Simply Perfect

Sick Product of a Sick System

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

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.

This is one of those comedy/mysteries or mystery/comedies that succeed in being neither particularly mysterious nor particularly comic. Actually, so far as the mystery is concerned, the scriptwriters make little effort to work up any suspense at all as to the actual identity of the killer. Indeed, this movie is more a straight thriller than a puzzling who-dun-it, but it must be admitted that some of the sequences do have a fair amount of excitement, aided by Joseph Walker's atmospheric photography and the setting itself. Unfortunately, as for the characters themselves, they remain from first to last as rather ambiguous figures – and this criticism applies even to the principals, Loretta Young and Brian Aherne. Loretta looks a bit less emaciated than usual and plays with her usual, sweetly smiling competence. Brian's approach to his characterization is shallow and rather superficial. He remains – like most of the supporting players – as a mere stock figure, and not a particularly sympathetic one at that! Like many of the screen's amateur detectives, he assumes an always-attempt-to-be- witty, devil-may-care attitude, but fails to back it up with the kind of brawny derring-do that audiences like. Even in the movie's most dramatic moments, he remains a clown. Of course, Aherne was doubtless limited by the script – as are the support players like Sidney Toler and Donald MacBride who play comic policemen. Actually, Toler and MacBride are a bit more successful than Aherne. Gale Sondergaard is also on hand, but has only the one scene. Blanche Yurka looks delightfully sinister. William Wright as Carstairs does a lot of talking, but it's uninteresting talk. Jeff Donnell has a promising part, but it develops in a disappointingly routine fashion. The direction was in the hands of Richard Wallace, a dull but competent director who made a career handling movies that were halfway between "A" and "B". His best of his sixty-one films, in my opinion, was Sinbad, the Sailor (1947). He also did good work on The Fallen Sparrow (1943), although I must admit that most people don't like that movie, despite its great cast: John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak.

A mystery writer, Aherne, and his wife, Young, move into a basement apartment in Greenwich Village. The furniture is late, the electric power is off, and there is a great deal of confusion. The apartments upstairs of full of kooks or suspicious characters. That first night, and the next day, everybody seems to be rushing around, eavesdropping, screaming, getting locked in closets -- and the next day the police find a dead body in the back yard.The police begin an investigation under Sidney Toler, who looks just like Charlie Chan even without Asian make up. He's aided by Donald MacBride, a familiar character actor with a built-in suspicious sneer. Aherne and Young decide to involve themselves in the case and do more rushing around both within the apartment and within the sets that pass for New York City.Loretta Young is breathless and pretty. Brian Aherne overacts, sometimes to the point of embarrassment. His eyes pop, his mouth gapes, and he projects discomfort the way a traffic light signals traffic.But I don't really think that anyone could do much with what is essentially a B movie script. Substitute Chester Morris for Aherne and Gloria Stuart for Young, reduce the running time from 91 to 60 minutes and you have a fine, diverting 1930s entertainment, fit for a second feature and for Saturday matinées, where the kids will appreciate gags like Loretta Young being trapped in the basement coal shed, a load of call showering down upon her while she shrieks, the coal man asking, "Hey, what are you doing down there?", and Young shouting sarcastically, "I'm hanging out my laundry; what do you think?"

I had never heard of this film until it popped up on Turner Classic Movies. So, I settled down one evening to view it and almost turned it off after the first 20 minutes. The plot...adequately described in other reviews here...is...well...sort of dumb with a number of inconsistencies. From my perspective, what makes this film worth watching, and what kept me watching are the performances and witty dialog. A somewhat wacky screwball comedy (of sorts) is not what I'm used to with Loretta Young, and I rather enjoyed her in this role. And, I'm not that familiar with Brian Aherne, but -- once you accept the absurdity of many plot aspects -- his performance is engaging. Much of the dialog between them can be described as "snappy", and perhaps a poor man's Nick and Nora. The dialog between Aherne and the cops -- who aren't as befuddled as Aherne suspects -- is often clever, too. You'll recognize a couple of the supporting actors, particularly Sidney Toler and Gale Sondergaard (rather restrained here and not half so evil as her roles often were), but I always enjoy watching Donald MacBridge -- the master of the "slow burn". Is this a great movie? No. But, given the limitations of the script, it's quite entertaining.

This wasn't as good as advertised, at least in my opinion. It was still fairly entertaining.This movie was a "Thin Man" wannabe with a husband-and-wife team (Brian Aherene and Loretta Young, romancing, making smart remarks and solving a murder mystery.Some of the remarks might have been funny or clever 65 years ago but they appear dated and not as good today. And, all the "darlings" mouthed during the film got annoying. It sounds so affected nowadays.It wasn't a big-name cast but it was an interesting one with the always-mysterious Gale Sondegaard and Sidney Toler of Charlie Chan fame. Others were Jeff Donnell, William Wright, Donald McBride, Lee Patrick, Don Costello and Richard Gaines.It might have been "A Night To Remember" but it wasn't a movie to remember.