Man Hunt

This is one of those Young Adult movies that RKO tried out in the middle of the 1930s. Here, instead of Ann Shirley, they use Junior Durkin and Charlotte Henry, under the direction of Irving Cummings, with Dorothy Davenport (as "Mrs. Wallace Reid") as Junior's mother.

A year earlier, Edward Le Saint had stolen half a million dollar's worth of jewels from his employer and fled to the town in which this movie is set, taking his daughter, Charlotte Henry, with him. Now a crooked investigator has shown up. In the meantime, Junior Durkin has been fired from yet another job because he is so busy playing detective. He meets Miss Henry and soon they are trying to figure out what is going on.

Although Miss Henry's performance is good, Durkin's is not that interesting; also the pair of them are rather clueless as to what is going on until the deus-ex-machina denouement. Message: stop daydreaming, kids. Buckle down to your jobs and leave the adults to do the real work.

Caught this on TCM recently, and I'm really think it deserves a higher rating than 4.1. Sure, it's old-fashioned and technically primitive, as most early sound films were, especially low-budget programmers like this one. But the cast is likable and the "Hardy Boys"-type story is entertaining enough. A look back into a much different America, to me it rings truer than some of Mickey Rooney's late thirties efforts. And it all clocks in at just over an hour - easy to take.

Amateur detective William 'Junior' Scott, Jr. And his negro sidekick Abraham Jones struggle to find other kinds of work. His boss is not happy with his work and fires him. Josie and her father are on the run after a big diamond heist. Josie is concerned about Junior's detailed observations about everyone and decides to get close to him.

I don't know much about this movie and I'm a little surprised by the low rating. It's an early talkie from RKO and it starts off alright. I like the premise of this amateur sleuth who happens upon a murder mystery. I like that he's a little clueless but he gets way too clueless. I don't like that he gets angry with Josie and he's doing too many geewhiz. I really don't like that he is so trusting of Wilkie. I want him to be a little behind and looking to solve the case. I don't want him to be a complete idiot and be alone with Wilkie in the middle of the night.

MAN HUNT is a painless and somewhat intriguing little film starring the ill-fated Junior Durkin as a would-be junior detective. Carl Gross is Junior's boy Friday and Charlotte Henry the lady in distress. Most interesting aspect of MAN HUNT is Joe Valentine's photography. Loaded with low camera angles and vertical tracking shots, it adds a fluidity to an otherwise pedestrian rural tale. Mrs. Wallace Reid is low key and quite natural as Junior's mother and former silent director Ed LeSaint has a nice role as the murder victim. It's quite old-fashioned and there's not much trickery involved in the solution to the crime but the winsome personalities of the entire cast make it an enjoyable seven reels.