Uninspired but still fun departure for Harold Lloyd

 THE CAT'S-PAW (1934)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The role of a naive missionary from China travelling to the U.S. is perfectly tailored for Everyman Harold Lloyd. During the 1930's Lloyd was performing less physical stunts and gags where he was running around engaging in all sorts of tomfoolery, and more character parts. "The Cat's-Paw" is a strange movie experience because it feels as if Lloyd should be jumping out of his skin and yet he's been directed by regular Lloyd director Sam Taylor to be remote and closed-off. This is only a fitfully funny comedy and, like most Lloyd pictures, it is fun but it is not great fun. 

When Ezekiel Cobb (Lloyd) arrives in the U.S. in the fictional California city of Stockport, he is looking for a wife (though one must wonder, where are all the women in China?) Almost immediately he runs into the "so dishonest that you must be honest" Good Government League boss, Mayo (George Barbier), who wrongly assumes that a milquetoast like Cobb will lose the mayoral election quicker than any quote from Chinese poet Ling Po. Naturally, Cobb takes the job seriously and becomes mayor and all hell breaks loose. He fires the police commissioner, vetoes bills left and right and is keenly aware of all the graft and corruption which he tries to eradicate. As I said earlier this is the perfect role for Harold Lloyd yet he is far too unassuming and all hell doesn't break loose enough, not until the dramatic finish where all the crooks and gangsters are gathered inside the cellar of an Asian antique shop. For those who admonish the racial attitudes of filmmakers and/or films of the times, be prepared for racist quips and the regular use of a certain racial epithet towards Asians.

There aren't too many lulls in "The Cat's-Paw" but there is no real comic fire in this picture - it should explode with comic fireworks and it mostly keeps itself restrained. So is Lloyd who is still charming and funny in his calm demeanor and his frequent spouting of Asian quotes (not by Confucius, but by Ling Po). The scene where he tries to use the telephone for the first time is hilarious yet this movie never quite becomes a fish-out-of-water picture - there is not enough of that culture shock considering Cobb has been living in China for 20 years. Even the presence of Una Merkel as a cigar-counter clerk is seemingly truncated - she knows the guy is naive and dumb yet she holds out for his Capraesque idealism to rid the city of corruption. Lloyd and Merkel unfortunately have too few scenes together. "The Cat's-Paw" is still a minor delight and worth seeing for Lloyd fans but it is largely an uninspired effort. 

The Little Tramp's selfless act of love

 THE CIRCUS (1928)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There is a melancholic and hopeful spirit about the Little Tramp, the most famous character created during the silent film era by the great Charlie Chaplin. Here is a guy who is homeless and trying to get by and his needs are not great. He is a sentimentalist, not unlike the actual Chaplin, and believes in love and humanity which also makes both creator and character one of the great humanists of cinema. "The Circus" has such a deeply melancholic yet upbeat finish that I am almost ready to say it rivals his "Modern Times" or "City Lights" but I am not sure - it is certainly his finest and funniest achievement during the silent film era.

Right from the start of this rollicking comedy, the Little Tramp is already causing a ruckus. He inadvertently finds himself the butt of all jokes at a traveling show circus where he's chased by the police and a pony! The audience is doubled over with laughter especially in a priceless gag (an old one but it stands repeating if it is done well) where the cop and the Tramp are on a revolving platform yet neither can move very far. There's also the Tramp eating a hot dog belonging to a child, the hall of mirrors gag and the terrifically timed gag where Chaplin pretends to be an automaton (it is so good that I can see myself being fooled by this as well). This whole opening sequence occurs like a comic maze of epic funny gags because the Tramp is wrongfully accused of being a pickpocket, and all this is in the first 14 minutes!

The rest of "The Circus" has Chaplin as the new comic wonder of the circus, easily making the seasoned clowns look like amateurs. Of course, the Tramp is no seasoned comic or clown - it is all pure happenstance and the joke is that he cannot summon laughter by studying the clowns' routines like the William Tell bit involving an apple. The Tramp eats the apple and angers the circus owner (Allan Garcia) immensely since the little guy cannot do the routines and has no comic timing. Of course, love is around the corner when the Little Tramp falls for the owner's own stepdaughter, Merna (Merna Kennedy), an acrobat who sometimes fails to receive applause and has to be punished by not being fed by her mean stepfather. Merna likes the Tramp but then there's the handsome tightrope walker who steals her looks. 

"The Circus" is simply a wonderful, sprightly and delectably made romantic comedy with unbelievable stunts and scenes of impending terror that will have you grabbing your seat. The tightrope walking moment with Chaplin and a couple of intrusive monkeys on him will be enough to make you fall out of your chair laughing and terrified as well. A lion cage scene has to be seen to be believed, and all this is further proof that Chaplin has better comic timing than the Tramp himself. The last image of Chaplin doing his famous awkward walk to the sunset after giving up his love for Merna and for any further circus misadventures is about as sad and lonely a moment you will find in most silent cinema. I loved him for being that selfless and for Chaplin to have given us such a glowing comic creation and persona in so many films. Bravo!       

Names have been changed to protect the innocent

 HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Forget "The Naked City." "He Walked by Night" is an explosive, no frills thriller packed with enough action, solid performances and striking cinematography to render Jules Dassin's crime story as obsolete. Of course, history proved that "The Naked City" is better known and itself inspired a TV series. Well, this film not only stars Jack Webb in a small role as a forensics expert, it practically inspired the TV series "Dragnet," so there!

Richard Basehart is the lone gunman, Roy, who kills a policeman in the opening sequence while trying to rob a TV/radio store! For 1948, that is incredibly shocking violence! This killer gets away like a black cat in the night, robbing any kind of store and hiding out in the L.A. storm drains that covers many miles before returning to his bungalow with a barking dog. Roy shoots to kill but sometimes he uses the gun only as a threat in some robberies and his M.O. keeps changing. Roy works for a Mr. Reeves (Whit Bissell) as a technician and invents more elaborate electronics (of course, he had been pilfering all the electronic parts). This guy is also a step ahead of the police since he listens in on their frequency! How on earth are the cops going to catch up with him?

Truthfully, "He Walked by Night" is not a psychological profile of Roy nor is there any real depth to the cops (other than Scott Brady as Police Sgt. Marty Brennan who does a lot of the detective work in the latter half and Basehart's depiction of how antisocial Roy is). No, actually the film is a rip-roaring semi-documentary of a real-life case and it keeps you on edge through the workings of the multiple murders of cops and the forensic details. "He Walked by Night" is meant to be shallowly conceived and unglamorous, to evoke the tedious work cops must do to catch a criminal though not one frame of the film is tedious (the drawing of the suspect piece-by-piece by the witnesses is enthralling). The shootouts are crisp, brief and alarming especially the one in Mr. Reeves' office (courtesy of the sharp shadowy camera angles by DP John Alton) and of course the storm drain finale which is exceptionally done (allegedly it inspired Carol Reed's similar finale in "The Third Man" though I think that is yet to be proven). Exciting and first-rate all the way. 

Virginia Grey is a runaway

 SECRET VALLEY (1937)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

An unusual blend of western and gangster movie genres though about as perfunctory and silly as they come, "Secret Valley" is an obscure Western picture with its only real saving grace being Virginia Grey. 

Virginia is Joan who has married someone in Reno for only two hours (!) before realizing her husband is a gangster, meaning more of a ruthless businessman than a regular businessman. Joan consults two different attorneys to file a divorce. Geez, was she so ditsy as to not realize who her husband was? Apparently, the first attorney is aware of this man's reputation but says no to helping her. The second attorney is a go and sets her up in some dude ranch rather than a hotel. The dude ranch's owner, Lee Rogers (Richard Arlen), wants nothing to do with her. When Joan goes out for a cattle drive, he insists she wash dishes rather than ride a horse. Joan is so ditsy that she inadvertently opens the fence and lets all the cattle out roaming the desert. 

So we get shots of cattle being hoarded up (something B westerns have featured ad nauseam), lovely Virginia Grey acting foolish yet loving the outdoors, Lee Rogers losing his cool with Joan's presence, and a climactic shooting also involving fistfights with the gangsters, Lee, and the FBI while Joan yells "Watch out!" Added to the mix is an Asian cook (Willie Fung) occasionally barking in Chinese and cackling with laughter and you've got one ridiculous western that is fun in a very remote, childish kind of way.

Beer and Blood

 THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

For sheer villainy with very little charm and a purely (and intentionally) misogynistic bent, "The Public Enemy" is the James Cagney gangster picture of the 1930's era. There were many others but this one has steam rising and emanating from the screen - it is raw, visceral and accepts no substitutes. Though not exactly the best of its kind, it does show the Pre-Code danger and edge in these types of gangland pictures and it makes no apologies.

Divided into chapters showing an onscreen title of the year, "The Public Enemy" charts the rise and fall of Irish-American and Chicagoan Thomas Powers (James Cagney) who has no compunction as a youth to steal. He steals roller skates for his friend's sister and she refuses them when she finds out he stole them. Tom's father, a policeman, is a brute and heavily beats his son with very little reaction from the tot. Over the years, the kid and his childhood partner, Matt Doyle (Frankie Darro), become embroiled in petty theft crimes (one goes awry with regards to the theft of furs), work as streetcar drivers and eventually rise to the level of wealthy businessmen while bootlegging. Of course, murder by getting even percolates when Tom decides to kill Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell), the man who helped the kids in the past and decided to flee after that fur snafu. Sensible people started to see that Tom was up to no good.

Tom's mother (Beryl Mercer) loves him like a baby yet Tom's brother (Donald Cook), a World War I vet, sees through him and has heard and disapproves of his "beer and blood" enterprise. Even Tom's girlfriend Kitty (Mae Clarke) hates him and he decides to squish a grapefruit in her face in one of the most famous scenes in American cinema! In one scene, drunken Tom is seduced by a woman (Mia Marvin), who helps him and his crew hide out from a rival mob, and he smacks her the following day learning of this seduction he slept through. Leaving aside women (and a thankless though sparkling role by Jean Harlow), not even horses are safe around this guy.

"The Public Enemy" is rough and tough and a completely unsentimental picture though not especially illuminating (unless you were unaware of the notion, as served in prologue and epilogue title cards, that being a gangster was anything but a solid career choice). Still, I have to give the film credit for painting these criminals without an ounce of romanticism. There is none evident in a single performance, especially Cagney. As I said earlier, the film makes no apologies for its in-your-face violence and raw nerve. Neither did James Cagney.