Nick Carter Master Detective (1939)

“Look, I'm not a storybook detective with, uh, a highball glass in one hand and, uh, a Chinese proverb in another, nor can I tell you from the ashes of a man's cigar that he, uh, had kippered herring for breakfast and hit his grandmother over the head with an axe. I'm just a New York flatfoot, the product of the McGonigle School.”

            In the 1930s and 1940s detective stories were all the rage. Movie studios could not get enough of making detective films. If you follow my blog or look at what my favorite classic film and two of my favorite movie characters are you will know who my favorite detective is. I like how some detective films were comedic but serious at the same time. I have yet to see a detective film that has bored me. The latest detective film I have seen is Nick Carter Master Detective starring Walter Pidgeon in the title role.

            A new plane is being tested. A man named Robert Chalmers has his taxi drive near a plan to stop it as it is about to take off. He says he is the new superintendent of Radex Airlines. Another man on the plane named Keller has created a new airplane that will revolutionize air travel. The pilot makes like the plane has malfunctioned and lands the plane where some people are waiting for Keller’s plane. Robert shoots the pilot and runs for the briefcase. The flight attendant Lou Farnsby (Rita Johnson) is a WASP. She manages to get the plan off the ground.

            Robert is really detective Nick Carter. He has been sent to keep an eye on Keller. The President of Radex, Hiram Streeter, is upset about the pilot because he had been a good guy up to that day and that others have been turned before. Nick takes a tour of the airplane factory. The planes and plans are kept under lock and key and many precautions are taken but still plans are getting out. Nick is suspicious of Lou. He has her taken off flying duty so he can keep an eye on her.

            Nick was sitting in the factory’s doctor’s office when a guy comes in with a hurt head. The doctor told him to go home. As he walks out a man approaches him and asks if he got the blueprints out. Someone tells the foreman that the blueprints for the X-42 have been stolen. Keller comes over the blueprints someone had out his prints in the floor to roll around they were not put away.  

            The test flight of the plane ended in a crash and killed the pilot. They find the bolts that were supposed to hold it together have been sawed through. That night Lou sees Nick going through Keller’s toolbox looking for his saw. She is suspicious of Nick. Nick is suspicious of Keller because he was in a hurry to get out of the room when he started to be accused. Nick sends the blade to be tested for steel. The tests come back, there was steel on the blade. He goes to question Keller but finds the man dead in his car. The death looks like he was strangled. He sees footprints on the floor of the car. The shoe looks like a high heal. Nick questions Lou the next day. She tells him she was with him and with friends, and with Keller, and drove around with him for a while. He knows she is concealing something. Lou tells Nick she knows about him looking around in Keller’s toolbox.

            Another guy goes to see the doctor. The doctor has Lou walk out. The guy is not really hurt he gets up and takes planes out of his pocket. The doctor locks the door and takes a picture of the plans. Lou goes to Nick. He tells her to keep an eye on the doctor. Nick gets the guy who stole the plans and takes him to the police. The police find the picture negatives in the guy’s bandages.

            Nick makes it impossible for the doctor to get out. The doctor was one step ahead of Nick by having someone take Lou hostage. Nick has to choose between taking the doctor to prison and saving Lou.

            And since you are the ever so smart movie watcher I am sure you know that Nick manages to get the girl.

            Nick Carter Master Detective was a good mystery. I liked Walter Pidgeon as the title detective. Pidgeon is not the smooth Nick Charles played by William Powell or Perry Mason played by Warner William and that was a nice change. He is what I would picture a not hardened/not charming and goofy detective would be like. I liked seeing him in a trench coat and a fedora solving crimes. Rita Johnson was good but she was no Nora Charles or Garda Sloane. Nick Carter Master Detective is enjoyable and clever. I watched the film through TCM some time ago. It is available on DVD in a set of other Nick Carter films. If the film airs on TCM again get it a try, especially if you like detective/mystery films.

 

Cry 'Havoc' (1943)

“They say after you've been in the army for a while you can do anything a horse does.”

            I have written about films that take place during World War II quite a few times. Films during this time were all about boosting morale and American propaganda. I always like seeing films where women have an active role in the war effort because American women at this time did have an active role. They were not allowed to actually fight but they were allowed to join auxiliary groups of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. They were allowed to join the Red Cross as nurses and aides. They were brought to war zones as nurses to help doctors care for the wounded. Before this time women in America never had such freedom and importance. Many of the films showing women contributing to the war effort was a love story more than it focused on empowered women. Cry ‘Havoc’ from 1943 is a little different. MGM tried to insert a love triangle if it can be called that but it genuinely focused on nurse in the Pacific Theater struggling not only to do their job but to survive.

            Smith (Margaret Sullivan) and Marsh (Fay Bainter) are overworked in an army hospital. Smith is sick but does not want to go home she wants to stay and help. She tells Marsh the next time she has an attack she will leave.            

            Pat (Ann Sothern), Grace (Joan Blondell), and some other nurses get stuck pushing a truck they were riding in breaks down. They learn they will be getting their orders from Lt. Smith even though they are volunteers. They have all come from Manila where they escaped before the Japanese invaded. Smith asks the girls their names and their skills. Pat worked as a dancer, soda jerk, and a waitress, Grace was a burlesque dancer, and all the other girls have no skills useful to what they will be assigned. Pat is not thrilled about getting orders from a woman. She likes one of the male soldiers a Lt. Tim Holt but so does Smith who has been on the island longer. That night they hear the air raid siren and bombs dropping. One of the girls, Sue, went out for a walk before hand everyone especially her sister is worried about her. Their bunk starts shaking and dirt starts falling. Marsh calls to say the hospital was hit and they are all needed to help. Grace has a hard time especially after she talked to a poor soldier who was dying.

            After the bombs have fallen and the girls return to their bunk Andrea goes looking for her sister. Constance has a melt down everything is too much for her. Pat cannot handle Constance crying and complaining and freaks out a bit herself.  Constance later apologizes to Pat and they talk. She does not think any one of them will make it home.

            Sue is found she was buried for four days with half a dozen dead bodies. When Sue comes back the whole bunk is quiet. Grace tries to distract everyone she explains her strip tease number. Then they all hear Sue scream out in fear.

            Supplies and food are running low. Three ships were supposed to be on their way but they were hit and sunk. The area is bombed again and the hospital is hit again as well. A man dies in Constance’s arms and Grace gets a piece of shrapnel in her leg and Smith pulls it out. Smith is upset with Grace for not taking cover properly. Grace yells at her about liking Lt. Holt and how Pat has been seeing him. Lt. Holt calls Smith with the news that a lot of the hospital staff have been killed and supplies are no longer coming in. The Japanese have the island surrounded. Since they are all volunteers they can leave for safety at Corregidor. Constance says she is staying. All the women decide to stay.

            As Constance and two other were out swimming an enemy plane comes and starts shooting. Constance is shot and killed. They find out the plane was on its way from fighting and saw them and just fired. Pat finds out from Holt what the Japanese were planning to do. She says they all have no chance.

            Smith gets another attack. She does not want one of the women to call Marsh she wants to stay as long as Holt is there. She lets the woman know that Holt is her husband and that she has malignant malaria which Holt does not know.

            Orders are given to evacuate. Pat is told Lt. Holt was killed fighting. Smith comes in and she told what happened to Holt. She goes into his empty office one last time. The guns go quiet. The silence drives Grace crazy. She feels like she should be doing something sp she starts to pack. Pat is told Holt was Smith’s husband and how Smith has malaria. Pat realizes that Holt was a good man he never once made a move on her.

            Gun fire begins again and tanks in the distance. They are all surrounded. They all forced to surrender to the Japanese.

            The entire cast was great. I loved Ann Sothern and Joan Blondell. They were feisty and tough. I would have died to see them star in a comedy film together. Sothern could have been like Maisie Ravier and Blondell could have been like her feisty Pre-Code characters. They could have made a great film together. Margaret Sullivan was wonderful. I have only seen her in one film before this and I liked her just as much as the first film. Fay Bainter is not in the film very much but her character is very good. Robert Mitchum has a very, very small part in this. He is soldier that dies in Ella Raines’ arms.

            I really enjoyed Cry ‘Havoc’. I thought it was interesting to see all these different women from all different walks of life come together under the same call to help their country. This is what really happened women from all over America from all walks of life either rich, middle class, or poor came together to help win the war. I liked Cry ‘Havoc’ because it was not a happy ending there was no soldier coming home to his new wife or new love (There was unfortunately a bit of a love triangle it is poor and not thought out at all but it does not get in the way of the main story). This was not a romanticized glorified film of what war is. Women like the women in this film went through these horrible trying conditions. Cry ‘Havoc’ is a great film. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It made me appreciate what women sacrificed to pitch in to win the war.