The Hidden Master

Hidden Master, The (1940)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Highly entertaining entry in MGM's Passing Parade series takes a look at three different stories involving luck. The first has a man (Peter Cushing) suffering from melancholia and decides to kill himself but it doesn't work out as planned. The second story has a doctor accidentally discovering X-rays. The third story deals with a poor father who never has any luck and this continues one night when a drunk man calls the wrong number and wakes him up. He doesn't realize at first how this is going to change his life. There's nothing ground breaking here in terms of film-making, acting or directing but these stories are interesting and entertaining enough to where you'll have no problem making it through these 9-minutes. I thought the middle story was the weakest but perhaps that's because it's only given about a minutes worth of time. The first and especially the last story are extremely well done and will have you wondering about the "luck" that happened. It was fun seeing Peter Cushing playing the man who would turn out to be Robert Clive but it's also worth noting that this story was left out of the film CLIVE OF India. The final story is without question the best as it contains some great drama and a nice twist to the luck.

Luck is the hidden master, according to this John Nesbitt "Passing Parade" segment from MGM.

In 1744, suffering from melancholia, Robert Clive (PETER CUSHING) of India attempts to shoot himself. The gun misfires a couple of times with the odds being 400 to 1 that it would. A timely interruption from a fellow British patriot informs him that his service in India is over and he's free to return to his normal life.

In 1895, Dr. Renkin accidentally discovers the X-ray process when some ingredients he was mixing falls off a shelf and lands on cardboard not far from a vacuum tube. Once again, sheer luck and the odds at it happening are enormous.

Then Harry Jones, down on his luck with a wife and two children to feed on his $21 a week salary, gets a phone call in the middle of the night from a drunken bar patron. After hanging up on the intruder who woke him out of a sound sleep, he discovers that a gas leak has put his wife and children into a coma and is able to get to the phone to make an emergency call before collapsing himself from the fumes. Fortunately, the operator calls the police.

The chance that the call from a man dialing a wrong number would save his life was against all odds. He can now regard himself as "the luckiest man alive".

And that's the thrust of this brief nine minute short.