses a red herring in a film that’s already too short on them.

Girl Missing was Glenda Farrell's first top-billed role, coming after she had made her mark in supporting roles in Little Caesar (1931) and I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Farrell showed a natural comedic ability at playing fast-talking, no-nonsense women who would get to the bottom of a mystery faster than anyone else – especially her male counterparts who were always two steps behind her.

Farrell stole the show in The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) with this persona that Warner Bros formalized in her later run as the investigative reporter, Torchy Blane, in seven films between 1937 and 1939. The Torchy’s are all terrific fun thanks to Farrell, but also notably sexless, especially in comparison to the Pre-Code Girl Missing that doesn’t sugar coat the naughtiness happening off screen (“Burn my clothes, here I come!”). Another sign that Girl Missing is a pre-code film is that Kay ends up with the reward money AND gets to walk off to enjoy it without having to get married or sacrifice her power to any man.

The 1930’s hosted a full slate of ‘gold diggers trying to score a sugar daddy’ films that were all kicked off by the massive success of Warner Bros The Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), followed by Gold Diggers of 1933, 1935, 1937, and finally ‘in Paris’ (1938). Teamed here with Mary Brian though, the Farrell-Brian duo lacks the chemistry that Farrell would soon have with Joan Blondell in their string of successful gold digger-buddy films like Havana Widows (1933), Kansas City Princess (1934) and Miss Pacific Fleet (1935). Brian is fine, but her subservient role to Farrell makes her almost unnoticeable except for the necessity of giving Farrell someone to talk to as she explains what’s going on in her mind. Mary was dubbed "the sweetest girl in pictures", starting her career in silents as Wendy in Peter Pan (1924) and may be best remembered as Pat O’Brien’s jilted fiancé in The Front Page (1931).

In most films of this sort, the heroine (our Kay) would have her own male sparring partner. Here that role is taken by Edward Ellis’ police inspector who gives Kay enough rope to either hang herself or solve the mystery (no spoiler - it’s the latter). Comedic murder mystery fans will recognize Ellis as the ill-fated ‘thin man’ in The Thin Man (1934). And, keep an eye open for the befuddled garage operator played by Walter Brennan who also performed uncredited roles in 24 other movies in 1933.

I have a soft spot for “That Red Headed Girl”, the doomed-to-die-too-young Peggy Shannon. She’s now faded into the oblivion that holds thousands of other early actors, but if I survive the coming apocalypse, I hope that I end up with someone as tough as Peggy's end of the world survivor, Claire Arlington, in Deluge (1933).

Girl Missing is efficiently directed by Robert Florey who is best remembered as the man who didn’t direct Frankenstein (1931) with Bela Lugosi as the Monster. Florey had a promising early career working with King Vidor and Josef von Sternberg, and notably co-directed the first Marx Bros film, The Cocoanuts (1929). But, Murders in The Rue Morgue (1932; starring Lugosi), his consolation prize from Carle Laemmle for losing Frankenstein, was a flop, and the remainder of Florey's career saw him studio hopping to work mostly on B-pictures and later in television.

Is Girl Missing Worth My Time? Yes. Whether you’re a fan of light, comedic murder mysteries or just love the acerbic motor mouth of Glenda Farrell that cuts everyone off at the knees, this is the movie for you. The film was scripted by Carl Erickson and Don Mullaly, who also wrote Mystery in the Wax Museum (1933) that introduced us to Farrell’s soon to be classic mystery-solving powerhouse. I think that Torchy and her precursors, like this film's Kay Curtis, would have given Sherlock Holmes a run for his money. 

A special nod to credited dialogue writer, Ben Markson, for filling the film with memorable lines (“S as in sardines. P as in peanuts. I as in indigestion. E as in elephant. G as in gosh. A as in adenoids. L as in lumbago. H as in hotcha. Another E. Oh, yes, that makes two elephants...”).

Availability: It was available as a Warners On Demand DVD paired with Illicit (1931). It turns up on TCM and intermittently on the interweb.

Credits: Producer, Jack Warner. Director, Robert Florey. Script, Carl Erickson & Don Mullaly. Starring Glenda Farrell, Mary Brian, Ben Lyon, Lyle Talbot, Peggy Shannon, Edward Ellis, and Guy Kibbee. Cinematographer, Arthur L. Todd. Music, Bernhard Kaun. Produced by The Vitaphone Corporation & distributed by Warner Bros. 69 min.

PAULETTE GODDARD in THE CRYSTAL BALL (1943)

 "SHE'S A GAL WITH A PAST WHO KNOW YOUR FUTURE!"

The always likable Paulette Goddard stars with Ray Milland in the rom-com THE CRYSTAL BALL (1943). It’s a Paramount film distributed by United Artists due to Paramount having too much product to get on the screen during WWII.

Goddard plays Toni Gerard, a beautiful, sharp-shooting Texan redhead who is stranded in New York due to losing out to a blonde in a fixed beauty contest. For the sake of the plot, Toni decides to spend her last 38 cents on fortune teller, Madame Zenobia (Gladys George), a likeable low-rent grifter. Zenobia takes pity on Toni, letting her a room in the back of her shop and then sets her up working next door with shooting gallery owner, Pop Tibbots (Cecil Kellaway), who acts as her father confessor and guardian angel.

When Toni is forced to masquerade as the veiled Madame Zenobia, she gets mixed up in a plot (largely irrelevant to the film) to get the haughty rich widower, Jo Ainsely (Virginia Field), to buy into a crooked land deal. This gets Toni involved with Ainsely’s handsome estate counselor, Brad Cavanaugh (Milland). After this, the rest of the movie is a series of amusingly farcical scenes where Toni juggles trying to win Brad away from Jo without revealing that she is now also Madame Zenobia. No one will be surprized in how the story ends – happily for everyone, except Jo.

The script by the soon to be Executive Producer of Columbia Pictures, Virginia Van Upp (Cover Girl, 1944), from a story by Steven Vas, is bit too complicated for its own good, but it maintains a solid pace for its 81 minutes. I enjoyed two of the running gags that almost become their own subplots. This first involves Toni getting a hapless waiter (you’ll recognize the face of Sig Arno) fired from every job that she continuously runs into him (literally) at, all of which he accepts with the frustrated good grace of someone who can’t afford to explode with indignation. The second sees Toni, Brad, and Brad’s right hand man (the always wonderful William Bendix) mistakenly visiting the apartment of the squabbling Mr. & Mrs. Martin (Ernest Truex – Bensinger in His Girl Friday, 1940 & Iris Adrian – Lola in My Favorite Spy, 1951), and getting tossed out on their ears by one of the pair who mistakes each visitor as the indiscreet lover of the other. The scene is made funnier by the quips of snoopy onlooker (Mabel Paige).

Ray Milland, Virginia Field, Paulette Goddard & Cecil Kellaway

The story shares many similarities with Ann Southern’s Maise series that ran for 10 installments from 1939 to 1947. Like Toni, Maisie is a southerner who starts every film broke and out of work, but soon falls in love with someone who she has to separate from an annoying girlfriend/fiancée. Toni’s wardrobe and sharpshooter background also foreshadows Peggy Cummins’ doomed gangster, Annie Laurie Starr, in Gun Crazy (1950).

The ex-Mrs. Charlie Chaplin, Goddard might not have been an actress with a large range, but she more than made up for it by the sincerity she brought to every role. I can’t think of another actress from the 1940’s who had a more likable onscreen persona than Goddard. She was nominated for one Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actress in So Proudly We Hail! (1943)

Millard was the polar opposite talent-wise of Goddard, with the ability to easily move from gut-wrenching drama to light comedy. He’s quite enjoyable here and he and Goddard make fine sparring partners. Milland and Goddard costarred in three other films together, The Lady Had Plans (1942), Reap The Wind (1942) and Kitty (1945). Watch for Milland's comically small 2-cylinder Crosley convertible that, as he mentions, would have been a good, gas-efficient vehicle during the war. Paulette Goddard owned one in real life.

Any cracks in the script are ably patched over by the dozens of great uncredited actors who fill out almost every scene. Top billed costars Gladys George, Virginia Field, Cecil Kellaway and WilliamBendix deserve full Atomic Surgeon reports of their own. But keep an eye open for a young Yvonne De Carlo (future Lily Munster) as Milland’s sassy secretary; Hillary Brooke (little Jimmy’s mom in Invaders From Mars, 1953) as Jo's catty friend; and Nestor Paiva (Capt. Lucas in Creature from the Black Lagoon) as the restaurant owner caught in the middle of Toni's scheme (an imaginary mouse in a teapot) to meet Brad. I'd have watched a film about any one of these characters. If there was any justice in the world, Paramount would have given Milland and De Carlo's characters their own film series.

The Crystal Ball was directed by Elliott Nugent, who had previously directed Goddard opposite Bob Hope in The Cat and The Canary (1939) and Nothing But The Truth (1941). Nugent started out as an actor costarring with Marion Davies in Not So Dumb (1930) and Lon Chaney in The Unholy Three (1930) before switching careers into directing. He specialized in light comedies, notably directing Bob Hope and Harold Lloyd. It’s worth watching his She Loves Me Not (1934) starring Miriam Hopkins and Bing Crosby that helped establish Bing as a top Hollywood screen personality.

The director of photography was twice Oscar nominated Leo Tover. He was one of the top cinematographers in the 40’s and 50’s working mostly for Paramount and 20th Century Fox. He made the intergalactic robotic enforcer, Gort, look menacing in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), and made us all want to Journey To The Center of The Earth’s (1959) glorious CinemaScope lost world.

Is THE CRYSTAL BALL worth my time? An unqualified yes. While not quite an A picture, it delivers on the laughs with a fun, watchable cast. Goddard is as adorable as ever (just look at that picture above!), and everyone in it shines.

Availability: As a MOD (manufactured on demand) DVD from ClassicFlix’s Silver Screen series. Check for availability, but very good copies of The Crystal Ball are currently watchable on many online platforms..