Meet the Wildcat

Margaret Lindsay was ubiquitous throughout the 1930s and pretty busy until at least the late 1950s, and therefore taken for granted, but if one watches her in this film and in the HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, both released in 1940, you will see an actress run damn near the gamut of acting we usually associate with Bette Davis (except that Davis wasn't nearly as good a semi-farceur as was Lindsay). Lindsay played so many B-film love interests, bright and bushy-tailed secretaries, second leads, etc., that one tended to take her for granted. I find her absolutely hilarious in this film, although she is basically doing a kind of Torchy Blane role; her delivery of lines, especially throw-away funny ones, is on a par with anybody's, and her speaking voice is richer than that of most other actresses of the period. But when you see her as this ditzy character, and then go over to the SEVEN GABLES film, the difference is startling. There, she plays a young and innocent 19th century love interest who, over the course of two decades while her lover is in prison for a murder she knows he didn't commit, turns from an eager young maiden into an embittered middle-aged woman, and does things with her speaking voice that are quite astounding. Then you go back to this film and say, "Nah, it can't be the same actress". But it is. She was so very underrated, and I recall James Cagney, in his autobiography, fairly hating her guts, she was so lah-de-dah uppity he claimed. I think maybe he just didn't like her cultured speaking voice and, more likely, her lifestyle (she was supposedly a totally open lesbian at a time when people strove to hide such things). But you'd never know that from either of these films; she is about as feminine as they come, as funny as they come, as ditzy as they come, and (where appropriate) as tragic as they come. This film really has nothing much going for it except its attitude, and the three leads - Lindsay, Ralph Bellamy and Allen Jenkins - are responsible for that attitude. A truly good natured sixty minutes or so, with occasional laugh-out-loud lines, almost always delivered by Lindsay. Even Frank Puglia's police inspector is funny, and I have NEVER seen Frank Puglia being funny before. Joseph Schildkraut must have wondered what he was doing in the same film with these people, except even Joe is (ominously) funny.

"Meet the Wildcat" is a B-movie from Universal and stars Margaret Lindsay and Ralph Bellamy....the same pair that starred in the studio's Ellery Queen mysteries.

This story is set in Mexico City. It seems some master thief who calls himself 'The Wildcat' has been pulling off some high profile art thefts. Lindsay is an American who is a photographer for a magazine and she wants to capture images of the thief in action, as no one knows exactly what he looks like. She determines early on that Brad Williams (Bellamy) is the thief, though IMDB makes it clear in its summary that he's a detective working with the Mexican authorities (thanks for the spoiler, IMDB).

This film works pretty well for a couple reasons. First, the actors are likable and enjoyable. Second, unlike some B-movies, this one looks better...higher in quality than those coming from the Poverty Row studios like Monogram and PRC. Overall, not a must-see but a nice way to spend about an hour of your life.

Margaret Lindsay is a reporter/photographer for a magazine, assigned to the Mexico City bureau. She's assigned by her boss, Jerome Cowan, to see what she can dig up on an art thief called "The Wildcat" who has just robbed Joseph Schildkraut's museum. She meets Ralph Bellamy, flirts with him, and then discovers he is the Wildcat. Bellamy is thrown into jail. That's when the plot gets all twisty.

There are a couple of plot points that are handwaved away early on. Once you get past those, it turns into a lively affair, with Miss Lindsay doing Rosalind Russell,in HIS GIRL FRIDAY. Bellamy, as always is solid is a role with several registers, and Alan Jenkins is along as a Bronx cab driver working in town for no reason other than to have him play his dumb comic who chauffeurs around Miss Lindsay. Bellamy and Miss Linday have good chemistry, the story is amusing, and DP Stanley Cortez does some nice foggy sidelighting in the action sequence. It's a solid B feature, and well worth your viewing tim