FINGERS AT THE WINDOW (1942)

Spoilers included!! A light, frothy B-thriller which feels like it was an attempt to build a series around Lew Ayres and Laraine Day. It's fun enough, but there were no sequels. Chicago's streets are deserted at night because of a string of axe murders; the killers are always caught at the scene, but they can't explain why they committed the crime--they can only speak gibberish to the police. One night, out-of-work actor Ayres saves Day from an axe attack; he appoints himself as protector to Day and sure enough there is a second attempt on her life, which he also foils. Ayres turns amateur detective and goes undercover, discovering all the captured killers are on file at the local asylum. It turns out that Basil Rathbone, a man Day had been engaged to in Paris some time ago, is masquerading as a dead psychiatrist in an attempt to get his money, and is "masterminding" the killings (of people who could stand in his way) through hypnosis or drugs--it's never clear how he does it. There's a nice noirish feel to much of the film, set mostly at night. The climax has that rushed B-movie feeling like they all just ran out of time. Ayres and Day (who appeard in several Dr. Kildare movies together) have a nice chemistry. Rathbone is a bit of a disappointment, mostly because he doesn't have much to do. Also with Russell Gleason (son of actor James Gleason) as a reporter. [TCM]


THE CASE OF THE BLACK PARROT (1941)

Another B-mystery with a "series" feel to it. William Lundigan is newspaper reporter Jim Moore (an awfully bland name for a character with sequel potential); Eddie Foy Jr. is Tripod, his photographer sidekick. On a transatlantic liner, they get wrapped up in some strange gongs-on involving a fake antique dresser which was made by the Black Parrot, a famous forger. It's discovered, however, that the dresser is *not* a fake. Back in the U.S., a stream of (supposedly) colorful characters passes through the house of Charles Waldron, the man who is trying to return the dresser to its rightful owner. It turns out there are letters in a drawer that a titled lady wants back; a Scotland Yard inspector (Paul Cavanaugh) enters the case and there are a couple of deaths before the climax, which involves a clever identity twist. Lundigan and Foy are OK as long as you only have B-movie expectations. Maris Wrixon is a bland love interest. Lundigan is handsome and affable, but not quite charismatic enough to have had Warners turn this into a series. [TCM]