This July we celebrate a forgotten star of the 40s whose work we enjoyed at the Picture Show 2024: Jane Frazee.
SAMANTHA GLASSER: After a pleasant dinner with friends, Joe Downey (Warren Douglas) makes the unfortunate decision to walk home. On the way he is mistaken for a man named Slats by gangsters and beaten up. He ends up in jail because the police believe he is drunk and disorderly, and their hostility and apathy lead him to search for his assaulter on his own.
RODNEY BOWCOCK: The pacing of the film and the narration kind of remind me of the Columbia Whistler films (which I feel have cropped up in our conversations fairly frequently of late) or maybe even the Universal Inner Sanctum pictures. The narration and the reliance on chance (or “incidents” as the unseen narrator reminds us of a dozen times or more), although I admit that I think Warren Douglas (also in the ’24 Picture Show’s breakout hit Forgotten Women) is likely better in this sort of thing than Chaney or Richard Dix. Douglas, competent but not much more, had a more successful career as a writer where he churned out screenplays for noir goodies like Loophole, Cry Vengeance and Strange Intruder.
SG: I always enjoy a scene at a drug store soda fountain counter, which is where Joe meets Marion. We are lead to believe that Marion (Jane Frazee) might not be all she seems from the beginning, and that ambiguity wasn't a red herring, though her role turned out to be different than I expected. She competently plays her part, keeping our sympathy the whole time. She is street-smart and crafty, and completely unlike the character she played in Rosie the Riveter.
RB: Okay, so also consider me surprised at the range that our Jane exhibits here. I’m increasingly convinced that she’s capable of much more than the studio system allowed her to do. It’s a real shame that she didn’t find more parts in noirish films like this one. She’s so good!
SG: Robert Osterloh is well-cast as Slats, a charismatic but tough-looking character who is ingrained in street life. His ploys to woo Marion seem rehearsed like he has been around the block many times before.
RB: This was the debut film for Osterloh, who is pretty good in a scuzzy kind of role like this (and it’s basically the same type of thing that he did throughout his entire career).
SG: Lynn Millan is a worthy adversary as the romantic rival for Slats' attention.
Joyce Compton is delightful as Joe's friend's wife. Her scenes are few but memorable as she clucks like a mother hen over Joe, both before the incident and after. Her dresses are notable too; those 30s style casual dresses with flutter sleeves and floral prints are back, one of the few throwbacks that stores are peddling that I approve of.
RB: Compton is usually a lot of fun, and while this film comes near the end of her career (she was a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1926), I agree about the quality of her performance. For whatever reason, she did very very little after this film.
SG: Anthony Caruso's intense eyes make him effective as the gang leader Nails.
RB: Everybody is competent in this, which makes it disheartening when you realize that most of them didn’t really do much after this. Such is life, I suppose.
SG: Harrison's Reports wrote, "It is so well directed and acted that one's attention is held nailed all the way through. As a matter of fact, the suspensive qualities of this picture are far better than those of many other melodramas that have been produced at much greater cost."
Showmen's Trade Review was much less generous. "Warren Douglas and Jane Frazee handle their hackneyed situations rather well... Joyce Compton appears a bit old to be the wife of Harry Lauter, who is also miscast as the hero's friend. Lauter lacks conviction. Anthony Caruso is the stereotyped villain, and Robert Osterloh is also the routine villain."
RB: Tough crowd over there at Showmen’s Trade Review! I couldn’t find anything from local exhibitors, which considering it’s a Monogram, really shows that it was regarded as just another movie.
SG: Motion Picture Daily said, “More story substance can be found in this 68 minute melodrama than in most films of like nature running half an hour longer… the result is better entertainment than the billing suggests.”
This low budget film released by Monogram marked the petering out of Frazee's career. She was no longer under contract to Universal and her disinterest in pushing for a bigger career was reflected in the types of films she made. Her work in front of the camera is as good as ever, though.
RB: Jane spent the first few years of the 40’s under contract to Universal where she was signed with a bunch of talent designed to appeal to teenagers where she churned out a seemingly endless amount of low budget musicals (like Sing Another Chorus, which we screened to positive response at the ’24 Picture Show). As near as I can tell, she was released in 1943, where she freelanced for a few years, sometimes for Columbia, once for RKO (in an uncredited role), but mostly for Republic, where she was eventually signed to a one year contract in 1947. The contract was not renewed, and I have no idea if this was on the part of Jane, or Republic. Incident was her first film in a new foray back into freelancing, which eventually involved dozens of TV guest spots and supporting roles, without much of a presence on the silver screen, aside from portraying Alice McDoakes in the Warners “So You Want To…” series throughout the fifties (and she’s good in those too!).
SG: This was an entertaining, if formulaic film. Three stars.
RB: I liked this a little bit better than you did, especially one plot twist that I didn’t see coming at all. Three and a half stars.
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