Caught in the Act

Al Martin, who in 1941 had just written the oddball horror film, THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET, and eventually would write INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, was a journeyman scriptwriter who must have been pretty hard up when he got the gig to write CAUGHT IN THE ACT. A vehicle for forgotten B-movie comic Henry Armetta, the script wants this to be an alleged screwball comedy but is a slow-paced, unfunny mess. Armetta plays a fractured-English Italian immigrant meatball called Mike Ripportella, a construction foreman who winds up a victim of circumstance when a mobster attempts to bring down his boss. Flavorless direction by Jean Yarbrough has the under-rehearsed cast unable to enliven the unfunny mistaken identity scenario and poorly delivered punch lines. There is a cute moment in the penultimate fight scene, in which Mike sprays seltzer water to disable an attacking thug,. Of all the actors caught in this fiasco only Charles Miller, as Mike's boss, displays the dry delivery style required by the script. This film used to be a mainstay on late-night TV and can be found today on YouTube.

Up until the 1950s, Italians in the movies were usually sinister gangsters or buffoons named Tony who sold bananas from pushcarts. This movie raises the buffoon character one level. His name is Mike and he is a competent construction foreman. However, after 15 years working for the same company in the construction trades, he seems never to have heard of crooked contractors, and he's still a talka like-a dis. As the movie opens, Mike has been afraid to ask his boss for the afternoon off to attend his daughter's wedding. The boss calls him in to the office before Mike can ask for time off and promotes him to the exalted position of sales rep for the company. I guess there's more to Mike than we see because you get the impression he'd have trouble keeping the banana pushcart business straight. Now for the "plot": as Mike is driving home, a glamorous blonde jumps into his car at a stoplight and forces him to drive at high speed to the suburbs. Naturally, the blonde is, by some coincidence, the moll of the gangster who is trying to create trouble for Mike's boss who won't buy the gang's porous concrete. Naturally, the police see Mike driving the gangster's girl friend and assume Mike is one of the gang. Naturally, the police arrest Mike and, when he tells them who his boss is, they naturally arrest the boss. When Mike is arrested, his wife assaults the cop, and she is arrested and, naturally, placed in the same cell the blonde is in. That's all the synopsis you'll get as I don't want to be blacklisted for writing spoilers. I only stayed to the end because nobody has ever seen or rated this movie before. My public service gesture for the New Year.

Crooks are putting the squeeze on Charles Miller, but he has a business to run. He gives longtime employee Henry Armetta a promotion and the day off so he can give his daughter away in marriage. But on the way home, Maxine Leslie jumps in his car, sticks her foot on the gas and gets where she's going in a hurry. Then she kisses Armetta on the cheek and jumps out. Cops spot her. Knowing she's in league with the crooks working on Miller, they arrest Armetta, and sweat him a bit. He admits readily he works for Miller, and now both men are in jail.

It's a comedy, of course, and Armetta plays his dumb but earnest Sicilian character to the hilt. Unfortunately, Miller goes to jail happily enough, says nothing, won't see his lawyer, and it's never clear what he's up to. A farce may attempt to be funny, but not with people behaving oddly with no reason.