WANTED: JANE TURNER (1936)

No one could beat Warner Brothers as putting together solid, entertaining B-movies. This RKO entry helps prove that point. Lee Tracy and Gloria Stuart are postal service inspectors who are assigned to crack a case involving a group of mail thieves who have murdered a driver and stolen some money. The money is sent from New York to Los Angeles to a Jane Turner, in care of General Delivery; Tracy and Stuart track the letter and Stuart follows Turner when she picks it up, hoping she will lead them to the big boss (Paul Guilfoyle, father of the actor who plays Brass on TV's "C.S.I."), but it turns out that this Jane Turner is not a gangster's moll but a woman whose boyfriend's job is in trouble because of financial irregularities. She wants to use the money to save his job. Meanwhile, the fake Jane Turner shows up at the post office, and Tracy snags her and one of her accomplices. Eventually, the bad guys are led to the real Jane Turner's apartment where the relatively exciting climax occurs. I don't typically care much for Lee Tracy (an understatement), but he is not as offensively shrill and grating as usual here. Gloria Stuart is quite good (and quite lovely) in her role. The two are intended to have some screwballish appeal as a couple who, despite surface antagonism, are attracted to each other, and they have some fun moments, but overall, I don't really buy it. Had this been a Warners movie, the writing would have been a little stronger (and the sets wouldn't have looked so cheap) and it would have worked better overall. I like the throwing-in of two subplots. One involves the very funny vaudeville actress Irene Franklin as one member of a team of ladies who are running a fake mail-order bride scheme; Dick Elliot (the mayor of Mayberry in the early Andy Griffith shows) is a rustic sheepherder who shows up to make Franklin make good on her promise. The other plotline has Tracy turn all sensitive as he gives money to an old man who haunts General Delivery waiting for financial help from his son, who seems to have forgotten all about his dad. Barbara Pepper, who later played Doris Ziffel on "Green Acres," also appears. Not too bad, but considering it's only 65 minutes, it felt a little long. Still, I'm glad to have seen it for a chance to see Gloria Stuart--she's been so good in everything I've seen her in, I have to wonder why she got stuck in B-movies and supporting parts, until her comeback in TITANIC. [TCM]