Greenster

This great film also deserves a Musical Review if that's all right with Tom Jones....

Early one morning, Miss Bea labors bathing her daughter / Jessie the Baby must go off to day nursery / Bea was a widow / Peddling her syrup to purchase her daughter fine things.

There at the door of the kitchen knocks a poor mother / Willing to work menial task to provide room and board / For her young daughter / Light like her father who took off to run his own way.

Please, don't sigh, Delilah / Fry, fry, fry, Delilah / She would watch Jessie all day / Content to do much with slight pay / And cook up some pancakes to send Bea along on her way.

Five years soon pass, and the bills are paid up at the restaurant / Rain on the boardwalk keeps customers staying away / Enter poor Elmer / For two stacks of pancakes, he'll gladly soon make it all pay.

Meanwhile, Peola is passing for White in the third grade / Storm's coming down, and she'll soak without boots and her coat / Here comes Delilah / Claiming Peola, and giving her cover away.

Cry, cry, cry, Peola / Why, why, why, Peola? / Your mother is not to blame / For there really is nothing to shame / She is your mother, but you hate her deeply the same.

Ten more years pass, and Miss Bea throws an orchestra party / Money pours in, and they really receive their just fee / In walks Steven Archer / A promising suitor fantastically smitten with Bea.

Peola is missing from school somewhere down in Virginia / Bea then tells Steven she must soon assist in the search / But there is Jessie / Who complicates matters and leaves Steven deep in the lurch.

My, my, my, the turmoil! / Why, why, why, the turmoil? / Heartbreak, frustration and strife / Yield a true "Imitiation of Life" / Forgive them, Delilah; they just couldn't take anymore. / Forgive them, Miss Beatrice; they just couldn't take anymore.

In the first of their three co-starring vehicles, Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda shine in character clashing along with many illustrious supporting players in this Golden Era madcap Murder Mystery Comedy.

"The Mad Miss Manton" (RKO, 1938) follows the saga of wealthy débutante Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) and Hilda (Hattie McDaniel), her efficient housekeeper.

Add to the program seven débutantes abiding in the lap of luxury, and supporting their comrade in society: Helen Frayne (Frances Mercer) Pat James (Whitney Bourne) Myra Frost (Linda Perry) Kit Beverly (Vickie Lester) Jane (Eleanor Hansen) Dora Fenton (Catherine O'Quinn) Lee Wilson (Ann Evers).

Peter Ames (Henry Fonda), an ambitious newspaper reporter, Lieutenant Brent (Sam Levene) and Officer Sullivan (James Burke), who are all summoned to investigate the murder of a wealthy business leader, whose body unaccountably disappears, while another mysteriously surfaces.

When Peter and Lieutenant Brent charge Miss Manton and her ilk of lovely Park Avenue débutantes with attempting to pull a prank, Melsa decides to take matters into her own very capable hands, with help from her associates, who, if you read between the lines, may be considered to exhibit characteristics of the Seven Capital Vices.

Although these are not quite developed during its 108-minute screen story, traces of Avarice, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Sloth and Wrath are detectable among the fashionable set of peers.

One often expresses her anger toward the behavior of the establishment. One constantly searches for snacks. One devotes her attention to the gentlemen in her sight. Another sort of lies around without much to do, as others bathe in wealth and pride of their collective station in life, and so forth and so on.

Suspects for the film's central crime display effective performances in well-cast roles, most bringing familiarity to the screen: Bat Regan (Paul Guilfoyle) Sheila Lane (Leona Maricle) Ronnie Beldon (William Corson) Edward Norris (Stanley Ridges) Frances Glesk (Penny Singleton) Mr. Fred Thomas (Miles Mander) and Gloria Hamilton (Kay Sutton).

Rounding out "The Mad Miss Manton" cast includes some familiar faces, each bringing a special quality to an all-too-brief scene along the way: John Qualen as the Subway Watchman Robert Middlemass as the District Attorney Grady Sutton as the D.A.'s Secretary Olin Howland as Mr. X Charles Halton as Popsy, Melsa's Lawyer Vinton Haworth as Peter's Secretary Irving Bacon as Mr. Spengler, the Process Server Bess Flowers as a Charity Ball Guest and Gerald Pierce as the Newsboy.

Quick-witted, fast-talking, wise-cracking and often penniless, Miss Mary Anastasia O'Connor undauntedly takes her nightclub act on the road--usually the very long road--persevering, and performing by the stage name of Maisie Ravier.

Chapter Two of the resulting ten-film series bearing her name, and recounting her saga, finds her itinerary set in the wilderness of the Congo, hence "Congo Maisie" (MGM 1940).

While much of its cast (including J.M. Kerrigan, E.E. Clive, Everett Brown, Tom Fadden, Lionel Pape and Nathan Curry) appears in its story's periphery, the lion's share of this jungle tale concentrates upon its second leads (Rita Johnson, as Kay McWade, and Shepperd Strudwick, as Doctor John 'Jock' McWade), its leading man (John Carroll, as Doctor Michael Shane) and, especially, its ever-lovely leading lady (Ann Sothern, as Maisie Ravier).

This time around, Maisie books her nightclub act at a remote village up river from a western African port. Again impoverished, she cleverly stows away upon a river barge to attempt to reach her destination but is soon discovered by its renter, Doctor Shane (John Carroll).

Evicted from his quarters, but remaining on board, she pawns trinkets for morsels of breakfast, about which time it is learned that the barge must dock for several days because of rising waters.

Stranded from the raft, Doctor Shane reluctantly "rescues" Maisie, by inviting her to accompany him on a three- or four-mile hike through the uninviting wilderness to the nearby fortified medical research station, which he once managed.

Here, Maisie is welcomed by its current operators, Kay and Doctor John McWade (the pretty Rita Johnson and the kind and gentlemanly Shepperd Strudwick). Miss Johnson is often cast as a "foresaken first wife" or "a possessive and haughty other woman." Here, she combines the types in gentle fashion, forlorn from her station in life, and seeking the advances of a handsome suitor.

And Maisie, with her present bag of resources and presence-of-mind perception to figure the score, suddenly finds herself with her hands full, facing the breaking down of her hosts' marriage, a patient in need of emergency surgery, treacherous weather conditions, an impending attack on the fort by tribal natives, simultaneously, while trying to resolve her feud and feelings for Doctor Shane, before the raft sets sail again.