On the Spot

Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland made seven enjoyable B-movies together in the late 30s and into the 1940s. While the films had relatively low budgets and were made by Monogram Studios, they managed to be entertaining and hold up pretty well over time. And, like the other films, this one is a mystery movie.

When the story begins, Frankie and Jeff (Darro and Moreland) are working at a drug store in a small town. However, excitement comes to the town when a murder occurs....right at Frankie's soda fountain. However, there is a big problem...the dead man was a crook and he'd been involved in a robbery of $300,000 and some other gangsters think the dead man probably told Frankie about this treasure when he died. One of them arrives at the counter and is about to get rough with the guys...when he, too, is killed! So, being a Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland film, they investigate to determine who's behind the killings.

The film is pleasant and entertaining and the film, while far from a must-see, is a nice little time-passer. Plus, it's always enjoyable seeing Mantan..as he was an amazing talent...and is sadly underappreciated today.

Pharmacy owner John St. Polis steps out for a few minutes. While he's gone, Jeffrey Sayre comes in, threatens soda jerk Frankie Darro and hotel porter Mantan Moreland. He places a long-distance call, says his news is too hot to put on the phone; he'll tell Darro and Moreland and hangs up. Then he dies before he can tell them. The rest of the movie consists of newspapermen and gangsters quizzing them; apparently someone stole $300,000 from a bank, and everyone wants it.

Putting aside the fact that your typical bank robbery even today yields less than $10,000, the point of this Monogram movie is to team yet again Darro and Moreland. Darro is young, enthusiastic, and hopeful; Moreland is comically scared. Their chemistry together is pretty good, but the single-mindedness of the movie works against it. With Mary Kornman (in her final screen role), Robert Warwick, and Lillian Elliott.

1940 marked a last for some Our Gang members. Besides Tommy "Butch" Bond, Darwood "Waldo" Kaye, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer leaving the series that year, early silent OG member Mary Kornman made her last movie as well, this one. She plays the girlfriend of Frankie Darro who works at her father's drug store as a soda jerk though he has ambitions of being a scientist so he also experiments occasionally there. Mantan Moreland plays his buddy who reluctantly is roped into some of his plans when a couple of gangsters get shot in the store...Okay, Ms. Kornman plays the kind of leading lady role that has her either getting upset when Frankie doesn't pay enough attention to her or showing concern for him when he's down or in a little danger. Still, it was nice seeing her in her last role here. Mantan plays the stereotypical role of the scared black man though he only mentions being scared since there isn't any scene that calls for him to scream or act really petrified. I did like his wisecrack about a skeleton's teeth and similar comments and when he's called to do something he goes through with it despite his reluctance, so there's that. All in all, On the Spot was a nice time-filler and is worth a look for any Our Gang fans wanting to see some of their members outside of the series.

Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland (a gifted and underrated comedian) teamed up for a series of B movies. These movies were always entertaining even with their thin and sometimes silly plots. In this entry, Frankie is an odd job assistant/soda jerk in the small upstate NY town of Midvale drug store. Mantan (as yet once again playing a character named "Jefferson") is Frankie's good pal and a porter at the local hotel. One day at the drugstore a known gangster "Hype Inness" who has just been shot comes in to use the phone. He opens the booth door tells Frankie and Jefferson that he has a message for Smilin Bill (another big time gangster) but before he can relate the message, he falls over dead. Well, the town is inundated with reporters and assorted thugs, including Smilin Bill. A special investigator thinks that the message Hype was going to convey was the whereabouts of $300,000 of stolen bank money. Frankie is a bit of a screw up with some harebrained schemes and at one point tells Jefferson " You know Jefferson, I've been thinking." Jefferson replies "Uh, oh." I like the camaraderie between Frankie and Jefferson and the humor and silliness of the movies. The one thing I didn't care for was Frankie trying to imitate Jefferson's accent - too dated and not particularly funny.

A charming movie--disregard the naysayers here....this is a fast, fun movie, with excellent chemistry between the Darro and the always-subversive Moreland. They are wonderful together and Moreland is simply a delight. Here is an actor who needs to be seriously reevaluated in the 21st century. And the low-budget is actually a strength as the production uses the somewhat claustrophobic setting to great effect. Very entertaining. If you want to understand what Jean-Luc Godard meant by dedicating his famous "Breathless" to Monogram Studios, then watch this movie. Terrific really. Monogram at its best.