Girl in the Case

Edmund Lowe is a fine defense attorney, but his hobby of collecting and opening locks has driven wife Janis Carter mad to the point of divorce. Lowe agrees to give it up and concentrate on his law practice, but in walks a man with a mysterious chest that needs to be open. This leads to a mysterious chemical formula, a mysterious cabal and a corpse.

This comedy-mystery works for about half its length, but eventually director William Berke decides that not enough amusing things are hapening and goes hog wild. I agree that setting Lowe's top hat on fire is a good idea; there are no snow balls to knock it off. However, when he decides to put on a zoot suit to act as a disguise, he winds up looking like Chester Clute!

I rather enjoyed this quirky and quickly paced wartime thriller. "Warner" (Edmund Lowe) is a renowned lawyer who also dabbles, successfully, in a bit of locksmithery. Indeed, he is regularly called upon by companies and authorities alike to help them out when locks needs "unlocking". His skills are also on the radar of some devious Nazi spies who want to try and trick him into opening a safe in which some secret documents are securely stashed. Can he, and his increasingly involved wife "Myra" (Janis Carter) stay one step of the fifth columnists and, probably for him, not fall down the fire escape, or off the window ledge, or end up in a big chest or in jail with $25,000 of dodgy loot? The production is a bit basic and there's a bit too much dialogue, but when Lowe and Carter are sharing the screen together, there's enough comedy chemistry to raise a smile or two before the predicable denouement. This is typical WWII feel-good fayre, but some effort has gone into the story and the characters and it's certainly at the better end of the genre.

"The Girl in the Case" is a very unusual wartime propaganda film. First, there's VERY little mention of the Axis in this one until the end. Second, the plot is most unusual and I cannot remember seeing a similar story.

This B-movie stars Edmund Lowe as a very strange lawyer. He's strange not because of his profession but his hobby...antique locks and lock picking. Because of this skill, an evil jerk concocts a plan to test the man's lockpicking abilities....and when he realizes he CAN open most anything, he wants the man to open a chest in which a secret formula lies. What's next? See the film.

This is a simple B-movie from Columbia Pictures. However, it's a bit better than usual not just because the story is unusual but because the film never takes itself very seriously. Worth seeing but not exactly a must-see.

By the way, the fight over nylons makes sense in 1944. Due to the war, nylons were nearly impossible to find and many times women just painted their legs to make it appear as if they are wearing nylons.

I actually enjoyed "Girl in the Case" from 1944 and thought it would have made a good series.

Edmund Lowe plays a lock expert who is often called upon to help the police. His wife (Janis Carter) at times becomes involved and usually doesn't help much.

In this situation, someone asks him to open a trunk; inside, he finds some chemical formulations. Suspecting he's working with someone nefarious, he copies them and sends the formulas to Washington.

There is some witty dialogue between the couple - I think they're kind of cute, thanks to the performances - and some slapstick which is quite funny in the end.

It's not Citizen Kane, it's not the Thin Man, but it's pleasant enough.

A William Berke's movie is always worth catching and watching for any one searching for rare stuff, no matter the story.

The perfect example here with this little comedy crime programmer, that you may forget faster than the viewing itself. The tale of a locksmith hired to help the government purchasing some secret documents from a spy ring. Nothing more, I will forget it very fast. I watched it like a cow seeing a train passing by. But I did not expect much more from Billy Berke. I follow all films from him since a while now. Mostly lost stuff. The perfect example of the director with no ambition at all.

For rare stuff searchers, rare movies diggers only.