Detective Kitty O'Day

I just finished watching this movie on a compilation DVD distributed by Retromedia Entertainment - available for rental on Netflix. Quite entertaining with a nice performance by the handsome Peter Cookson, but the true bright spot was the performance by Jean Parker. The film was marred by some silly slapstick and weak humor - but still worth watching.

The copy of the film was in fairly good condition overall, but had some breaks in continuity. I look forward to seeing more films starring Miss Parker.

This sort of film is of interest to film history buffs as a typical product of one the lesser known Hollywood studios - Monogram Pictures.

Detective Kitty O'Day played by Jean Parker in the first of two films she did as Kitty O'Day who with her reluctant boyfriend Peter Cookson goes around solving crimes and generally getting into all kinds of mischief. If I didn't know any better I'd swear I was watching Bonita Granville and Frankie Thomas in one of the Warner Brothers Nancy Drew series albeit a bit older.

Parker is working for a millionaire who winds up dead with a widow who was already stepping out with Douglas Fowley. Veda Ann Borg was the merry widow and she's the main reason to see this as she usually is the main reason to see any film she's in.

Bodies start piling up in this 'mystery' until it is fairly obvious who could have done it.

One more film and there was no more demand for Kitty O'Day.

This silly Monogram quickie directed by Wm. Beaudine and co-written by Tim Ryan who plays the chief detective is worth watching for Ryan's expert comic performance as well as the charming work of the underrated Jean Parker. Ryan resembled Bill Demarest but never achieved the same success. He had been married to Irene Ryan, Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies. They started in vaudeville doing a Dumb Dora act which was said to have influenced Burns and Allen.

I love seeing Monogram movies. They don't have a pristine look. They look down and dirty -- which they were.

It seems as if someone must have said, "Get me Jean Arthur!" and it was misunderstood. Parker plays a flighty girl along the lines of many an Arthur role. She also resembles the sublime Gracie Allen at times.

But Parker was a fine actress in her own right. She shoulders this picture and carries it to great success.

Veda Ann Borg is also on-hand for some cheesecake. But it's Parker's movie all the way.

(The sequel, "The Adventures of Kitty O'Dea," is a retread of the same movie. It's pleasant enough but breaks not ground at all.)

William Beaudine shined during the silent era, but after the talkies period rose, he rapidly sunk into B and Z grade, bringing though interesting lousy material, such as BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA or JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN 'S DAUGHTER. Some of those features are laughable but rarely really boring, unlike this one. It is a mystery thriller, as there were millions of them during the thirties and forties, before the Tv industry "stole" this kind of schemes. If you are a gem searcher, it's Ok, agreeable, but I doubt there are many audiences for this film. The directing is what you expect, but the story is common at a scale you can also imagine. That's not the William Beaudine's movie that I would recommend in first.