Twelve Crowded Hours

This is a decent 1939 crime drama. Richard Dix is good and Lucille Ball is as well, in a non-comedy performance. Worth watching but not the kind of thing that would make any "best of the decade" lists or anything.

At times director Landers shows imagination as in the sudden close-ups. Otherwise there's little snap to the proceedings, but at least he keeps things moving, along with a couple eye-catching car crashes. The crowded hours are more like a crowded and rather loose screenplay that fails to really engage. It's something about a newspaperman getting the goods on a rackets kingpin, but the narrative rolls around too much to establish itself. Actor Dix gets little chance to show his usual grit, while Lucy gets mainly five lines and twenty minutes of looking over Dix's shoulder. So for Lucy fans, it's like a teaser with no payoff. With McBride, Kendall, and Richards, the supporting cast features familiar faces from that era. Too bad they don't get a better chance to show their stuff. I wish there were something to recommend besides the clever twelve-hour bookends, but there isn't. All and all, it's a rather flat programmer despite the promising criminal elements.

Newspaper investigative reporter Nick Green is searching for dance instructor Paula Sanders (Lucille Ball)'s wayward brother Dave who is headed for trouble. Indeed, he has gotten in trouble with gangster George Costain and his bag.

Of course, I'm watching this for Lucille Ball. This is not really a showcase for her. She's just the blonde dame. Mostly, this is a weakly-made crime drama. This may be an early example of somebody trying to make a shaky-cam movie or the camera is swaying back and forth for no reason. Probably the latter and it's making me nauseous. It must be in post-post production because even the the closing cards are swaying back and forth. This must be a recording of a recording. Honestly, I don't know why anybody cares about Dave or any other character in this movie. I'm not really following that closely and I don't like any of these characters.

While I have always liked Richard Dix, I must admit that this is one of the more ordinary films he made. Dix stars as a newspaper man--one that is frankly too glib and clever to be real. When a coworker is killed, Dix thinks a gangster is responsible and soon steals $80,000 from the crook. Much of the rest of the film is spent with the crook and Dix talking...a lot. Their tough banter seemed stagy and the film went no where for a very long period. By the end, I frankly didn't care who killed who--I was just bored and looking forward to another film.

Dull writing, clichéd characters and a complete waste of Lucille Ball in a supporting role (she could have just as well been played by a ball of lint--the part was dull and shallow). While it's not a bad film, it's also not particularly good and seemed to be just another B-movie from RKO.

Twelve Crowded Hours is a tidy, swift and enjoyable little "crime comedy". Richard Dix, who seemed much more at ease in these programmers than in "A" features, is good as the newspaper reporter trying to bring the mobster responsible for his editor's death to justice. He manages to temper the character's innate cockiness and make him likeable. Lucille Ball enthusiasts may be disappointed with her role here; even though she has a few funny lines, her Paula Sanders is drab. Coming off much better are Donald MacBride as the sour detective and Cy Kendall as the burly mob boss. (The type of higher-profile role he should have had more often.) A nice, breezy 64 minutes.