Witness Chair, The (1936)

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Inverted twist!
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US / 64 minutes / bw / RKO Dir: George Nicholls Jr Scr: Rian James, Gertrude Purcell Story: Rita Weiman Cine: Robert de Grasse Cast: Ann Harding, Walter Abel, Douglass Dumbrille, Frances Sage, Moroni Olsen, Margaret Hamilton, Maxine Jennings, William Benedict, Paul Harvey, Murray Kinnell, Charles Arnt, Frank Jenks, Hilda Vaughn, Barlowe Borland, Fred Kelsey, Edward LeSaint.

There’s no way to discuss this very interesting B-movie intelligently without committing a major spoiler, so, if you’re one of those for whom spoilers are anathema, stop reading now.

Do be aware, though, that knowledge of the plot isn’t going to undermine your enjoyment of the movie in any way. While The Witness Chair is presented to us as a murder mystery/courtroom drama, in a sense it doesn’t really fit the bill as either. The movie has sufficient riches

Rogues Gallery (1944)

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The sassy crime reporter, her sidekick photographer
. . . and murder! Have we been here before?
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vt Here We Go Again
US / 57 minutes / bw / American Productions, PRC Dir: Albert Herman Pr: Donald C. McKean, Albert Herman Scr: John T. Neville Cine: Ira Morgan Cast: Frank Jenks, Robin Raymond, H.B. Warner, Ray Walker, Davison Clark, Bob Homans, Frank McGlynn, Pat Gleason, Edward Keane, Earle Dewey, Milton Kibbee, Gene Stutenoth, George Kirby, Norval Mitchell, John Valentine, Jack Raymond, Parker Gee.

One of the countless comedy mysteries that were churned out as B-movies in the 1930s and 1940s, this features a familiar pair of protagonists: the smartass reporter and her photographer sidekick.

Reporter Patsy Clark (Robin Raymond) and photographer Eddie Jones (Jenks)—not Eddie Parker, as sometimes listed—work for the Daily Express. Just to avoid confusion, this isn’t the London Daily Express but a newspaper—a newspaper seemingly somewhere in California, presumably not too far from the PRC lot. Their editor, Gentry (Keane), sends them out to cover the story of a new invention devised by one Professor Reynolds (Warner) under the auspices of the Emerson Foundation, whose head is John Foster (Clark). Even though Foster’s nephew Jimmie (Walker) is a journalist, Foster and his companions on the Emerson Foundation board don’t much hold with the breed, and so Foster’s butler Duckworth (Kirby) throws Patsy and Eddie out on their ears when they try to get in for an interview.

Patsy (Robin Raymond) and Eddie (Frank Jenks) try to put a bold face on their latest failure. That thing on Patsy’s head is a hat, and it’s apparently glued there.

Their next attempt is to go to the Emerson Foundation labs hoping to

Mr. Reckless (1948)

US / 67 minutes / bw / Medallion, Pine–Thomas Dir: Frank McDonald Scr: Maxwell Shane, Milton Raison Cine: Ellis W. Carter Cast: William Eythe, Barbara Britton, Walter Catlett, Minna Gombel (i.e., Minna Gombell), Lloyd Corrigan, Nestor Paiva, Frank Jenks, Ian MacDonald, James Millican.

Oilman Jeff Lundy (Eythe) returns to LA from two years drilling in Louisiana to discover that his good buddy, restaurateur Gus Patrokios (Paiva), is engaged to Jeff’s old flame Betty Denton (Britton), even though Betty’s only half Gus’s age. Aside from being miffed, Jeff assumes Betty’s motives must be entirely mercenary; she has, after all, a scapegrace father, Hugo (Corrigan), whose bad habits are expensive.

The principals go to a new oil development in the desert, where Jeff and Hugo work on the rigs with Jeff’s old pal Pete (Millican) while Gus sells meals to the oilmen. Hugo’s gambling gets him heavily in debt to oilfield bully Jim Halsey (MacDonald); a few hours before Betty’s and Gus’s wedding, Halsey locks Hugo into an empty oil tank to “think things over.” In a fight with Halsey, Gus breaks his hip. Jeff rescues Hugo just in time, as oil flows into the tank. The wedding’s delayed until Gus recovers from his injuries; in the meanwhile Jeff and Betty realize they’re still as much in love as ever, but agree Betty can’t jilt Gus. But then Jeff’s crippled by a vengeful Halsey . . .

Climbing the rig . . . to doom?

Gombel/Gombell plays the feisty landlady of the boarding house in which the principals lodge. Catlett, as her ne’er-do-well husband Joel, combines with Corrigan for a late example of one of those dreary “comic interludes” that marred so many Hollywood movies of the ’30s. Otherwise, the movie’s quite worth watching, and the scenes as the good guys rush to free Hugo from the oil tank are genuinely exciting. Mr. Reckless shares some ingredients with The POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946), but here the principals—Halsey of course excepted—all have their hearts in the right place; and, although the circumstances lead inevitably to tragedy, some sort of happy ending emerges from it.

On Amazon.com: Mr. Reckless