The Duke abides in quickie, traditional western

THE LUCKY TEXAN (1934)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

At a brisk 53 minutes, "The Lucky Texan" is a rudimentary western that tells a tale of greed in the days of gold prospecting with humor and panache. It is hardly great filmmaking but it is exuberant in many ways, evoking a forgotten era where you could have fistfights, shootouts and plenty of humor to make up for loss of character depth. Besides, you got the larger-than-life the Duke, Mr. John Wayne himself, in some early 1 hour efforts before he made his bigger splash with "Stagecoach" five years later.

Wayne gives his character Jerry Mason the stalwart, braver-than-thou qualities that would later characterize Wayne as the mythic legend of the cinematic Old West. The fairly slim story has Jerry returning from college to work as a blacksmith with his father's old, gregarious friend Jake 'Grandy' Benson (George 'Gabby' Hayes, in a boisterous performance). They notice a horse's hoof may have come in contact with gold and seek the lake with the lucky strike. Once Jerry and Jake bring gold to be appraised at the assay office, the officers decide they want to strike it rich themselves, framing Jerry for murder and having Jake unknowingly sign his ranch away to them, post-Great Depression era.

"The Lucky Texan" has all the familiar trappings of any B-movie western and would more likely be forgotten had it not been for John Wayne's heroics (including sliding down a water chute to catch up with the bad guys) and George Hayes who even dresses in drag! This is one of the Duke's sixteen Lone Star B-movies before switching to Republic Pictures and eventually John Ford. Worth seeing for historical value and some quick fast-food entertainment, not to mention legendary Yakima Canutt in a small role and serving as stuntman. 

Boost up the morale with invisibility

INVISIBLE AGENT (1942)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Talk about a wildly tonal shift in a series that had no consistent formula, well except for the invisibility factor. "Invisible Agent" is the fourth entry in "The Invisible Man" series and one terminally strange sequel. This one, full of political, anti-Nazi propaganda, follows "The Invisible Woman," a sequel that was apparently more screwball than serious (still unseen by me). As for "Invisible Agent," it is a tremendously entertaining sequel that has a comedic middle that almost wrecks the narrative. Still, for a good B-movie night, you could do worse.

Dr. Jack Griffin's grandson (Jon Hall) works at a New York print shop under a pseudonym. The reason is clear: Griffin's grandson has got the invisibility formula and knows that under the wrong hands, it can be used in a time of war (Griffin's grandfather was in the first "Invisible Man" movie). Naturally, some Nazis show up at the print shop wanting that formula. Violence breaks out and Griffin escapes, almost suffering a near amputation by a paper cutting machine! As for the war effort, well, this is World War II and Griffin goes on a secret mission to Germany where he ingests the formula to be invisible to the Nazis. Only trouble is that Germany is rather cold and the invisibility only works if you have no clothes on (Yep, he is naked throughout this movie). The mission is to retrieve a list of Nazi and Japanese spies working in the U.S. with the help of a coffin-maker (!) and, in one of the film's most surprisingly good performances, Ilona Massey as Maria Sorenson, a German espionage agent who has a few tricks up her sleeve.

I shan't say more because "Invisible Agent" is equal parts comedy, suspense and thriller. The comedy routine during a somewhat tiresome dinner sequence with Gestapo Standartenführer Karl Heiser (J. Edward Bromberg) and Sorenson manifests as something of the slapstick variety that would've been at home in a Marx Brothers movie. Also, one must escape the notion of a Japanese agent working in cahoots with the Nazis played by none other than Peter Lorre, a fine performance in a role that should've been played by an Asian actor (brings up memories of John Wayne playing Genghis Khan and Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"). I will be honest - it did not occur to me that Lorre was playing a Japanese agent until his character, well, you will see during the finale.

What works in the movie is the sheer escapism of it all including a bunch of fight scenes with Nazis falling over each other, unable to see the titular character's punches. "Invisible Agent" is also equal parts silly and absurd yet it has the fantastic Cedric Hardwicke as an insidiously evil lieutenant general of the S.S., Stauffer, who has got his hands on that list. Massey is glamorously watchable as Sorenson and Jon Hall, only seen briefly in the opening of the film, has only his disembodied voice to carry us through the movie. It is not at the caliber of Vincent Price or Claude Rains but whose voice is?