Night Spot

This is a zippy little comedy-mystery as Joan Woodbury honestly alibis nightclub owner Bradley Page and the police, in the person of Alan Lane, try to break her story. The cast includes Jack Carson in an early sizable role and Cecil Kellaway. It is headlined by Parkyakarkus, a popular dialect comedian of the era. The movie moves along at a good clip. Only Joan Woodbury is less than excellent, and she's pretty bad.

Longtime director Christy Cabanne, usually held to be the least of D.W. Griffith's disciples was near the end of his string of good B movies for major studios at this point. Shortly he would retreat into westerns and cheap independent productions like the 'Scattergood Baines' series, but here, given a bit of a budget, he shows us a good short feature with lots of classical camera movement.

Maybe it requires an open mind, about the performers here and about B movies generally, but I thoroughly enjoyed "Night Spot," plus I thoroughly admire it.

For reasons I do not know, Allan Lane seems to get a bad rap, usually. His funeral, for example, was very sparsely attended. I'm guessing that was not because of his acting. In this non-Western, he was likable and believable. Maybe more, in fact than in his Westerns roles.

He plays a musician who becomes a police officer and who gets assigned, despite being a rookie, to an undercover role at a night club, the theme at TCM on 25 January 2023.

Some call her "the Queen of the Bs," but she had the looks and, more important, the talent to have been a star of the As. She's been one of my favorites since I first saw her: Joan Woodbury seemed to be able to play almost any female role.

Here, the story has her character, Marge Dexter, wanting to escape from her humdrum daily life in an insurance office and becoming a night club singer. Marge arrives at the club just in time to be mistaken for an ex-con the club owners were expecting so she gets hired immediately.

Even the villains show some personality in "Night Spot," and all the players are believable, even Parkyakarkus, who is not too silly -- in fact, his low-key approach to this role was just right.

Lee Patrick had a smaller role, but a strong one, and the directing and photography all added more layers of quality.

With no hesitation, I urge you to surprise yourself and give a look at "Night Spot."

This shortie from RKO opens with Marge Dexter (Joan Woodbury) looking for work in a nightclub. Of course, there is a mixup, and she gets "mixed up" in the shenanigans going on with the employees that work there. Jack Carson is in here in a minor role. And Harry Parke aka Parkyakarkus is in here with his comedic word-fumbles and switcheroos. "Boss, everything is under patrol!" Parke is Marge's bodyguard, trying to protect her until she can testify. The whole thing is one big vaudeville bit, with long pauses, one liners, and sight gags. Allan Lane and Gordon Jones are musicians in the nightclub, observing and trying to cozy up to Marge. Pretty good entertainment, if a little cheesy, jam-packed into one hour. Directed by Christy Cabanne, who sure fit a lot of showbiz into his short life. As actor, writer, director, and other miscellaneous crew, he started in the biz in 1911 -- he must have been there almost right from the beginning.

During the 1930s and 40s, the double-feature was very common in movie theaters...so much so that an industry making these second features sprang up...both within the major studios as well as the tiny so-called 'Poverty Row' studios who only made these films. The term B-movie was coined to indicate that this was the B or lesser features, though this didn't necessarily mean that the films were bad...though that is more or less the connotation today.

In the case of "Night Spot", it's a B-movie made by one of the major studios, albeit a second-tier major. RKO did a good job with this one...managing to cram a lot of story into one hour as well as making a pretty watchable film.

A local nightclub is apparently being used as a cover by mobsters. So the police arrange to have two musicians go to work there and the men are actually cops. Their job includes not only keeping an eye out for irregularities but also investigating Miss Dexter. She's an alibi for the mob boss....and the police aren't sure if she's lying for him or not. Can the cops manage to get the goods on these evil doers? And, is Miss Dexter among them?

The story is told well...and quite economically since it's a B. While it has many of the usual story lines and conventions, it manages to do them very well and it's quite entertaining as well.

Marge Dexter tries for something more and goes to the Royal Beach Club to audition to be a singer. There is a mistake and she's brought to gangster owner Marty Davis' office. She witnesses his shooting. He's only wounded but the police arrives to arrest him for the shooter's murder some time later. They don't believe his minions but Marge's alibi proves his innocence. A grateful Marty gives her a singing job and Gashouse (Parkyakarkus) as her bodyguard. The police sends in two policemen to work undercover in the band.

This is RKO pictures. I don't recognize any of the actors but they do fine enough. This seems to be trying for comedy but it's better as a darker crime drama. I don't find the comedic writing or the performers that funny. Some of them are hamming it up to no effect. Parkyakarkus especially is hamming it all the way up, yes that's his stage name. It's an awkward mix of ill-fitting ingredients.