The House Across the Street

A police detective is watching a house across the street. A postman comes upon the house. After awhile, the real postman shows up. The man across the street is a witness against racketeer Matthew Keever and has been murdered by the fake postman. Manager editor Dave Joslin (Wayne Morris) writes several editorials criticizing the police. Keever threatens the paper and Joslin gets demoted to an advice column. Assisted by Kit Williams (Janis Paige), Joslin continues his investigation.

A stuntwoman has a nice stunt. This is the lesser genre of comedy-noir. It's a B-movie. The comedy is lame. I don't think comedy is a natural fit for this genre. That goes for the lead character as well. He's a bit of a Bubba which doesn't fit the role of a hardnosed newspaper man. I'm not laughing. Kit is a good girl Friday and her character has the nice stunt. It's not more than seventy minutes which is part of the B-movie production. It does mean that this movie doesn't spend the money on an action thriller ending and it rushes the wrap-up. It's a B-movie.

Managing Editor Wayne Morris is trying to get the goods on gangster Bruce Bennett, but it's all speculation, and Bennett's lawyer is getting nasty about it. Morris won't lay off, and Morris can't be fired, so publisher Alan Hale demotes him to the paper's Miss Lonelyhearts, bumping Janis Paige back to features. Morris doesn't give up, and finds a lead, putting him and Miss Paige into danger.

Morris gives one of those performances that seems all declaratory, but Miss Paige is cute as a button. But her roles were unsatisfactory, so she gave up the movies a couple of years later and became a Broadway star. She's still around as I write this at the age of 101.

From a literal standpoint the title for this film seems somewhat irrelevant, since the house across the street only involves the opening sequence. But from a figurative viewpoint, the title is apt, indicating that most urban Americans don't really know much about what is going on across the street from where they live, crime, murder, shakedowns, and such. Across the street could be across the nation.

Dave Joslin (Wayne Morris) is the managing editor for the local newspaper, involved in attacking a crime syndicate running the city headed by boss Keever (Bruce Bennett). When a key witnessed is murdered by Keever's hit-man right in front of a stakeout, Joslin writes a scathing editorial about the ineffectiveness of the police department in handling the mob. Joslin's boss, J.B. Grennell (Alan Hale, Sr.), running scared, orders Joslin to back off. When Joslin refuses, J.B. reassigns him to the Bewildered Hearts office replacing Joslin's lady love, Kit Williams (Janis Paige), who is much obliged to be reassigned. (One wonders if this flick wasn't the basis for the early television sitcom starring Peter Lawford and Marcia Henderson, "Dear Phoebe," where the advice columnist is a man.) While doing his duties as advice to the lovelorn columnist, Joslin stumbles onto a situation that is connected to the mob hit. He and Kit begin a merry chase that leads them into dark corners, near-death escapes, and lots of other fun and mayhem before pulling all the loose ends together.

Wayne Morris is always a joy to watch. Janis Paige doesn't get to sing and dance, but does get to turn in a good performance as assistant sleuth. The rest of the cast is great, especially James Mitchell as Marty Bremer. "The House Across the Street" is basically a comedy-thriller, giving the audience a fair run for its money.

Had this B film remake of Hi Nellie been done during the Thirties before the war my guess is that Warner Brothers probably would have included a lot more action. Other than James Mitchell roughing up Wayne Morris a bit there's no real action in this film, not even the sound of a gun firing. Unusual when you consider the villain is a gangster.]

The House Across The Street had more of an accent on comedy with Wayne Morris being demoted to the advice to the lovelorn column after refusing to back off an expose of gangster Bruce Bennett. It's not that publisher Alan Hale isn't in his corner, but Morris hasn't got any proof and Bennett is doing the ungangster like thing of suing for libel.

But curiously enough a woman who had not had her letter to the column answered, Lila Leeds came up and gives Morris the lowdown on her problem with boyfriend James Holden. She inadvertently provides a clue that starts Morris on the trail of linking Bennett to the murder of a state's witness.

Morris gets plenty of help, good help from the former sob sister at the paper, Janis Paige. She's got good reporter's instincts and was never really given a chance to prove them while Morris was the city editor. Now she's helping, but giving Wayne a few jabs in the process.

The House Across The Street is a nice competently made B film that I'm sure 1949 audiences enjoyed while waiting for the main feature from Warner Brothers to start. It's fast and funny and a real treat.

A routine B level remake of the Paul Muni film "Hi, Nellie", "The House Across the Street" offers adequate entertainment for people addicted to vintage crime dramas. Wayne Morris plays Dave Joslin, the crusading managing editor of a newspaper. He's printed one too many stories criticizing the police force and vilifying crime kingpin Matthew Keever (Bruce Bennett), so his boss (Alan Hale Sr.) demotes him to working the advice column section. A dejected Dave quickly sees a way in which doing this thankless job can lead to a real break in terms of actually proving Keever of any wrongdoing - in a roundabout way, of course.

Some folks might consider this "noir", but it's more of a straightforward crime picture with a heavy accent on comedy. Not that the comedy isn't pretty funny, as Dave is a rather obnoxious, sexist guy who constantly spars with would-be girlfriend Kit Williams (an adorable Janis Paige), who was previously toiling on the advice column. Kit would much rather be covering stories of substance, and is often there following leads when Dave is otherwise busy.

You won't get a lot of stark atmosphere, or much physical violence, or much gunplay here, but the story is reasonably entertaining, and as I said, some of the humor works fairly well. The strong supporting cast also includes James Mitchell as a henchman, Barbara Bates as a "bad girl", James Holden as a hard-luck young working stiff, Phyllis Coates as a camera girl, and Billy Gray, Charles Lane, Lila Leeds, Doreen McCann, and Ray Walker as well.

Overall the picture is unmemorable, but it's fast-paced & quick and rather snappy: in other words, a decent B movie from this era.

Six out of 10.