DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE (1975)

In 1936, we first meet hunky blond adventurer Clark Savage Jr., better known as Doc Savage, as he visits his roomy igloo which he calls his Fortress of Solitude somewhere in the Arctic Circle. He spends time in contemplation and educating himself in many fields, and even finds time to sit in the snow half naked and meditate (pictured at left). But he returns to his high rise penthouse lair in Manhattan because he senses that his assistants, the Fabulous Five, are unsettled—the five being Ham, an effete lawyer; Monk, a beefy chemist; Renny, an engineer and builder; Jimmy, an archeologist; and Long Tom, a master electrician. Indeed, they have received news that Savage's father has died of a rare tropical disease in the South American state of Hidalgo where he worked to better the lives of the natives. Important papers of his father's have been sent to him but before Doc can examine them, a swarthy man in a loincloth with a green snake tattoo on his chest fires an elephant gun at the penthouse from a skyscraper across the street which he scaled by hand. Doc and the five head over to the skyscraper but the man falls to his death before they can get any information out of him. When they get back to Doc's place, they discover a raging fire which has destroyed Doc's dad's papers. Determined to get to the bottom of this affair, Doc and his men head down to Hidalgo where they learn that Clark Sr. had been granted the rights to an unexplored chunk of land by a tribe that was grateful to him for his medical help. It turns out that the land is rich in molten gold and a notorious adventurer who calls himself Captain Seas is using the natives as slave labor to extract as much gold as he can. Gorro of the land office is in league with Seas but Gorros's lovely secretary Mona offers to help Savage. Seas invites Savage and the Five to a dinner on his yacht which turns into an ambush that the men escape. Everyone ends up in the land of gold where Seas unleashes an airborne weapon called the Green Death which is what killed Doc's dad. Doc comes up with an antidote, but he and his men may not be able to escape so easily when a volcano erupts, spewing gold all over the place.

Doc Savage is a pulp fiction hero from the 1930s and 40s who appeared in nearly 200 stories, many of which were republished in a Bantam paperback series in the 60s and 70s (which is how I discovered him) and the Fortress of Solitude originated here and was stolen by DC Comics for Superman a few years later. This movie is based on the very first novel, "The Man of Bronze" and in plot and character outline, this movie is fairly faithful to that story. Savage's blond hair. bronze skin and muscled chest are familiar to fans from the magazine and book covers, and Ron Ely (TV's Tarzan), while not quite as muscled as the illustrations, is about as credible as anyone could be as Savage, a fairly mild-mannered and intellectual action hero. For the most part, the actors who play the Five also fit the bill, the two best being Paul Gleason as Long Tom and Darrell Zwerling as Ham—I was not happy with the blustery Michael Miller as Monk, but that may have been partly because he's saddled with a pet pig named Habeas Corpus. The only other performance of interest comes from Pamela Hensley as Mona. She works up a little bit of sexiness with Ely, but this Doc Savage is unremittingly chaste. The film, the last production of fantasy filmmaker George Pal, was not a hit, having several strikes against it from the beginning. To do justice to the scope of the stories, it needed a big budget and it didn’t have one, though a few of the scenes do come off pretty well. As I noted above, Ely is good but is not the larger-than-life figure that fans were expecting. Also, it had the bad luck to be released the same month as Jaws.

The biggest problem, however, is the very uneasy juxtaposition of serious action and camp appeal. The approach that Pal and director Michael Anderson take is that camp trumps action, using the 60's Batman TV show as a model. A few years later, the resurrection of Flash Gordon worked better because it was campy through and through whereas this tries to have it both ways. The opening segment of Doc in the Arctic Circle is a good example of the awkward mix of styles. The visuals of Ely arriving at his fortress and meditating in the buff in the snow work, but the narration by Paul Frees is deliberately ham-fisted, the musical score is ostentatiously based on the patriotic march music of John Philip Sousa, and the theme song has ludicrous lyrics: "Who will make crime disappear? Thank the Lord he's here!" I thank the Lord that the opening scene in Manhattan plays out mostly straight and is quite effective. A few other action scenes work nicely (the yacht fisticuffs, the climactic battle in the jungle), but the camp tone ruins most everything it touches, most obviously in the stupidly jaunty music that plays over many of the fight scenes. Twice, an animated twinkle appears in Ely's eye. At one point, forward action stops so Doc can give an exaggerated patriotic speech about he and his men vowing to strive to be better people as they aid the cause of justice. One of the bad guys, Gorro, sleeps in a huge rocking crib and sucks his thumb. In the end, the chief villain is rehabilitated by Savage and we last see him at Christmas as a Salvation Army member, singing carols on the street. The Green Death is a terribly chintzy effect. For a movie I'm not crazy about, I've written a lot. I've read about a dozen of the original Doc Savage stories and I have a soft spot for what this movie was trying to do. Savage and the Five come very close to exactly right for the big screen. It's everything else that doesn’t really work. Still, if you're in a mood for nostalgic camp, this might be satisfying. Pictured at right is Ely in a torn shirt, which is how Savage was shown on most of the Bantam paperbacks, with Pamela Hensley. [DVD]

THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON (1956)

In Okinawa in 1946, during the post-war American occupation of Japan, Colonel Purdy (Paul Ford), a by-the-books commander, assigns Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford, pictured) to lead the effort to Americanize the village of Tobiki. Fisby, whose background is in psychological warfare, hasn't quite fit anywhere he's been assigned—he's an easily distracted people-pleaser—and his main chores, in addition to installing democratic impulses in the people, are to start a profitable souvenir-making business and to build a new schoolhouse in the shape of the Pentagon. His local translator Sakini (Marlon Brando), though friendly and outwardly servile, figures out quickly how to keep Fisby fairly befuddled. A villager gives Fisby a geisha girl named Lotus Blossom, a gift he awkwardly accepts, and soon the village women want to be schooled in the ways of the geisha so they talk Fisby into using the school materials to build a teahouse in the geisha tradition. The souvenir business is a bust because their man-made methods lead to goods that are far more expensive than mass produced trinkets, but Sakini gets Fisby to approve a plan to produce sweet potato brandy which becomes a big hit with American soldiers. Capt. McLean (Eddie Albert) is sent by Purdy to check up on Fisby, who has gone native by now, favoring kimonos and straw hats, but McLean is enlisted to help teach organic gardening methods and he goes native as well. Eventually Purdy shows up, is horrified by the situation, and orders the teahouse and the brandy stills destroyed. But when Purdy finds out that a Congressional junket is arriving to document the success of Tobiki, Sakini and the villagers come to the rescue.

This is a gentle comedy of assimilation, though it ends up being the Americans doing the assimilating. It's a sweet and charming film that is almost perfectly cast, but these days it has to fight the stigma of the yellowface performance of Marlon Brando as Sakini. At first his exaggerated make-up (he is barely recognizable as Brando) and accent seemed offensive, but he grew on me over time, especially as his character comes off as smart and likable. A slyly comic performance is not in Brando's wheelhouse, but he winds up being very good. Glenn Ford is very appealing, coming off as just a really nice guy who overcomes his bumbling and his discomfort to become quite resourceful. Occasionally I wanted to jump into the movie and give him a hug and tell him things would be OK. Paul Ford, who created the role of Purdy on Broadway, is every bit the blustering doofus that he would be later in The Music Man. Eddie Albert is fine as another fumbling nice guy, and Japanese star Machiko Kyo has the mostly thankless role of Lotus Blossom. Harry Morgan, MASH’s Col. Potter, has a small role. In the first half of the movie, some amusing scenes tend to go on too long, as when Sakini manipulates Fisby into taking an entire extended family with him to Tobiki. I was surprised how relatively little screen time Brando had in the last half of the film as we see the predicaments he set in motion work themselves out. I thought I'd seen this movie on TV when I was quite young, but now I realize I saw a Hallmark Hall of Fame production of the original play with David Wayne as Sakini and John Forsythe as Fisby. The movie, shot partly on location in Japan, is a bit stagy at times, but I think it works to the film's advantage. I understand that some viewers may not be able to get past Brando's yellowface, but if you can, I think you’ll find the movie charming. [DVD]

ACCATTONE (1961)

In the slums outside of Rome, we meet a group of young men passing the time by betting on whether or not it's dangerous to go swimming right after eating. The charismatic and handsome Accattone (a nickname which translates as "beggar") is liked but not necessarily respected among the group; he's a pimp whose wife has left him (along with their young son) and who lives with his only prostitute, Maddalena. He also takes care of another woman and her children whose husband is in jail. Accattone is lazy, expressing the attitude that people shouldn't have to work. "Beasts work," he says, and later proclaims, "Either the world kills me or I kill it." He makes Maddalena work even though she has injured her leg, and a rival gang of pimps approach her one night and beat her up. She goes to the police to file charges, but winds up in jail for prostitution (or maybe for false witness, I wasn't sure). Accattone tries to get back in his wife's good graces but her father won't allow it. Instead he steals a religious necklace from his son to sell. A lovely working girl named Stella falls in with Accattone and he tries to convince her to turn whore but she starts crying on her very first job. Next his brother gets him work at a junkyard, but when his buddies mock him, he decides it's below him and quits. What's left besides begging is thieving. A happy ending is not in store. This is the first feature film from Catholic Marxist director Pier Paolo Pasolini, and if you look for it, you will find a political viewpoint here concerning the lives of the struggling and underprivileged. If there is a Catholic viewpoint present, it's harder to find—there is a scene involving a communal meal which Accattone calls a 'last supper' and he can be seen as a Christ figure, I suppose. The background music is sacred music by Bach. The film is often called neorealist because of its focus on slum life and its use of non-professional actors but some critics deny this based on Pasolini's artistic visual style and use of camera. Though it's not glossy looking, it might be said to verge on poetic realism at times. The title role was the first for Franco Citti, though he went on to a lengthy acting career, and the camera (or maybe just Pasolini) loves his face which is featured frequently in close-ups. He mostly looks insolent and depressed, sometimes sensual, but also hard to read which works for the role. For me, his political convictions, such as they are, feel lightly held, an excuse for not wanting to work. The rest of the characters are mostly flat and the acting feels amateur, but that's not really a negative here. Accattone is not likable and largely ends up feeling like a symbol rather than a real person, but Pasolini might have intended that. Watchable but not compelling, though I respect the fact that Citti doesn't use tricks to make his character easier to like. The actor is charismatic but Accattone isn't. [Criterion Channel]

MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE DETECTIVE (1940)

Phyllis Brighton, headstrong daughter of horseracing official Hiram, is losing too much family money on racetrack betting, so Hiram hires out of work private eye Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) to keep her out of trouble. When she tries to bet on Banjo Boy, a horse owned by Elliott Thomas whose odds are 15 to 1, Shayne stops the bet, but when the horse wins, Phyllis is pretty pissed off. Dad finds out that Phyllis was relying on a tip from shady character Harry Grange. (In a convoluted plotline, it turns out there are two Banjo Boys with similar markings; the winning horse was doped up, but the drug test is done on the real horse who didn’t actually run.) With Hiram leaving town, Shayne moves into the family mansion to keep a closer eye on Phyllis. He discovers that she has switched to casino gambling, encouraged by Grange. (In another convoluted plotline, a man named Kincaid tries to hire Shayne to get money out of Grange.) In a plan to keep Phyllis away from Grange, Shayne spikes Grange's drink, then spills ketchup on his passed-out body to make it look like he was shot dead. But the next day, it's discovered that Grange actually is dead with Shayne's gun left nearby. Police chief Painter arrests Shayne but he wriggles out of it and Phyllis, a bit spooked by all this, agrees to help Shayne find the real killer, in addition to investigating the horse race shenanigans of Thomas. Like many a B-mystery, this storyline gets unnecessarily complicated so I quit worrying about following it. The climax involves getting everyone to Thomas's house where suspicions are confirmed and an arrest is made. A breezy performance by Lloyd Nolan is the main reason to watch this movie, the first in a series of Michael Shayne movies (based on books by Brett Halliday). Nolan appeared in several, and when the series went from Fox to a Poverty Rio studio, Hugh Beaumont took over. There was nothing special about the Shayne character; he was just your standard-issue detective trying to stay in business and get through his cases with wisecracks and some mild romancing. But Nolan is charming and amusing and, despite the silly plot contrivances, makes it worth your time to stay until the end. The supporting cast is also quite good. Perennial supporting character old lady Elizabeth Patterson is very funny as a fan of detective novels who tries to help Shayne out—she thinks it’s "just wonderful" to confront a real murder. Other standouts include Walter Abel as Thomas, Douglas Dumbrille as the casino owner, Donald MacBride as the police chief, George Meeker as Grange, and Clarence Kolb as Hiram. Marjorie Weaver (pictured with Nolan) is OK as Phyllis. Not a must see, though I'll probably catch a couple of the Nolan entries in the future. [DVD]

THE CROOKED WAY (1949)

Eddie Rice (John Payne) is a WWII vet who was wounded in action, has shrapnel in his head which cannot be removed, and has spent some time in a military hospital with amnesia. He has no memory of his pre-soldier life except that he lived in Los Angeles. His doctor believes he has organic amnesia, which can be permanent. Eddie feels lost and isolated so his doctor suggests that he go to LA where he might run into people who knew him and could help him. Right off the bus, he is recognized by a cop named Williams who thinks he should get back out of town. He is then recognized by a woman named Nina (Ellen Drew), who was obviously involved with him but who is not terribly happy to see him (we discover later that she is his ex-wife). Nina tells Vince (Sonny Tufts), a big-time thug, about Eddie. We soon put the pieces together, long before Eddie does, and discover that Eddie Rice was Eddie Riccardi, gangster, who worked with Vince. The two were involved in a murder case before the war and Eddie went into the Army, leaving Vince to take the rap alone and go to prison. Oddly, Eddie is not forthcoming with his former associates about his amnesia, and he winds up taking a severe beating from Vince's thugs. Now both the cops and criminals want him to leave town, but old feelings well up in Nina and when Eddie comes clean to her, she decides to help him, despite working as a secretary for Vince. But Vince ends up killing Williams, who was the cop who put him away years ago, and frames Eddie for it. What’s an amnesiac who used to be a bad guy but wants to be a good guy supposed to do?

This film noir has story problems, chief among them for me being Eddie's reluctance to explain to people about his amnesia. From the first scene in LA, when it's obvious that the cop bears him ill will, it would seem that an explanation of his state would help, even if not everyone might believe him. It's odd that he doesn't get much support from his doctors. Eddie's past circumstances aren't delved into very far, so the character remains a cipher to us. That's not unusual in a noir, given the genre's preoccupation with the ambiguities of identity, but we often get some more clarity by the end, and that doesn't happen here. Though the ending is in theory a relatively upbeat one, it doesn't really feel that way since it's possible that the thuggish Riccardi part of his personality could resurface (again, not unusual in noir films, but it also feels like a bit of a cheat). For me, John Payne hit his peak as the romantic lead on 1947's MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. After that, he detoured into crime and noir films, but I never quite buy him as the tough guy he plays. Here, as a passive amnesiac, his soft style works better but I still think he's not a great fit for his part. Drew is bland as all get-out; when I looked her up on IMDb, I discovered I'd seen her in a few movies but couldn’t recall her. Far and away the best performance comes from Sonny Tufts (pictured) who is completely believable as the vicious Vince—the movie, which bogs down at times, regains its energy whenever he appears, and he's central to two effective scenes of torture. The biggest thing this movie has going for it is its shadowy noir look, largely due to cinematographer John Alton who won an Oscar a couple of years later for the colorful musical AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. Also with Percy Helton (as a small-time, cat-obsessed crook) and Rhys Williams as the cop. [TCM]

FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (1940 serial)

Amid war fears, the world is struck by the Purple Death plague. Up in the stratosphere in a rocketship, Flash Gordon, Dr. Zarkov and Dale Arden discover a ship belonging to Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo dispensing a dust into the atmosphere that is causing the plague, so it's off to Mongo they go to fight Ming yet again. They arrive in the forest land of Arboria where they reunite with their old ally Prince Barin (married to Ming’s daughter Aura) who is trying to help Queen Fria of the frozen land Frigia in her own battle against Ming. Ming is testing a new formulation of the Purple Death that will kill only people of higher intellect, leaving others ("men of simple intellect") alive to become slaves. This time it's not just Earth but the entire universe that is at stake. Flash's gang breaks into Ming's palace to free a captured Frigian general. Soon, Flash's folks (including Barin, Captain Ronal and Captain Roka from Arboria) and Ming's minions (Captain Torch, Lt. Thong, and a spy named Sonja who was installed as a handmaiden to Aura) begin a series of clashes. First, in the frozen wastes of Frigia (with a fair amount of stock footage from a German mountain movie, The White Hell of Pitz Palu), Flash and Zarkov discover polarite, an element that can counteract the Purple Death. Ming deploys walking bomb robots against them, one of which, in a cliffhanger moment, appears to kill Flash, but not really. Flash heads back to Earth and dispenses the polarite dust, then returns to save Zarkov from a Destroying Ray, rescue Dale who is again being claimed as a bride by Ming, and save Roka from a rocketship on fire. Our heroes also face a gigantic lizard, risk capture by the Rock Men (who speak backwards English), have to avoid an electrified rug, and must stop Ming's ships from bombing Arboria. In the end, Ming is killed (as he was at the end of the two previous serials) and, since Ming had madly proclaimed "I AM the universe," Zarkov names Flash conqueror of the Universe.

The third and final Flash Gordon serial is, at 12 chapters and a little over three hours, much shorter than TRIP TO MARS. That's generally a good thing, although to make up for the shorter time, this one packs in lots and lots of action, not always very coherently. I frequently lost track of where people were, which people had been captured, and who was working as a spy (in addition to Sonja, at least two of Ming's men are working for Flash and Barin). I also got some actors confused. It seems like every male supporting character has dark hair, a medium build, and often sports a mustache.  Buster Crabbe is back as Flash and we’re in good hands with him. Frank Shannon remains bland as Zarkov, but Charles Middleton continues to improve as Ming, looking and sounding quite menacing. This time around, Dale is played by Carol Hughes (pictured with Crabbe) who is about on a par with the previous Dale, Jean Rogers. However, replacing Richard Alexander as Barin with Roland Drew was a mistake; Alexander had a commanding size and tone of voice that Drew lacks completely. In fact, I kept getting the mustached Drew mixed up with the mustached Donald Curtis (who is actually quite good as Ronal) as they are frequently in scenes together. Also with Lee Powell as Roka, Byron Foulger as a Ming minion who joins up with Flash, Anne Gwynne as Sonja, and Don Rowan as Capt. Torch. I did like the outfits that the Arborian men wore: tunics and tights and feathered caps just like Robin Hood's Merry Men—fans of nicely proportioned male asses will enjoy themselves. The recaps at the beginning of each chapter are put in a crawl up the screen, just like George Lucas did in the Star Wars movies. Despite the fast pace, I felt that the middle chapters dragged, so I would mark this as the least of the three Flash serials, but it's still awfully fun. [DVD]

THE BLACK CAMEL (1931)

Movie star Shelah Fane is shooting a film on location in Honolulu. She's also trying to decide if she wants to accept a marriage proposal from Alan Jaynes, a wealthy man she has only known for a couple of weeks. The famous fortune teller Tarneverro has come to Hawaii at her request so she can get his occult advice. Local detective Charlie Chan warns Tarneverro not to practice his arts without a license, but Tarneverro assures Chan that he is only there to work in private with Fane. During a spooky crystal ball scene, Fane admits to Tarneverro that she's worried about something in her past: she witnessed the murder of actor Denny Mayo three years ago in Los Angeles, a murder that is officially unsolved. We don't know what advice the fortune teller gives her, but that night, Fane is found dead in her bedroom during a small dinner party. Chan, having hit it off with Tarneverro, takes him to the murder scene as an assistant. Among the party guests: Julie, Fane's personal assistant; Jimmy, a PR writer for the Hawaiian tourist board who is romancing Julie; Alan Jaynes who is anxious to leave Hawaii; Huntley Van Horn, an actor in the film; and the Ballous, an obnoxious couple. A butler, Jessup, and a maid, Anna, were also in the house. Later it's discovered that Fane’s ex-husband, an actor named Fyfe who is appearing in a play in Honolulu, had secretly visited Fane not long before she was killed. Finally, the presence that night of Smith, a struggling beachcombing artist, is also established. All are considered suspects, even Tarneverro, and eventually, blackmail is attempted, secrets are exposed, and the killer unmasked.

This is the second of the long string of Charlie Chan movies with Swedish actor Warner Oland starring as Chan. (The first, Charlie Chan Carries On, is lost, though an audio reading of the screenplay illustrated with production stills is included on this DVD.) This film is based on the novel by Earl Derr Biggers, the fourth of six Chan books that he wrote. There are several things about this movie that make it stand out from the bunch. Though most interiors and car travel scenes were done in a Hollywood studio, all the exteriors and scenes set at the Hawaiian Grand Hotel were shot on location in Honolulu which gives it a spark that few other Chan movies have. Those are real Hawaiian beaches and the real dormant volcano Diamond Head that we see in the background of scenes. Oland feels fresh and energetic in the role of Chan, being more active than in any of his later films, even getting punched in the face and having a temper tantrum. The cause of the tantrum is his Japanese sidekick Kashimo (Otto Yamaoka), who is straight out of the novel but never pops up again in the films as the irritating sidekick role is taken later by Chan’s sons. Kashimo provides about the right amount of comic relief and I found him amusing, darting into scenes shouting "Clue!" or trying to boss suspects around by shouting "Orders!"

Bela Lugosi, in the same year he starred in Dracula, is very effective as Tarneverro; he has to be likable but also suspicious and Lugosi does both quite well. He also has very good chemistry with Oland. 24-year-old Robert Young has his first credited role as the romantic lead Jimmy and is very charismatic. Sally Eilers (Julie) and Dorothy Revier (Fane) are OK. Better are Victor Varconi as Fyfe, William Post Jr. as Jaynes, and especially Murray Kinnell as Smith—with his scruffy beard and sun lightened hair, he looks like he could have stepped out of a recent movie. Dwight Frye (Renfield in the Lugosi Dracula) gets a juicy scene as the butler. The director, Hamilton MacFadden (who has a cameo as Shelah Fane's director) keeps the camera moving and there are very few moments that drag. I read the novel just days before watching the movie and it is a faithful adaptation, though it adds in a second murder and takes out some backstory. If you know the other Chan films well, this one might feel a bit out of place, not quite fitting the mid- to low-budget formula of so many others, but it’s definitely one of the best of the Chan films. Pictured top right: Varconi, Lugosi, and Oland; above left: Yamaoka and Oland. [DVD]

CANAL ZONE (1942)

Ginger Bar is an air base near the Panama Canal, sometime in 1941, where new bombers are delivered to be flown to Africa to support the Allies in the war (I assume; more on this fuzzy plot point later). The pilots, part of a civilian corps, are trained to navigate through some dangerous South American mountains on the way, and once they get to Africa, many of the pilots opt to stay and join the forces there, so there's always new trainees at Ginger Bar. Chester Morris is the main training officer and there is mutual respect between him and his men until the arrival of cocky playboy John Hubbard. Not caring that the men have to rely on each other to stay safe, Hubbard turns out to be an obnoxious loner, proclaiming that he's there not for patriotic reasons, but "to get a bang out of life." His flying is undisciplined, and when he mocks one pilot (Lloyd Bridges) because he idolizes his brother for fighting on the front, Bridges punches Hubbard out. Hubbard also begins a mild flirtation with Morris's gal (Harriet Nelson) and tries to impress her with some hot dog flight moves. Morris busts Hubbard down to grease monkey status until he can show some cooperation. Nelson talks Morris into reinstating Hubbard, but the next day, a hungover Hubbard messes up a flight and accidentally collides with another pilot (Larry Parks), the only man who actually looked up to Hubbard, killing him. He is grounded again, but when Morris and another pilot get in trouble during a night flight during a storm, Hubbard may finally get his redemption when he sneaks out to save them.

The plot of this film is standard issue for wartime movies, the taming of a cocky dangerous jerk so he becomes a team player crossed with a romantic triangle. The context is a little weird here. The movie started shooting just days after Pearl Harbor and was based on a 1937 story, so it seems likely that it was not planned as a full-fledged story about Americans in the war effort. The pilots (even Morris) are clearly presented as civilians, but if they're flying planes to Africa, they're being used in the war effort. Before Pearl Harbor, they would have been used by the British. So the context for the film's events is left deliberately vague, though many current-day viewers probably wouldn't notice. Being a B-movie, the production values are not top rank, but with the setting limited to the air base, that's not a problem. Models and miniatures are used for virtually all the flying scenes, but they're pulled off nicely. Morris is very good as the boss, not quite as tightassed as some of his B-movie ilk. Good supporting performances come from Larry Parks, Lloyd Bridges, and a very young Forrest Tucker. Hubbard comes off as thoroughly unlikable and utterly lacking in charm, and his brief stabs at romance with Nelson are stilted, partly because Nelson herself is rather weak—she would find fame a few years later as the wife of bandleader Ozzie Nelson on TV's Ozzie and Harriet. But the lackluster showing of Hubbard and Nelson don't really hurt the film that much. A fairly interesting example of the kind of movie being made as Hollywood was figuring out what its role would be in the war effort. Pictured are Tucker and Bridges. [YouTube]

ULYSSES (1954)

This adaptation of Homer's Odyssey (not the James Joyce novel) is an early peplum film, shot in Italy with American actor Kirk Douglas in the lead, at least two Hollywood writers (Irwin Shaw and Ben Hecht) out of a total of seven, and a much bigger budget than such films would get in their heyday several years later. We begin with Penelope, watching the colors of the clouds at sunset for omens. She has been waiting ten years for her husband Ulysses to return from the Trojan Wars. We get some backstory as a poet sings of Ulysses' victory in the war via the Trojan Horse, his destruction of a statue of Neptune in defiance of the gods, and Cassandra predicting his death at sea. Twelve brawny and increasingly horny suitors have set up living quarters on Penelope's property, deciding it's time for her to choose one of them to marry so Ithaca will have a king again. Her son Telemachus tries to get rid of the men, but he's not yet mature enough to be a physical menace. We leave the palace to see where Ulysses is, washed up unconscious on the shore of Phaeacia. Having lost his memory, he is taken in by the royal family and plans on marrying Nausicaa, the king's daughter, but while standing by the sea one night, his memory begins to return and we get an extended flashback to his post-Cassandra sea adventures. First, he outwits Polyphemus, a giant cyclops who wants to eat Ulysses and his men. Next, the ship passes the rocks where the Sirens sing their songs that entrap sailors—the men plug their ears with wax while Ulysses, apparently to prove his toughness, has himself lashed to the mast so he can hear the Siren song but withstand it, even though the voices of Penelope and Telemachus can be heard in the cacophony. Finally, on land, they encounter the enchantress Circe who briefly turns the men into pigs and sleeps with Ulysses, bewitching him to stay on the island for six months. Circe conjures up spirits of the dead soldiers Ulysses fought with, but Ulysses' mother also appears and gives her son the strength to fight Circe. In Phaeacia, his memory intact, he leaves and makes his way back to Penelope. In the final sequence, he enters the palace in disguise, whips the asses of the suitors in an athletic challenge, then slaughters them all to take his rightful place next to his wife and son.

You don't have to have read the Odyssey to keep track of the events here, though some background is helpful. It took me a little while to get used to Kirk Douglas in the lead; his physique is not the kind that peplum heroes usually have. But he is sturdy enough and has a commanding presence throughout. His dialogue is dubbed into Italian by a different actor so it's a little disorienting not to hear his familiar voice. Silvana Mangano is quite good in a dual role as Penelope and Circe, and Franco Interlenghi does what he can with the underwritten role of Telemachus. Anthony Quinn (Antinous, the chief suitor, who plans to murder Telemachus once he is king) and Rosanna Podesta (Nausicaa) are underused. The big budget allows for some very good sets and nice use of colors, and decent special effects, especially with the Cyclops. Because it was not shot in widescreen, some of the interior setups feel a bit claustrophobic, reminding me of those in DeMille's later Ten Commandments. The climax, when Ulysses finally shows up in Ithaca, is very well done. Future director Mario Bava apparently did some of the camerawork. There is an English dub available on Blu-ray in which Douglas dubs himself, but I imagine the Italian cut is the definitive version. [TCM]

FOR THE DEFENSE (1930)

William Powell is a defense lawyer known for getting his (mostly shady) clients found not guilty in court. The city fathers have a meeting at which Powell's tarnished reputation is discussed. There's nothing they can do but hope that one day, Powell will go too far, do something illegal, and be disbarred. For his part, Powell seems a bit tortured by his morality or lack thereof—he excuses being drunk after hours by saying, "If I didn't stay tight, how long do you think I'd last in this racket?" Meanwhile, Powell's mistress (Kay Francis) has been hoping for marriage, but when he says he's not the marrying kind, she considers accepting a proposal from a playboy boyfriend (Scott Kolk). One night, Francis is driving a drunken Kolk home when he starts pawing at her; she loses control of the car and hits and kills a pedestrian. Kolk tells her to leave and he takes the blame, winding up charged with manslaughter. Francis begs Powell to take the case and he does, but then discovers that a ring of hers was found at the scene in Kolk's car and figures out the truth. Addled by drink and desperation, and to save both Kolk and Francis (who is considering coming clean in the courtroom), Powell bribes a juror in order to get a hung jury. But the prosecutor finds out about it and soon Powell himself is on trial.

This pre-Code film lets at least one character off the moral hook at the end, and is fairly casual in depicting the sexual behavior of the characters. Otherwise, it's an average crime melodrama from the 1930s school of stories about shady lawyers who get a comeuppance or find redemption (or both). Powell plays a bit against type in terms of his morality, but his traditional personality (chipper, witty, likable despite his faults) is on full display and makes this rather thin drama worth watching. He even gets a drunk scene in which his usually well-kempt hair is mussed up, maybe the only time in movies when that happens to Powell. Despite the presence of other actors, this is basically a two-person show and Kary Francis (pictured with Powell) holds up her half of things nicely. However, the two cannot stop the movie from dragging a bit in the last reel when it becomes a slog of conversation scenes. Scott Kolk as the playboy lover hasn't much to do, and neither does anyone else. OK on balance. [TCM]

THE JADE MASK (1945) / THE SHANGHAI COBRA (1945)

Here I cover two more Charlie Chan mysteries from Monogram Studios. In The Jade Mask, Harper, a scientist, lives in a spooky old house and, with help from Meeker, his assistant, is developing a formula that can make wood as hard as metal. The formula is kept in a secret vault that can be filled with poisonous gas and can only be unlocked by saying a 2-word password. Harper is found murdered with a poison dart in the back of his throat, and Charlie Chan is called in on the case, with his #4 son Eddie and valet Birmingham Brown tagging along. Pretty much everyone else in the house didn't like Harper including his sister Louise and niece Jean, both of whom Harper made work as maids in the house. There are creepy life masks of the house's inhabitants on the walls, and a room of ventriloquist dummies (Stella, an assistant, can throw her voice). A new arrival, Lloyd Archer, claims that Harper stole the formula from his father. There are more deaths before Chan fingers the killer; the solution involves the masks and the puppets. In The Shanghai Cobra, New York police officer Davis calls on Chan to help solve a series of murders that seem to be caused by cobra bites. Back in 1937 Shanghai, Chan had tracked down a killer named Van Horn who used the same method—Van Horn was badly burned in a Japanese bombing and escaped. With some plastic surgery, it's possible that he is behind the recent rash of deaths, most of which have claimed workers at the Sixth National Bank, people who also frequented a nearby diner which has a remote jukebox—the patron inserts money and talks to a woman in remote office (who can see them on a TV screen) who plays their song. #3 son Tommy and Birmingham are along for the ride.

The fourth and sixth films in the Monogram Chan series show how the lower budgets were hurting these films. Sidney Toler is fine as Chan (though his age was slowing him down a bit) as are Benson Fong (Tommy) and Mantan Moreland (Birmingham). Edwin Luke, Keye Luke’s brother, is good as he makes his only appearance in the series as bookworm brother Eddie in The Jade Mask. As is becoming par for the course, the supporting players are generally weaker than in the Fox films. Hardie Albright (Meeker in Jade Mask) was an experienced character actor and stands out, as do James Cardwell and Joan Barclay in Shanghai Cobra, but that’s about it for the secondary actors. Though both films drag quite a bit, they both have their moments, often having to do with gimmicks, like the gas chamber and the masks in Mask (though there is no 'jade mask' in the movie), and the non-snake snake bites in Cobra. The remote jukebox in Cobra is fun, and it may have really been a thing as it's also featured in a 1942 mystery, X MARKS THE SPOT. The way the snake bites occur is clever. The first scene in Cobra has a nice film noir look, perhaps due to the director, Phil Karlson, who made his name in crime films, though that atmosphere is not carried over for the rest of the film. Most of the Toler films from here on out are similarly low-energy, though they are always watchable for Chan fans. Those new to Chan should probably start with some of the pre-1944 films, though I think the later Roland Winters movies got some of the old energy back. Pictured at top left are Edwin Luke and Mantan Moreland from The Jade Mask; pictured at right are James Cardwell and Joan Barclay from The Shanghai Cobra. [DVD]

NIGHT NURSE (1931)

A night in the life of a big city hospital: we ride in an ambulance as it arrives with a car crash victim. A big Chinese family is celebrating yet another baby. A dying man is being attended to. Finally we settle on Barbara Stanwyck, a tough cookie who is trying to apply for a position in a nurse training program. She is turned down for lack of a high school degree, but on her way out, she literally runs into a renowned surgeon (Charles Winninger). He apologizes, they chat, and he ends up getting her into the program. Her roommate is Joan Blondell, another tough cookie, and they hit it off well. Blondell warns her to stay away from romantic entanglements with interns and doctors and to try her luck with rich patients. One night, Stanwyck helps a bootlegger (Ben Lyon) with a bullet wound, and agrees not to call the police; he calls her his pal and says he'll never forget her. During her first surgery assisting, the patient dies and Stanwyck manages to hold it together until everyone is cleared out when she faints dead away. But she becomes a full-fledged nurse and is soon put on night duty at the home of a rich woman (Charlotte Merriam) whose two young children are ill and emaciated. Stanwyck suspects that the mother is guilty of neglect, but soon it becomes clear that the family chauffeur (Clark Gable, pictured with Stanwyck) is working with a corrupt doctor to slowly starve the kids to death in order to marry the mom and share in the money that would have been the kids' trust fund. With some help from Blondell, Winninger, and Lyon, Stanwyck saves the day.

This pre-Code film is rife with what would have been seen as adult material back then. Despite Prohibition, the drinking is constant at Merriam's home and people are frequently seen drunk. At one point, Merriam screams hysterically, "I'm a dipsomaniac and l like it!" Gable is said to keep Merriam "hopped up and full of booze." Despite her warning to Stanwyck, we discover that Blondell is sleeping with an intern (and not a likable one) who is also a drug addict. There are a couple of scenes of Stanwyck and Blondell in bras and slips. When Stanwyck is threatening to make trouble, she keeps being told that medical ethics won't allow anyone to help her out, and she rants to Blondell, "I'll kill the next one that says 'ethics' to me!" When Gable gets tired of her meddling ways, he socks her in the jaw (a fairly shocking scene even now). In the end, a sympathetic character murders someone and gets away with it. Directed by William Wellman (Beau Geste, Battleground), the movie has a fast pace and never stops moving, right from its opening ambulance ride to its closing ambulance ride. The stars are good, with Gable a standout in the kind of bad guy role he wouldn't be playing much longer. Along with Baby Face and The Divorcee, an archetypal example of the kind of movie that would come to an end with the establishment of the Production Code in 1934. [DVD]

FLASH GORDON’S TRIP TO MARS (1938 serial)

We pick up the story of Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Prof. Zarkov where the first Flash Gordon serial ended, with their return to Earth from battling Ming the Merciless on the planet Mongo. After celebratory headlines and ticker-tape parades, however, Earth is again menaced from space—this time, a powerful ray directed at our planet from Mars begins siphoning all the nitron out of our atmosphere, leading to more natural catastrophes and the concern that eventually all life on Earth will die. Flash, Dale and Zarkov take off once again to investigate, this time with a stowaway reporter named Happy Hapgood, and find that Ming, thought dead, is back with a vengeance, getting help from Azura, Queen of Mars. She also calls herself the Queen of Magic because, with the help of her White Sapphire, she can teleport across long distances in a flash. She's taken to using the Sapphire to transform her enemies into Clay People (with lumpy clay faces) who are forced to live underground, periodically melding into the walls of the caves where they live. Our Foursome vows to help the Clay People as they also attempt to sabotage the Nitron Lamp which is harming Earth. They head to the land of the Forest People, a brutish race who live in a dried-up forest of dead trees and worship a god called Kalu, to get the Black Sapphire of Kalu, which can block Azura's magic. In the forest, Flash meets up with Prince Barin, his ally from Mongo, who is being held captive by the Forest People. Barin joins Flash's group, and Dale is subjected to the Incense of Forgetfulness (aka letheium) which causes her to worship Kalu and stab Flash in the back (literally) before being given an antidote. Back at Azura's royal city, Flash is able to put the Nitron Lamp out of commission temporarily but must somehow convince Azura that 1) she should free the Clay People, and 2) she can't trust Ming who has gone batshit crazy with his "lust to destroy," in the words of his chief assistant.

This is a very long serial (fifteen chapters over five hours) and, though it takes about three chapters to build momentum, it becomes involving and exciting. The first serial was a hit, but the budget for this was lower, though it doesn't really show. The sets and costumes are impressive, even if the shots of rocket ships flying and landing are used over and over again. The Queen's rockets are called stratosleds and the Martians wear bat-wing capes that function as small parachutes (pretty cool). There's a Healing Vapors room, a Paralyzing Ray, a Disintegrating Room, an underground vacuum tube which shuttles folks around, and nifty Light Bridges, rays of solid light which shoot out between buildings, giving people passage at great heights. At various times, Flash has to work with Ming and/or Azura to accomplish his goals, and Azura does end up realizing she's been used by Ming and frees the Clay People. You may notice I barely mentioned Happy, the reporter—he has very little of substance to do except get in trouble now and then, and provide mild comic relief. We meet some Clay and Forest people, but the only side character to get much traction is a Martian bomber pilot who goes over to Flash's side in the last three chapters and provides a fair amount of help.

Buster Crabbe, who was very good as Flash in the first film, is just as good here, being heroic but vulnerable (though sometimes he runs like Phoebe on Friends). Jean Rogers, returning as Dale, is more proactive here and does less screaming and more lending a hand. Charles Middleton, whom I found disappointing as Ming the first time around, is much improved, giving a fairly full-blooded performance. He has at least two great line readings, the first as the unconscious Flash is in great danger: "Nothing can save Flash Gordon now!" and the second as Azura wants to discuss her plans for the captured Flash: "Other plans? Our plan is to conquer the universe!" Richard Alexander is just fine returning as Barin. Frank Shannon, also back as Zarkov, is a little more active, and even gets to kick a little ass. Donald Kerr as Happy mostly just stays out of the way. Kane Richmond, later a serials star (SPY SMASHER is probably his best), is handsome and heroic as the bomber pilot. Beatrice Roberts as Azura is bland as she mostly strikes royal poses and vanishes in puffs of smoke. I like that the chapter recaps are presented as comic book panels. I had my doubts about this for a couple of chapters, but this is a rare case of a sequel being just about as good as the original. At top right: Shannon, Crabbe and Alexander. At left: Kane Richmond and Crabbe. [DVD]

THANK YOU, JEEVES (1936)

In London, we meet young playboy Bertie Wooster banging away at a drum kit in his living room, with Jeeves, his manservant—or "gentleman’s gentleman," as he puts it—standing by to replace drumsticks as Bertie tosses them aside in a frenzy. Bertie claims to need adventure in his life, perhaps even "the great adventure," but Jeeves wants to "live a little longer," so he gives notice. That evening, a young woman, whom we see is being followed by two men, comes to Bertie's door in the rain, asking if she can rest a while. Bertie, intrigued, lets her stay and retires to bed, with ever-vigilant Jeeves locking Bertie in his room so he isn't tempted to get romantic with this mysterious woman. At 3 a.m., Jeeves helps the woman leave through the servants' entrance, her pursuers waiting in the rain all night. Bertie finds a telegram indicating that the woman, Marjorie, is meeting a man named McDermott at the Mooring Manor Hotel, and Bertie and Jeeves head off to find her. Eventually we learn that she is in possession of half of a batch of stolen military documents and is meeting McDermott who has the other half. The two men following her the night before introduce themselves to Bertie as Scotland Yard men, but we find out they are actually criminals who are after the documents. Everyone winds up at the hotel where McDermott is missing and Manville, the gang leader, is waiting to get his hands on Marjorie's documents. Of course, Bertie, thinking that the gang are good guys, gets Marjorie in trouble, but with the able assistance of Jeeves, who used to be an amateur boxer, and a hitchhiking Black saxophone player named Drowsy, all is righted and, with Bertie planning his honeymoon with Marjorie, Jeeves once again gives notice.

There are two ways to approach this film. The first is as an adaptation of a P.G. Wodehouse novel or, more to the point, a version of Wodehouse's characters of Bertie and Jeeves. (There is a novel with this title, but the movie only uses two tiny plot strands from it.) Bertie is a rich but bubble-headed bachelor and Jeeves his unflappable valet who has to keep Bertie out of all kinds of trouble, mostly involving women and relatives. As such, this movie is a failure. Starting with the acting, David Niven is exactly right in both looks and demeanor as the likable doofus Bertie Wooster, but Arthur Treacher (pictured with Niven), though physically perfect as Jeeves, is far too bombastic in his delivery of dialogue. I wrote in my notes that he has "too much spunk." His action hero activity in the climax is completely wrong, though it's plausible that Jeeves might have had some boxing experience in his past. The mild troubles that Bertie gets into almost never involve much physical action, and he almost never actually falls for a woman, usually trying to get out of a mistaken entanglement. The opening scene shows some promise—it could have come right out of a Wodehouse story. Unfortunately, with the arrival of Marjorie, the film becomes a spy story with touches of slapstick and romance, and little of the verbal wit of Wodehouse. 

The second way to approach this film is as a spy story with touches of slapstick and romance, and as such, it's not bad. In fact, in the 1960s something like this featuring a civilian getting comically involved with spies and government agencies would have fit in the zeitgeist quite snugly. If, as a Wodehouse fan (as I am), you forget that Niven and Treacher are supposed to be Bertie and Jeeves, you may find yourself liking the two and their brittle chemistry. There's a fun car chase early on and the climax, in secret passages and cellars, is ass-whooping fun, with Bertie chained to a wall and Drowsy stuck in a suit of armor. Speaking of Drowsy, the usual warnings about cultural sensitivities apply to this slow and shuffling Black character, though Willie Best does a decent job popping in and out of the proceedings as needed and has a fun scene with Jeeves teaching him how to play an orchestral march on the sax. Virginia Field is good as Marjorie, but the bad guys, including Colin Tapley and Lester Matthews, are pretty much interchangeable. As I've noted, the Wodehouse wit is almost totally absent; when Bertie walks outside in the morning, he looks up and says, "What’s that bright light?" and Jeeves replies, "The sun probably, sir." That's it for anything even close to the Bertie and Jeeves feel. A sequel was made with Treacher but without Bertie and I don't think I’m up for it. But I can recommend this, with my above caveats. Pictured at left are Field, Niven and Treacher. [YouTube]

THE TRIUMPH OF HERCULES (1964)

Milo, the king's unscrupulous nephew, has his men attack and burn down a village because the people haven't paid their taxes, though the villagers claim they have and that his real reason for the attack is to enslave the people to act as his personal guards. When the king arrives, he's fed up with Milo's tactics and exiles him, but Milo has him killed. With the king's dying breath, he asks his messenger Erione to send for his friend Hercules. Milo heads to a cave filled with pink smoke to visit his mother, the sorceress Pasiphae, who uses long-distance magic to cause the messenger to fall into quicksand. Hercules, himself a demigod (we discover that Jove can take away his powers if he misuses them), saves Erione and goes to answer the late king's call. But Mom also gives Milo a magic dagger that, when drawn from its sheath, conjures up seven invincible golden warriors, the sons of Jaio, Juno's sister. Realizing he can't have the king's daughter, Até, for himself, Milo arranges a competition event, the winner of which will have Até's hand. In theory, Milo fixes it so that his buddy Gordio will win and Milo will be the influence behind him, but when Hercules enters and has a horse vs. chariot race, guess who the winner is? Not only that, but Hercules then saves Até from death on a platform of spikes which "accidentally" falls toward her. Milo's next plot involves the killing of Erione and the apparently kidnapping of Até; Hercules goes nuts and kills an innocent villager and friend, and Jove takes his powers away. Can Hercules get his powers back and save Até from more metal spikes, this time on a torture device? And, of course, don't forget about the seven golden warriors of Jaio's dagger. This is generally a fun entry in the original Hercules cycle. I like the fact that Herc's demigod background is a plotpoint, and I really like the golden warriors. This does not seem like a big-budgeted film but it looks a notch better than the average peplum film of the era. Weightlifter Dan Vadis is not ridiculously muscled but makes for an impressive Hercules, though as other reviewers have noted, he does have a frat-jock face that seems a little out of place. Marilu Tolo (the damsel in distress) and Moira Orfei (the wicked goddess) are both attractive, and as usual in these films, it's the bad lady who is called upon to do more acting, and Orfei is fine. Pierre Cressoy is an OK bad guy. This is a decent sword and sandal adventure flick, with the usual caveat about seeing a widescreen print. Aka HERCULES VS. THE GIANT WARRIORS. [YouTube]

BLACK MAGIC (1944)

At a séance being held by psychic William Bonner and his wife Justine, William asks for questions and a male voice asks "What happened in London the night of October 5th, 1935?" The lights go out and Bonner falls forward, shot dead, though when the police arrive, no bullet is found. Because Charlie Chan's daughter Frances was present at the séance, Chan is called in to investigate. Among others present: a woman whose father was driven to suicide by Bonner; a couple who were being blackmailed by Bonner; a magician supply store owner; and Bonner's new valet, none other than Chan's buddy Birmingham Brown. Mrs. Bonner, apparently in a drugged trance, goes to the top of a downtown building and follows the orders of a voice that tells her to step off the ledge, which she does, plummeting to her death. Chan himself winds up a near victim of the same drug, but manages to outwit the killer and unmask him by the end, answering the question of what happened in London in October 1935. The third Monogram film in the Chan series has the nicely atmospheric setting of the séance, and a great scene of Chan being hypnotized by a combination of a drug and bright lights shining in his eyes, but is otherwise indicative of the low-budget slide the films were taking. Sidney Toler (Chan) and Mantan Moreland (Birmingham) are tolerable, but the supporting cast is bland, with the exception of Jacqueline DeWit as Mrs. Bonner. Charles Jordan and Claudia Dell, as Bonner's two confederates, are fine but don't have enough to do. Frances Chan (who plays Frances Chan) is awful, barely able to read her lines, let alone emote—though she is nice looking and, to be fair, there is nothing to her character. The writers still aren't quite sure how to handle the character of Birmingham, leaving Moreland (pictured) a bit at sea; his gimmick here, trying to vanish from sticky situations by snapping his fingers and saying "Abracadabra," is funny the first two times, but not so much the next ten times. Still like most of the Monogram Chans, it's entertaining. Later retitled for television and home video as MEETING AT MIDNIGHT. [DVD]

SUNNY SIDE UP (1929)

It's the Fourth of July on the Lower East Side of New York City as we see a long tracking shot of a tenement neighborhood with kids stealing food from Eric, the Swedish grocer. In one of the buildings, Molly (Janet Gaynor), who rooms with her friend Bea, is nursing a crush from afar on the wealthy playboy Jack Cromwell (Charles Farrell). Meanwhile, at a party at his family's mansion in Southampton, Jack is fed up with his girlfriend Jane constantly flirting with other men—she blatantly brags that getting married won't keep her "out of circulation"—so he drives off in a slightly drunken huff and winds up in Molly's neighborhood, having had a minor fender bender. Eric lets him stay at his apartment to rest up but he winds up with Molly instead. They hit it off and when he sees her sing at the street block party, he asks her to sing at a charity event in Southampton, in part to make Jane jealous. As rumors spread at the party that Molly is Jack's kept woman, the plan seems to work, with Jane suddenly becoming interested in marriage. The problem is that Molly's celebrity crush on Jack has turned into a real-life one. Will Jack ever see that it's Molly he should be with? Plotwise, this is an average romantic comedy of the era. But it's also a pre-code movie and has some risqué behavior. It's also a musical with one particularly sexy number, "Turn Up the Heat," performed poolside at the mansion. Despite some fun numbers, no one will mistake this for an Astaire-Rogers or Busby Berkley musical. Gaynor and Farrell, a popular film couple of the era, are fairly lightweight, as are their singing voices. Marjorie White and Frank Richardson are fine as friends of Molly's who pose as her servants at the mansion. El Brendel, the Swedish dialect comic who was inexplicably popular for a few years, is tolerable as the grocer, who also accompanies Molly to the mansion. Mary Forbes, a familiar high society face from movies like You Can't Take It With You and The Awful Truth, plays Jack's mother, and child actor Jackie Cooper has an uncredited role a few years before he hit the big time in The Champ. The best song is "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All," which I actually know as a pop culture pun by Groucho Marx in ANIMAL CRACKERS ("I'm a dreamer, Montreal"). What I said about a later Farrell/Gaynor musical, DELICIOUS can go for this one, too: "Mostly worth watching as a historical oddity, a movie musical done as Hollywood was, by trial and error, inventing the genre." Pictured are Farrell and Gaynor. [TCM]