Edward Gargan Movies

In this comedy, a scatter-brained professor nearly starts a riot when he writes a book claiming that women like to be treated roughly. A paper publishes snippets from the book and later the professor, feeling he was misquoted, begins suing for libel. The paper then sends out a female reporter to dredge up some dirt on the sexist academic. Not only does she do her job and prevent the suit, she and the professor end up falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a novelist visits a local nightclub to do some research for her upcoming novel. Her husband, away on a business trip, knows nothing of her shenanigans. While in the club, the novelist sees her boss out with a stripper. To help her husband's flagging career, the writer begins blackmailing her employer into promoting him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Raymond Chandler's famed detective Philip Marlowe (George Montgomery) is hired by a rich, eccentric widow, Mrs. Murdock (Florence Bates) to find and return a stolen gold coin. Marlowe quickly finds himself involved an a case which includes robbery, blackmail and murder. Just as Marlowe begins to solve the mystery, he is savagely beaten by Vannier (Fritz Kortner). Marlowe finally puts all the pieces of the puzzle together when he discovers a blackmail scheme involving Murdock's mentally-ill secretary, Merle Davis (Nancy Guild) which leads him to suspect his employer. The Brasher Doubloon, adapted from Chandler's novel, The High Window, and beautifully photographed by Lloyd Ahern captures a proper film noir sensibility with its moody, low-key images and dense, dark background shots, while failing to capture the complexity of the novel. Director John Brahm, who also directed the excellent films The Lodger and Hangover Square, is disappointing, failing to create the depth of characterization and plot which he showed in these films. The Brasher Doubloon remains bland, with undistinguished acting by the entire cast. The only exception is Fritz Kortner, a veteran character actor molded in the expressionist cinema of pre-war Berlin, who creates the grotesque character of Vannier, bringing a sense of evil vitality to an otherwise bland production. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

The biggest surprise in Republic's Gay Blades is that the studio's resident skating star Vera Hruba Ralston doesn't appear. Allan Lane plays hockey star Andy Buell, whose prowess on the rink brings him to the attention of Hollywood leading lady Nancy Davis (played not by the real Nancy Davis, worse luck, but by Jean Rogers). Casting about for a leading man for her upcoming production The Behemoth, Nancy decides that Andy fills the bill. For a while, Andy "goes Hollywood", but in the end it is Nancy who gives up her career in favor of romance. The film's best performance is delivered by Paul Harvey, who as studio executive J. M. Snively offers a cute takeoff of Republic head man Herbert J. Yates. At the bottom of the cast list is Nedrick Young, later a top Hollywood screenwriter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Busby Berkeley directed this lightweight musical comedy in which Judy Jones (Joan Leslie) is informed that she's due to receive a $10 million inheritance, but with one very large string attached: she has to marry an unusually intelligent man. With the call of her checking account ringing loudly in her ears, Judy gives her boyfriend Tommy Coles (Robert Alda), the leader of a dance band, his walking papers. She next enrolls in a (previously) all-male Institute of Technology, where she figures that bright boys will be easy pickings. However, snaring her dream man proves more difficult than she imagined, and she finds out that Tommy is a lot brighter than she originally thought. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote the songs for this film, which include "You Never Know Where You're Goin' Till You Get There" and "When the One You Love Simply Won't Love Back." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Beautiful Cheat was one of the last B pictures produced by Universal studios before its merger with International Productions. The title character, played by Bonita Granville, is the secretary at a boys' reformatory. Sociology professor Noah Beery Jr. shows up to study the juvenile-delinquent mindset. Not surprisingly, he ends up taking a post-grad course in amour from the winsome Ms. Granville. The supporting cast includes such reliables as Irene Ryan, Milburn Stone, and Tommy Bond (the immortal "Butch" from the Little Rascals flicks). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Art critic and forgery expert George Steele (Pat O'Brien) is apprehended by the police as he desperately tries to break into the Manhattan Museum in the opening scene of Crack-Up, a noir mystery directed by Irving Reis. Steele does not understand his own bizarre actions, but explains that he was in a train wreck and had to get back to the museum. Questioned by Lt. Cochrane (Wallace Ford), who tells him there have been no train wrecks in months, Steele relates, in flashback, the events leading up to the incident. Earlier in the day the head of the museum had suspended him for alienating wealthy patrons by criticizing "art snobs" in a lecture. He then received a phone call informing him that his mother was sick, and caught the train to the hospital, but never got there. Though suspicious of Steele, Cochrane is persuaded by the shadowy Mr. Traybin (Herbert Marshall) to release him so he can follow Steele. The next day Steele retraces his steps and discovers that someone had set him up to be discredited, though he knows neither who nor why. Following the murder of a friend who was trying to help him, he discovers that forgeries of some very famous paintings are at the heart of the matter, but getting to the culprit is a more difficult task. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

Daisy, the Bumstead's mischievous mutt, makes the family a little extra cash when she wins a contest to become a model for the Navy. From there she becomes the favorite calendar gal. All the attention to the dog, makes Dagwood feel that his position as master of the house is jeopardized. Meanwhile all the attention catches the greedy eyes of gangsters who abduct Daisy. Fortunately, everything works out for the best. This was one of many entries in the comic-strip based series of domestic comedies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Broadway producer Earl Carroll was a Ziegfeld-like entrepreneur who staged lavish revues featuring attractive young ladies. Carroll's annual "Vanities" provided story material for three Hollywood films: Murder at the Vanities (34), A Night at Earl Carroll's (40) and Earl Carroll Vanities (45). This last film was produced by Republic Pictures, a bread-and-butter studio specializing in Westerns and serials; Republic had made musicals before, but few of them were expensive enough to allow for lavish production numbers. Earl Carroll Vanities is likewise rather threadbare, though some of the individual musical highlights aren't bad. The plot, such as it is, concerns financially strapped nightclub owner Eve Arden, who finagles Earl Carroll into staging one of his revues at her club. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bearing little relation to the hit Broadway play on which it was based, See My Lawyer was the last and least of Olsen and Johnson's starring vehicles for Universal. The zany Hellzapoppin stars play a couple of nightclub entertainers who want to break their contract with proprietor R. J. Wagenhorn (Franklin Pangborn), but business is so good that Wagenhorn refuses. As a means to force Wagenhorn to let them out, and to simultaneously drum up business for a trio of struggling lawyers (Noah Beery Jr., Alan Curtis and Richard Benedict), O & J go on a comic rampage, insulting and humiliating nightclub customers left and right. As a result, Wagenhorn is slapped with 39 lawsuits, which he gleefully signs over to Olsen and Johnson as part of his contract-breaking deal. The boys manage to settle 38 of the lawsuits with a minimum of muss and fuss, but the last claimant, Otis Fillmore (Edward S. Brophy), intends to take the comedians for every penny they have. After a riotous courtroom trial, the judge moves the defendants, plaintiffs and jurors to the nightclub itself, vowing to render his decision as soon as he's seen the nightly floor show. This silly plot device is merely an excuse to showcase an unending stream of specialty acts, including the King Cole Trio (dressed as cooks!) Outside of a few good gags (Olsen & Johnson driving their car into a hotel lobby, Otis Fillmore swaying the jury by having his gray-haired mother provide testimony while accompanied by a violinist), See My Lawyer is a disappointment, affording Olsen & Johnson precious little screen time to perform their own special brand of comic lunacy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jane Randolph, the star of several Val Lewton projects at RKO, goes the "spoiled heiress" route in Republic's Sporting Chance. Before she can inherit the family millions, Jane must go out and find a job without using her connections. Not surprisingly, she is brought down to earth by the experience, finding true love in the form of poor-but-honest John O'Malley. Director George Blair managed to helm four pictures the same year that Sporting Chance came out. While the strain doesn't show, there is a paucity of inspiration and nuance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, an arrogant war journalist is sailing back to the Big Apple after the end of WW II. En route, he has been assigned to watch over a band of teenagers who were trapped in Europe four years ago while entertaining the troops. Their entrapment has done nothing to dim their enthusiasm for performing and while waiting for passage the crews entertain everyone at every opportunity. Songs include: "I'll Buy That Dream" (sung by Anne Jeffreys), "Heaven Is a Place Called Home," "Seven O'Clock in the Morning (Waking up Boogie)," "Somebody Stole My Poor Little Heart" (Herb Magidson, Allie Wrubel), and "The Lord's Prayer" (arranged by Albert Hay Malotte). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide