The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine

In his landmark tome "B Movies", the normally reserved film historian Don Miller heaps two pages of praise on this small-town comedy-mystery, calling it the apogee of Republic Pictures' output. Unfortunately, it was not a success at the box office, and was cut to a mere 54 minutes for second feature and television distribution under the title "Unforgotten Crime". This is the version in circulation today (if anyone stumbles upon the full version, please inform!) -- obviously, much of the story set-up is missing, causing some of the plot and character motivations to be fuzzy. Nonetheless, it's still a boisterous and clever little programmer, with an infectiously enthusiastic cast of b-movie stalwarts. Much of the pleasure comes from the odd romantic triangle of womanizing (self-) promoter Dennis O'Keefe, the lively but naive teenager (Ruth Terry) who immediately goes gaga over him, and his sophisticated co-worker (Gloria Dickson), who radiates plenty of Eve Ardenish attitude and sarcasm. This was one of noir master John Alton's earliest gigs as cinematographer, and although it's not the most suitable material, he manages to give a striking pulp-magazine-cover aura to the crime scenes. In fact, one scene of mayhem involving a sexy manicurist is quite jarring amid the lighthearted Mayberry-like atmosphere. Director Vorhaus and Alton later teamed up for the more appropriately cynical "Bury Me Dead" and "The Spiritualist".

My review is for the shortened version of this film. Apparently, to fit the movie into a TV time slot, some bozo decided to simply drop two of the reels entirely...none the supposedly wiser! Well, this made the film a bit confusing and I STRONGLY recommend you try to find the full film!

Dennis O'Keefe plays radio personality Mike Jason. As a publicity stunt, he decides to offer a reward to anyone who can uncover where Jimmy Valentine is currently. It seems that long, long ago, Valentine was a master criminal and after his release from prison, he's simply dropped off the face of the Earth. His trail leads to a small town where a lot of folks would just as soon have him drop the matter. But when someone is murdered, Mike realizes that Valentine and his old associates MIGHT be to blame!

This is a very good film...at least what I saw of it. In fact, the ending was terrific and I would expect the film would earn a 7 or even 8 if the beginning wasn't a complete mess. Of course, you cannot blame the filmmakers...it's not their fault some idiots later hacked the film apart. Still worth seeing...but it does make me wish I knew where the other version can be seen--it's about 20 minutes longer.

I might have raided The Affairs Of Jimmy Valentine a bit higher on the scale had it not had about a third of the film gutted for television. Watching this you have to fill in too many blank spaces.

There's a radio contest where Dennis O'Keefe is accepting the challenge of Gloria Dickson to find the infamous Jimmy Valentine, safecracker of the gaslight era who disappeared after doing his bit for burglary in the TR-Taft years of the 20th century. $10,000.00 is at stake for O'Keefe as he arrives at a small midwestern town where not too terribly much has happened, only thanks to the contest the eyes of the nation are on this place where Jimmy Valentine was last heard from.

O'Keefe meets lots of resistance especially from city editor Roman Bohnen although he gets an admirer in Bohnen's daughter Ruth Terry. But a couple of murders are committed in the search for the legendary safecracker with the sandpaper fingers or that's how the famous Gus Edwards song goes.

Suspense is let right out of the bag when we find out right away who did those murders. Still The Affairs Of Jimmy Valentine is a pleasant enough film with a cast of familiar character players from the studio era of Hollywood.

Though why I didn't hear the Edwards song is a mystery.