Did you people see the same film I saw?

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This comedy-mystery has a goodly amount of energy. Mantan Moreland offers his befuddled comedy, Marjorie Reynolds sings two songs surprisingly well (for those of us who remember her more for suffering the revolting developments on THE LIFE OF RILEY) and everyone on hand does a good job, given the constrained budgets that Monogram Studios offered for their B movies.Given that it's Frankie Darro in the lead, though, the movie doesn't turn out well. He's an annoying smart aleck who drags Mr. Moreland into all sorts of unwanted danger and inveigles him into a comedy act in which they engage in cross-talk -- with Mr. Darro in blackface for a radio performance. In 1940 this made an acceptable second feature. Today, its time has passed long ago.

One movie genre that a normal person might think off-limits to Poverty Row is the musical (because of the extra expense involved with orchestras and singers, not to mention songs and copyright clearances). Yet quite a few musicals made their appearance from time to time along the Row. For this one, Monogram has ingeniously combined the songs and musical capers with a typical murder mystery. And who solves these radio killings that have stumped the keenest minds of the Los Angeles Police (Hollywood Division)? Why none other than dapper, personably brash Frankie Darro and his delightfully hesitant, broom-wielding sidekick, Mantan Moreland (soon to enrich the Charlie Chan series with his smile-a-minute, banjo-eyed presence). Further enjoyment is provided by that really lovely girl, Marjorie Reynolds, as the one-step-into-fame heroine. Her voice is a real treat too. The support players do everything that's expected of them and Mr Bretherton's direction definitely rates a cut or two above the average.

Here is yet another example of the Monogram product. Frankie Darro, Mantan Moreland and Marjorie Reynolds are top-starred in this modest yet enjoyable programmer centered around the murder of an obnoxious radio singer. The songs are pleasant enough and the mystery diverting. Modern viewers may cringe at a routine which puts Darro in blackface opposite Moreland in a sketch Moreland performed with another actor in the past. It is funny though, and the whole production runs 61 minutes and passes the time pleasantly enough. This came on one of those Mill Creek compilation sets and the quality is pretty good for a public-domain picture.

The morning after watching this, my wife and I sat at the kitchen table discussing it, and found we had nothing to talk about but Mantan Moreland. The plot is pretty much a series of contrivances to hang situations on, and the inevitable solution of the "who killed..." mystery doesn't seem to be the driving force. It's all about Mantan. I have seen him as comedy relief in a dozen movies, and he always steals every scene he is in, but I have never seen him dominate like this. He makes everyone else into his straight man, and constantly subverts and deflates authority figures. Every time someone says "I've got an idea," or "I've been thinking," he's on the spot with his "UH-OH!" There is nothing cowardly (as it often appears in his Charlie Chan roles) about his fierce common- sense determination to move away from trouble, not toward it. He sometimes seems like the only one who is not dangerously foolish. Mantan and Frankie Darro work together really well here and, though modern sensibilities may be jarred by Darro donning blackface to try to get them a radio job as a comedy duo, they come across as peers and friends, not boss and lackey as so often occurs in films of this era. The highest point is Mantan's dance scene - inserted into the story for no reason but its sheer entertainment value - in which he is so suave, smooth, cool, cute, and downright huggable it's difficult not to exclaim in delight. The movie plugs along gamely in the moments when Mantan is not on screen, and provides some pretty fair musical numbers, but he is the real shining light in this production.