Hard Guy

While PRC occasionally made a decent film (such as a few of their films with George Zucco), their output mostly consisted of films that the lesser studios (like Monogram) would have been ashamed to release. The bottom line is that they specialized in a cute-rate product--and it usually showed. So, when I saw "Hard Guy", I wasn't too surprised it was bad--the studio seemed to specialize in bad.

The film is set mostly in a nightclub run by Jack LaRue. LaRue had an up and coming career with MGM, but by 1940 was forced to act in anything--and this fit that bill nicely. As he often did, he played a heavy--a cheep hood hiding in the guise of respectability. His specialty was getting the women in his employ to marry rich men and then get quickie annulments or divorces--splitting the money with him. This was a big problem with the film, as there is no reason for any woman to split the money with LaRue--it just made no sense. Nor did it really make sense for them to give up on their 'sugar baby' so quickly. When one of the women develops a conscience, LaRue kills her and makes it look like her new husband did it! So it's up to a bunch of idiots to somehow unravel the mystery.

The biggest problems with the film involved the acting. Too often, characters were just caricatures--like one-dimensional stereotypes that grated on the nerves. In particular, Goldie and Tex were practically sub-human in their roles and every minute they were in the film was agony--especially at the end (uggh!). In addition to bad acting, the film never makes sense nor do the characters--and it shows that this script was hurriedly thrown together. Cheap, dull and not one bit believable--the film isn't quite bad enough to be enjoyed by bad movie addicts and is probably only good for masochists!

A typically low budget PRC production, this item shot in less than a week maintains a deadly numb level throughout, hampered by a bland script, weak direction, and lacklustre playing that rests upon the border of incompetence despite a quickly moving storyline. As night club entertainer Doris Cavanaugh (Gayle Mollott) is being wooed by, and later marrying, wealthy heir Tony Tremaine (Howard Banks), she is in truth part of a plot developed by her employer and sometime lover Vic Monroe (Jack La Rue) to extort a large sum from young Tremaine's father in return for an annulment to the marriage. Cold-blooded Monroe, a thoroughgoing cad, utilizes his female employees for this racket, but his latest plan is foiled when Doris, having become genuinely fond of Tony, decides to expose the confidence game and to return the money; unfortunately, she is murdered before she can complete her acts of atonement. At this point in the plot, Julie (Mary Healy), younger sister of Doris, becomes the principal figure of the scenario, one determined to discover whomever caused her sibling's death, hiring on as a cigarette girl at Monroe's club wherein she hopes, by working in an undercover capacity to additionally ascertain the secrets behind evil Vic's operation. After a detective, Steve Randall (Kane Richmond) also begins to delve into Monroe's activities, he and the lovely Julie effortlessly fall into love and marriage, as Steve in conjunction with another gumshoe, Tex Cassidy (Jack Mulhall), close in upon their prey, while it quickly becomes apparent that danger nears for all involved. An Alpha DVD offers a decent print, having only mild skipping, in a modest package that provides no extras, and although the script and direction are of scant merit and the cast merely ambles through the trite affair, there is a sprightly turn from brassy Iris Adrian who steals her scenes as a wisecracking confidante of Julie and paramour of detective Cassidy.

Jack LaRue runs a night club, and his side racket is to get his girls married to the sons of millionaires, and then let the fathers buy the girls out. Trouble happens when Gayle Mellott falls in love with her sucker, Howard Banks. So when the check for $50,000 comes through, she reconciles with him and hands him the cash to give to his father. But LaRue doesn't like not getting his cut, so he slips Banks a Mickey Finn, shoots Miss Mellott, takes the cash and leaves the gun in Banks' hand. Enter Miss Mellott's sister, Mary Healy.

It's not a particularly great movie, but it does move along at a good clip under the direction of Elmer Clifton. Iris Adrian offers an amusing performance as 'Goldie'; she should be called 'Brassie', and she's loud, knows what's what and, as usual, makes the most of her role.