DOWN IN SAN DIEGO (1941)

A strictly routine B-movie second feature, but one that is packed with action, humor, and charm, and a dollop of pre-wartime propaganda. It's perhaps best described as the Hardy Boys meet the Bowery Boys, and that should tell you whether or not you are likely to enjoy it--and it's actually a lot more like a Hardy Boys book than any actual Hardy Boys adaptations ever were. When Dan Dailey (looking impossibly young) heads off to San Diego to join the Marines, he worries about leaving his kid sister (Bonita Granville) all alone in Los Angeles. However, she has what would be called today a strong support network, including Ray McDonald (a gawky but cute kid who is sweet on Granville) and Leo Gorcey (sounding every bit the Brooklyn hood he played with the Bowery Boys). The night before Dailey leaves, some thugs he used to work for frame him for a murder, blackmailing him into doing some Nazi spy business in San Diego. The kids find out and head out after Dailey to help him. Following one tip, about a dog that is missing part of an ear, they all get jobs and immediately are on the trail of the spy ring, which operates out of the back of a barber shop (the spies' password is to ask for a "shortwave" treatment). The shenanigans, alternately amusing and dangerous, culminate in a wild waterside chase involving a stolen experimental Navy boat and a clutch of Nazis who might resort to murder to get hold of the boat. The kids are all as good as the script requires, and of particular note is Stanley Clements as a San Diego newsboy who is recruited by the gang to help out; he went on to appear in over fifty films, most notably as the head delinquent who gets won over by Father Bing Crosby in GOING MY WAY. McDonald is quite charming; I don't know why his movie career never took off, though he did continue in the business as a dancer on stage and in nightclubs. Rudolph Anders, who played many a Nazi throughout the war (THE MORTAL STORM, DESPERATE JOURNEY), is effective as the chief villain and there are some familiar faces in small roles (Henry O'Neill, Joe Sawyer, Ludwig Stossel, Connie Gilchrist). One minor problem is that between the city street sets and the stew of accents (Brooklyn, the South), this movie's L.A. seems much more like New York. Still, this is one of my very favorite B-movies and I recommend it wholeheartedly. [TCM]