Roadhouse Nights

How did Helen Morgan, who gave a remarkable, searing performance as Kitty Darling in the 1929 film Applause, a film most consider to be one of the great early talkies, follow that masterpiece up. It would be hard to top Applause to be sure, but Roadhouse Nights, which is at best only an average B movie, makes it seem even worse than it really is if you area fan of Helen Morgan as I am.

The bad news for Helen fans is that there is so little of Helen on film that we will even take a mediocre vehicle such as Roadhouse Nights rather than have nothing at all. Personally, I wish she had chosen her material a little better.

Roadhouse not a total waste of time. Helen sings one dynamite song and she briefly displays a rare potential as a comedienne. She does rise above the material. Perhaps comedy was something she should have looked into a bit more.

What's really interesting is that it feels as though a lot of the scenes were filmed in one or two takes as the actors, including Helen, flub lines more than once. It's like you're watching a rehearsal for a play.

Also on hand are Charlie Ruggles who I had never seen before and he does the comic drunk bit pretty well. Jimmy Durante is rather annoying and hadn't learned to act for film yet. He's way way over the top as if he were still on a vaudeville stage.

Overall, the film gets better as it races to its 68 minute conclusion so don't give up in the first half hour. But unless you are a die-hard Morgan, Durante or Ruggles fan, there is little reason to tune in. That is painful for me to say. I want more people to know who Helen Morgan is. If you have never seen her before, please don't start here. Start with Applause... and then there is Showboat. Her first and last... perfect bookends to an all too short acting career on film... and life.

Helen Morgan stars here as Lola, a roadhouse singer who gets involved with her boss Sam (Fred Kohler) who is a gangster. He's a bootlegger and possibly the murderer of a nosy reporter (Joe King). On the trail of the missing reporter is Willie (Charlie Ruggles), a reporter who was once Lola's childhood sweetie back home. Willie pretends to be a barfly while he gathers information. He and Lola team up.

Against this dramatic action, there is a comedy act. It's the famous Clayton, Jackson & Durante headed up by none other than Jimmy Durante.

When Lola and Willie try to escape, they are trailed by Sam. A flat tire ends the escape attempt. Willie pretends to be drunk again and makes a phone call to his city editor. While appearing to be drunk he actually uses his ring to tap a coded messages to the newspaper.

This early talkie is notable for several reasons. Star Helen Morgan sings "It Can't Go on Like This" twice in her follow up to the sensational APPLAUSE (1929). This is her last starring role in a film.

This film was written by Ben Hecht, based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett. And this is the only film appearance of Durante (his film debut) and his partners, a comedy team that starred in vaudeville. Durante would go solo soon after this film.

The film captures the seedy roadhouse atmosphere quite well.

After I watched this film, I read the IMDB page for it. I was shocked to see that Helen Morgan was only 30 when she made the movie, as I thought she was about 50! This is likely because Morgan was an alcoholic and ultimately died when she was 41...a very sad loss.

In the film, the heavy drinker is Willie (Charlie Ruggles). He's a newspaper reporter who spends most of his time frequenting various speakeasies. Despite this, he's an honest guy and excellent reporter.

In this story, Willie meets up with an old sweetie, Lola (Morgan) and she's working in a place owned by a mobster, Sam Horner. Willie spends much of the movie trying to get Lola to leave this job as she doesn't realize just how evil Sam is. But she does know enough to be afraid of the man...and what he'll do if she skidaddles.

In addition to Morgan and Ruggles, Jimmy Durante appears in this, his first film. He's fun...as you'd expect for Durante...but the interesting story seems to be what I remember most from the movie. An interesting and tough film.

This movie was originally based on Dashiell Hammett's first book Red Harvest. However, multiple re-writes have led it to be nothing like the hard-boiled detective novel. I have read Red Harvest and thought I'd see how close this movie came. Aside from having bootleggers, coppers, and a female leading character, nothing is the same. I can't even be sure which movie character is supposed to represent which character in the book.

Even accounting for the movie's age, I did not find it that entertaining, although Jimmu Durante's first movie appearance was interesting and well done. For those under the age of 60, Jimmy Durante was a vaudeville and later movie comedian famous for his large nose.

His editor is trying to track down Joe King, out investigating a big shipment of booze coming in over Lake Michigan. He doesn't know that King has been killed by Fred Kohler, who runs a local road house, has killed the local chief of police and taken over the town, so he sends Charles Ruggles to find out what's going on. What Ruggles discovers is that his old girlfriend from Kenosha, Helen Morgan, is singing at Kohler's roadhouse, and they get on together like a house on fire, while Kohler grows steadily more suspicious.

If you're looking for a movie based on Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, this isn't it, despite the credits. Screenwriter and former Chicago newsman Ben Hecht has crafted an entirely new story, and it's a pretty good one at that, even if the pacing is a tad slow. Besides hearing Miss Morgan sing a blues number, you also get to see Clayton, Jackson & Durante doing a couple of their chaotic numbers.