Risky Business

Well, that was pretty boring.

George Murphy (Dan) is a radio announcer who gets obsessed with solving the case of a kidnapped woman and spends the film liaising with the underworld to secure her release.

The film has zero energy in terms of action and Murphy spends the whole film delivering monotone dialogue which saps the energy levels even further. We also spend a ludicrous amount of time at the beginning of the film with people endlessly saying hello to Murphy. There are way too many characters thrown at us. Receptionist Dorothea (Kent Dexter) provides the love interest for Murphy but he plays the film detached from her and her advances and is quite horrible to her.

Gangster Eduardo Ciannelli (Decarno) gets the best line of dialogue when he says "If it weren't for murder and famine, we'd have a far worse population problem". Yeah, he's right.

I asked my wife what mark she would rate this film and her response was "yawn". I agree with her.

...instead it is George Murphy who is the star - and not a dance step does he do. Instead he plays it all straight. He is a Hollywood gossip announcer for a broadcasting station and gets involved in a kidnapping which he uses as substance for his broadcasts. He also places himself in jeopardy by trying to solve the crime himself.

Sometimes it is all a bit much when we are asked to swallow stories such as these, but, like sheep we go along with it because we find it entertaining. Apart from Mr. Murphy's heroics we get a bevy of character actors such as Leon Ames who became rather avuncular later on in films, but in this is cast as a sophisticated gangster; El Brendel who parades around with a mop and a bucket, thankfully not too often and Charles Trowbridge as the father of the missing girl. Eduardo Ciannelli in a small role gives full vent to playing an arch villain. Dorothea Kent is the attractive female lead. She is Murphy's secretary and her dialogue makes it overt that she is in love with him - however he is cold to her.

The ending is a little unexpected, but I won't say how or why - you'll have to see for yourself.

Broadcasting stations must have had a lot of money in the old days. I was fascinated to see that there was an ensemble of musicians in the studio with Murphy to play him in and out - live - no gramophone records. They were also able to employ a boy to open and close doors.

A relatively good crime thriller and it doesn't outstay it's welcome either at 65 minutes.

Risky Business (1939) is a reasonably well-crafted crime fiction from Universal, directed by Arthur Lubin. It stars George Murphy and Dorothea Kent. Murphy, the only person in the cast who would qualify as a major star at the time (and even he wasn't all that major), is convincing as a radio journalist who, jaded by years of writing harsh film reviews, decides to make the rescue of a kidnapped heiress the cause of his career. He is aided by his secretary "Dexter" (Dorothea Kent) who loves him, though he himself feels only friendly camaraderie toward her. The main villains in the piece are Leon Ames and Eduardo Ciannelli. Ciannelli, in his few scenes, manages to steal the show. This would not be hard in a film populated exclusively by character actors (other than Murphy), but Ciannelli is malignantly villainous. After Murphy and perhaps Kent, he is the most impressive actor in the film.

Despite the lack of A-list stars, the film moves along quite nicely for its 67 minutes, carried by a decent plot, adequate dialogue, reasonably good performances by the supporting cast, and a strong performance by George Murphy. I see that it currently has a rating of 7.4 on IMDb; this, I think, is slightly higher than warranted for this "B" crime drama, but it definitely rates a 7, maybe even a 7.2.

I don't think the film has ever been available on VHS or DVD. Perhaps it occasionally shows up on late-night television. At least one ebay merchant has DVD-Rs of the film. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys crime dramas, not as a "must-see" (from the same year, a "must see" is The Roaring Twenties), but definitely as "worth seeing."