bkoganbing
I make a point of watching films with Veda Ann Borg. She's usually the highlight of any film she's in and she did a whole lot of B films in her career and they needed her. But for some reason she's very subdued as an insurance agent. Had she been her usual self she might gotten a notch or two more in ratings for this very tired comedy/mystery.I don't think that Jack Haley could do much with this character, he's as dumb as a post except for chess. He's a chess reporter for a local paper, but they don't have that much call for coverage of chess matches in those days before Bobby Fischer. So after this doofus has missed yet another good story his editor Roger Pryor sends him out to cover a beauty contest in another city.But another beauty played by Ann Savage distracts him and Haley buys a ticket to the wrong destination. A murder occurs on the Greyhound bus he was traveling on and all the passengers have to spend the night at a spooky tavern run by brothers, both played by Lucien Littlefield who comes off best in the mess.The story involves a valuable bejeweled chess set, an escaped killer from the penitentiary played by Barton MacLane, his goofy drunken sidekick George E. Stone and how they're all connected. Someone murders to get the chess set.I do like Jack Haley, but there was nothing he could have done to make his character appealing rather than annoying. The whole movie fails because of it.
dougdoepke
A meek and mild chess reporter (!) gets involved in a mystery surrounding a valuable stolen chess set and murder aboard a train.In the Land of Oz, Jack Haley's a great Tin Man; in the land of screen detectives, he's a bust. His Larry Elliot is neither funny nor attention-getting. Instead, Elliot is basically feckless and in a dull, unamusing way. I don't know what the screenwriters were aiming for, but whatever, it didn't come off. The result is even odder since Mainwaring and Shane were two of the best scripters in the business. The mystery part too, sort of comes and goes, before collapsing into a badly staged climax. Then too, where does the title come from since there is no scary part.The one compensation is catching Detour's (1945) hard-case Ann Savage doing a 180, playing instead a sweetly supportive leading lady. Wouldn't have believed it without seeing it. And what's the deal with Barton MacLane as the tough desperado. He's wasted in what looks like a tacked-on role, maybe to boost marquee appeal. Too bad.Anyway, this is one of the least engaging of the amateur detective genre of which there were many at the time. In fact, the whole thing appears tacked together in a hurry-up editing room.
dbborroughs
The plot of this movie has a forgetful chess editor going off to cover a grape festival. His uncle, who runs the paper, hopes this will turn him into a normal reporter (When he covered the funeral of the mayor he failed to mention a woman's suicide over the grave, nor does he mention the riot that occurred at the chess match he was covering when he was called away for the grape festival assignment.) In typical fashion he takes the wrong bus to the wrong place and ends up mixed up in with a gang of wanted killers.This was the first time I had ever knowingly watched a Jack Haley movie other than the Wizard of Oz. While I thought his performance was good I absolutely hated his character. No one could be that stupid and so unaware of what was going on around him. He's the type of person that you could set on fire and he'd pay it no mind. Its completely unbelievable. It ruins what should otherwise be an excellent little film that has a good B cast, some chills and thrills.If you're curious you could try it, perhaps Haley's character won't run you the wrong way, as for me this goes into the no need to repeat pile.
boblipton
Overwrought comedy-mystery suffers from unlikeable characters, poorly-paced script. The actors try hard, but between the bratty kid, the scatter-witted hero and the shrill heroine, even veteran character actor Lucien Littlefield (as identical twins who hate each other for unspecified reasons -- probably for signing the contract to be in this picture), the picture does not wear well.
AD
