Strange Affair

"Dangerous Blondes" (1943) was a very good and most agreeable mystery film starring Allyn Joslyn and Evelyn Keyes. So it's not surprising they would return them a year later for a sequel. But here's the odd part....it's NOT a sequel...but it also is! The names are not the same and Joslyn's character is no longer a crime fiction writer but an artist who has a crime comic strip. Why the changes? I have no idea...none. But the feeling and spirit of the films clearly is identical...a sequel! I scored the first film an 8....is "Strange Affair" also that good??

The film, naturally, features a murder and, naturally, the cops are really dumb (particularly the investigator's assistant)...so it takes an amateur to solve the case! This is THE blueprint for this sort of film....and Hollywood might have made 500 or more films like it. In many cases, it's a newspaper reporter (such as Lee Tracy), but it could also be a teach (Edna May Oliver) or any other non-police person who somehow knows more than trained cops!

When the story begins, Bill (Joslyn) meets Mr. Baumler. Oddly, later in a night club, he sees Mr. Baumler again...but it's a different person! Apparently, there is a faux Baumler. But before he can figure out WHY and WHO....the second Baumler dies right there at the table in the club! The police foolishly are quick to assume it's a heart attack that killed him. But Bill, being the know-it-all amateur, assumes he was poisoned...which they soon realize is the case. So what is really going on here and how will Bill and his lady friend (Keyes) get to the bottom of this case?

My feeling is that if you liked the first film, you'll like the second. This is because in both the mystery isn't as important as the interplay between Keyes and Joslyn...which is snappy and funny. Well worth seeing. And the best part...near the end when the dopey cops arrest Keyes. Her reaction is priceless!!

To fully appreciate the brilliant chemistry of Powell and Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, just watch any of the myriad wannabes like this one. They try; some come close; but nobody did it better.

Joslyn and Keyes try almost too hard in a script that's above average for the array of aspirants. It's also fun to see Shemp Howard used so effectively in the early going. Nice try, but easy to see why these characters didn't warrant sequels.

This is the worse representation of women I have seen in a long time. Allyn does a terrible job. It is not funny just stupid. I would not recommend this to anyone.

Allyn Joslyn is fairly insufferable playing a cartoonist who continually annoys the local police while butting into their cases; as his better half, Evelyn Keyes yips and yelps with cartoonish abandon, trying to make something light and cute out of this script. Based on Oscar Saul's story "Stalk the Hunter", four screenwriters (Saul included) manage to turn this comedic murder mystery into a flighty "Thin Man" derivative (the opening sequence typifies the rest: a cute visual followed by outright silliness). Plot has a doctor poisoned at a social gathering, with another doctor the prime suspect. As usual, the law is always three steps behind the snooping marrieds, and the one-liners alternate between amusing and ridiculous. *1/2 from ****

This was not a good attempt at recreating the success of The Thin Man series. Most of the stars from me are for Evelyn Keyes, who did a great job whenever she was on screen. Sadly, when she was not on screen the movie really had nothing going for it. Her physical comedy was great to watch, and she held nothing back in 'selling' her character. The three actors playing police clearly had a hard time holding on to her, when she was beating them senseless at the police station. The movie was short, and otherwise harmless enough, to watch once for one good performance. But then I do like the period movies.