Almost a Gentleman

Ace the Wonder Dog stars in his third movie, assisted by embittered James Ellison. Ace is accused of murder -- although it is Mr. Ellison who is accused of harboring a vicious animal which needs to be destroyed.

Although there is considerable talent in this RKO programmer -- and Ace the Wonder Dog is a handsome animal -- it doesn't quite work. Leslie Goodwin, the director, was working his way out of the short subjects department and does his best. But the inherent difficulty of producing an interesting animal star and fitting it into a sound feature makes unreasonable demands on the plot to the point of occasionally disruptive silliness. Nor are the actors the best of RKO's players, producing a certain amount of untoward emotional reticence about the humans. These factors make the movie less than good.

I tuned into this shortly after it started so I missed a few things at the start, but I could see that this was an appealing story about a man's devotion to a dog that is severely tested when the dog is unjustly accused of attacking a local man on the night of a bloody murder where the victim's throat was torn.

JAMES ELLISON is the man who must prove that his dog is not vicious and would never have committed the crime. A subplot involving a kidnapping is also solved by the dog, but that seemed more like an added ingredient tacked onto the screenplay and comes after the dog has been acquitted of the murder.

HELEN WOOD is the leading lady, a pretty brunette who evidently retired early from the screen, and ROBERT KENT is the man who charges the man's dog with the crime.

Nicely done, very dated in many respects and clearly a product of its time, but not bad for a little programmer that probably played the bottom half of double bills back in 1939.

Ellison is the kind of sturdy looking, solid kind of low-key actor who reminds me somewhat of JAMES CRAIG, without the mustache. Apparently he spent most of his career in westerns and B-films, although he did have a big film to his credit when he starred opposite Alice Faye in THE GANG'S ALL HERE ('45).