Best movie of this year hands down!

Beautiful, moving film.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

In the 1930s and 40s, tons of mostly low-budget B-detective films were made by various studios. Some featured better writing and production values (such as Fox's Charlie Chan and Columbia's Boston Blackie) but most were less prestigious productions with little to distinguish them. The latter is definitely the case with Monogram's "Detective Kitty O'Day". It's very typical of these detective films--with a know-it-all lead and super-stupid cops. The only thing that unusual is having a female lead, though there were a few other lady detective films (such as Torchy Blaine and Nancy Drew). As far as the production goes, Kitty was a VERY obnoxious character--much more than usual! She talked non- stop, butted into the police investigation and was difficult to like. Not one of the better films in the genre--with little to distinguish it due to pedestrian writing, acting and direction.

What would you do if you discovered your boss dead, murdered in their own shower? Most people would simply file for unemployment, but not Kitty O'Day (Jean Parker), the nosy secretary who seems to be around every time a new corpse is discovered, even when she is found hiding in the tub with one whom she had no idea that they were there. Along with co-worker Peter Cookson, she gets in over her head searching for the killer, annoying the heck out of the police detectives who make the Keystone cops look like Serpico. A good majority of the film is spent on slapstick, putting Parker, Cookson and one of the dumb detectives out on a skyscraper window ledge. Minus this footage and other attempts at comedic interludes, the film would run about 40 minutes. Perennial tough girl Veda Ann Borg adds some spark as the boss's cheating wife, but the majority of the film is so ridiculously structured that even at just over an hour, it is a mystery how the viewer didn't fall asleep, tune out or hit the fast forward button.

I mostly know Jean Parker from movies of the early 1930s (LITTLE WOMEN springs to mind) and I mostly associate her with teary-eyed victims of tragedy or sweet young romantic interests. Bland supporting roles in mostly dramatic pictures. The sweet daughter, the poor sister, the hometown sweetheart. DETECTIVE KITTY O'DAY (1944) showcases Parker as a comedienne. She goes for broke in the name of comedy and I was impressed. Jean Parker is the whole show.Made for B-level Monogram Pictures, DETECTIVE KITTY O'DAY is an inconsequential hour-long comedy-mystery programmer. There are no big names in the cast. The most recognizable actor after Parker is Edward Gargan, in the dumb police sidekick role he'd played countless times at the major studios. Veda Ann Borg lends sex appeal to the supporting cast.Kitty O'Day (Jean Parker) is a secretary who drags her boyfriend Johnny (Peter Cookson) around as she tries to solve her boss's murder. Every time the police run into the amateur sleuths a dead body turns up.Parker, pretty as always, handles the comedy with aplomb. Kitty O'Day is plucky and bright, in her own silly screwball way. She delivers zingers with a smile, uses accents and props, faints, crawls on the ground, and even wears a disguise. With Johnny along for the ride, the investigation is full of slip-ups, goofs, and misunderstandings, but Kitty somehow seems to land on the right track.For the sake of comedy the script allows for some lapses in logic, but they are easily overlooked. The film is enjoyable silliness from start to finish. Strictly a low-budget, small-time affair, but Jean Parker is fun to watch at the center of it all. It's neat seeing a different side to the actress a decade after the 1930s roles I know best.

Detective Kitty O'Day is the sort of movie that perfectly explains why some low rung movie studios were said to be Poverty Row, its almost as cheap a movie as you can get and still have film in the camera.The plot concerns a theft of securities. Johnny Jones brings Mr Wentworth some securities. He's the boyfriend of Wentworth's secretary, Kitty O'Day. When Wentworth heads home he asks that Kitty meet him there so he can make last minute arrangements before a trip. On the way out Kitty and Johnny get into a fight and Kitty heads to Wentworth's in a huff. When Kitty gets there she is let into the home by the butler and told that there is something wrong with the power. Not long after that Wentworth turns up dead, the securities are found to be missing and the house fills with police and suspects.Done on the cheap, most of the sets are just walls with a minimal amount of furniture. The rooms they represent seem unnecessarily large and empty. The furniture is cheap and well worn. When Kitty and her boyfriend follow the wife of the dead man and her lover the film shifts to a "ritzy" apartment building. Actually the place looks like a dive and not the place a rich woman would live in.Its here that the film really shows its cheapness in all departments as the plot pretty much stops as Kitty and beau are chased from room to room and around the outside of the building. It's suppose to be a laugh riot as they are forced to wear stupid clothes as disguises while they run back and forth, but its not. It's just not funny nor does it advance the plot much other than to allow the suspect pool to diminish. It's a 20 or 25 minute long set piece that serves no purpose other than keeping the movie in a few easily redecorated sets while the time runs off the clock. It completely kills the film.I can't recommend this movie much. Sure it's amusing at times, the pair of police detectives do manage to work miracles with poor material, but its still nothing that should be sought out. The ideal place for this would be the late show at 3 am when you have acute insomnia and want to see something other than another infomercial. It's a poverty stricken Poverty Row cheapie.