Better Late Then Never

Am I Missing Something?

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

William Pine and William Thomas -- Paramount's B producers who took sturdy projects and turned out decent movies on modest budgets, earning them the appellation of "The Dollar bills" -- have a fine one-hour flick in this movie. Nancy Kelly gets a photography gig at a New York magazine, with wolfish Chester Morris as her boss; she totes along would-be fiancé Philip Terry, claiming he is her brother, to stand off Morris. She's smart, hard-working and they gradually fall in love, with many a quip, when a murdered woman pops up -- and it looks exactly like the picture of Miss Kelly that she posed for the magazine; her alibi is Mr. Terry, but he's been shipped out on a convoy to Russia and lost at sea.Richard Gaines is along as the health-nut publisher, and there are a lot of good gags for the first three-quarters of the picture, until the murder mystery takes over. Dewey Robinson as a cab driver also has a few good lines.

This really is the story of a prank blowing up in the prankster's face, in this case, a press photographer (Nancy Kelly) who seems to be obsessed with the marital issues of a much married man (Charles Arnt) and his most recent wife (Jane Farrar), a hot-tempered harpy with whom he has many public battles over his flirtations with other younger women. Having just been hired by the amorous Chester Morris, Kelly gets jailed on a murder rap, and the only testimony that could save her comes from her fiancée (Phillip Terry) whom Morris initially thought to be her brother and has sent him off on a mission where he is believed to be killed.This is one of those newspaper comedies where you can just hear the writer laughing to himself as he puts the script down on paper. It is intelligently written and amusing, but the aspect of the plot just gets a bit out of control and ultimately unbelievable with the plot going through so many twists and turns that it makes a pretzel look like a strand of spaghetti before it has been boiled. While this will never be the classic of "The Front Page", its sexually reversed remake "His Girl Friday" or the brilliant "Five Star Final" standards, it is a pleasant look at how the deadly sin of jealousy can create a lot of havoc for everybody involved.

What starts off looking fairly formulaic for movies of the period, turns into an interesting flick with some different twists. I won't say more because much of the enjoyment is seeing the twists unfold. While Paramount was part producer and distributor of this film, it's obviously of a lesser grade – B or something else. The cast doesn't have any big names. The technical quality is low-grade, and the writing and directing could have been much better. But, the acting is mostly quite good with a plot that soon develops beyond the usual fare. So, I'm surprised that Paramount couldn't build this one up a bit more. Still, it was the middle of World War II and many of the top actors, writers and technicians were off at war. There was a lot of interest about this time in stories about the war, so the studios can be excused for not putting their all in many of their smaller films. I do think that labeling this a comedy as well as a crime film is misleading. The comedy is so little and quickly overshadowed by the mystery. But, it's fine as a drama and crime or mystery flick. The quote in my heading is a line from the film.

One thing about this film I found rather interesting. The photographer, Pat (Nancy Kelly), was hired sight unseen. When they find out she is NOT a man, this is accepted pretty quickly--without the usual sexist drivel such as "this is no job for a woman" and the like. Perhaps this was because during the war years, more and more women were in the workplace and it was not so unusual to see lady cabbies or salespeople or even factory workers. So, seeing a lady photographer wasn't so terribly unusual.So, as I've already said, Pat is hired when the film begins. The job is for a magazine run by a health fanatic, though the magazine is of a more mundane nature. Her job is to get sensational photos that aren't faked--a problem they had with the last photographer. It's obvious from the start that although Pat has a boyfriend, she is absolutely destined to be with her new boss, Larry, by the end of the film. That's because Larry was played by popular B-actor Chester Morris who was a very hot commodity during this era. He was the leading man, so you know he had to get the leading lady eventually.However, Larry and Pat have a complication. For some bizarre reason, Pat pretends that her brother is living with her. I think it's to keep Larry from trying to come in her apartment. And, when Pat's old boyfriend from back home arrives on the scene, Larry assumes this is her brother. So far so good. But, later, when Larry realizes he's falling for her, he also feels betrayed because he then finds out that this man is NOT her brother. What's Larry to do? See the film and find out for yourself--it's worth it and where it goes next is NOT at all where you'd expect.As usual, Chester Morris does a nice job--just the sort of effortless performance he so often gave in his B-films--though this time it's for Pine-Thomas Productions, not his usual studio (Columbia Pictures). And, while the plot has a few holes, it is an enjoyable and breezy little comedy.