The Mystery Man

I like Monogram movies - you can generally be sure of two things - (1) the movies will be entertaining and (2) there will be either a silly plot or a plot with big enough holes in it to drive a truck through. And this movie is no exception. Robert Armstrong's Larry Doyle is a cock-sure but good reporter for a Chicago newspaper. The police respect him (indeed, they give him a gun to show their appreciation for his help with a case) but his editor can't stand him. Larry spends his $50 bonus on treating his pals to a night on the town. His editor fires him but Larry goes on celebrating and winds up in St. Louis where he befriends a down and out but spunky young woman, Anne Ogilvie (played by Maxine Doyle). One of my favorite bits in the movie is where Larry secretly pays for the Anne's coffee and donut when she finds out she doesn't have enough money. Larry sees himself as the Anne's protector and because of Larry's moxie, they end up staying in a hotel suite (with two bedrooms). In spite of his former editor's trying to prevent it, Larry eventually gets a job on the St. Louis News. He is soon hot on the trail of the notorious criminal known as "The Eel." The rest of the movie doesn't make much sense but all's well that ends well. Armstrong does a good job but does not do the snappy reporter type as well as Chester Morris or Wally Ford. However, he does such scenes as that at the coffee shop better than they so it all evens out. I had never heard of Maxine Doyle and she did a somewhat surprisingly good job as Anne. A pleasant enough way to spend an hour.

Just bearable, just bearable, that's what I have to say about this amusing and after all fast paced film from the thirties, a feature about which I did not expect anything special. And I was damn right. Plot offering something seen ten million times before but, I repeat, for those of you who crave about such films, you can proceed without problem. Those mystery yarns were galore in this thirties period. This is not a real crime film as I crave for, because you have a good hero for whom you can foresee the ending. You have gangsters, armed robbery yes, but that's not enough for me to qualify it as a crime movie. But it remains a good little B picture.

Following a drunken night out, an ace Chicago reporter loses his job. Arriving in St. Louis penniless, he meets a girl in a similar position and they team up. After a gun he pawned is used in a murder, they have to solve the crime to avoid arrest.

Average crime story with just a touch of humour but really needing a stronger script. However, despite this, Robert Armstrong does the best that he can and gives a decent performance. Maxine Doyle plays the girl.

Newsman Doyle drinks himself out of Chicago job, wakes up on train to St.Louis, and meets penniless girl Ann. Together they get mixed up in murder case involving St. Louis's notorious The Eel. So, will Doyle revive his professional reputation, pay his many debts, and keep Ann out of jail. Stay tuned.

The programmer is about what's expected from cheap-jack Monogram. The sets are bare-boned, the script sloppy, and the direction pedestrian. But as the brashly fast-talking Doyle, Armstrong injects real spunk into the screenplay, maybe too much. No wonder he grappled with the legendary King Kong (1933). To me, however, it's really actress Maxine Doyle who shines. Catch how she goes from withdrawn street urchin to newsman Doyle's aggressive helper, and in convincingly agreeable fashion. Her talent really exceeded the matinee oaters she soon turned to. Anyway, the cast, including the supporting players, come off as much better than the material. Nonetheless, don't go out of your way for it.

It's not annoying or boring, but plot point by plot point it makes little sense. And yet is a fun and breezy little film, so I give it 6/10.

This was made by poverty row stalwart, Monogram and directed by Ray McCarey, younger brother of famed director Leo McCarey. Larry Doyle (Robert Armstrong) is a Chicago reporter who drinks heavily and gambles heavily, always annoying his boss, the city editor. Early on the police department gives Larry an award for cracking criminal cases as part of his job as a crime reporter. And they give him as a gift - a 45 caliber police revolver??? Then Larry resigns from his job and goes to St. Louis in the middle of the Great Depression with no money and no job.(???) There he meets a jobless broke girl, Anne, and although he acts like a total creepster and hits on her, she agrees to - check into an expensive hotel with him posing as his wife and order a large expensive meal for which they cannot pay??? Strangely enough, Larry stops treating Ann like an object as soon as they are alone in a hotel room, registered as man and wife.

Larry thinks he can get and keep a job with a local paper as a crime reporter if he can catch a local serial robber, "the eel". But instead he winds up accused of being the eel with a complicating factor that every time somebody calls his old managing editor and asks him to verify Larry's identity he claims that Larry Doyle is still in Chicago. Complications ensue.

The first half of the film moved quickly enough, but it is all over the map and contains lots of pointless scenes that appear to be filler to get this to feature length. Things pick up in the second half once Larry tries to catch The Eel and is then accused of being him, with Larry needing to catch the actual Eel to keep from being charged with murder. I saw a very good print of this film on youtube that looks like it has been restored with both the audio and video being quite crisp.