Mississippi Gambler

This is a terrific little movie! Suspense, intrigue, murder, romance and the great beauty and charm of Frances Langford. Frances sings a great little number 'There goes my Romance'. A great little tune which deserves to be heard. She also does an upbeat tune 'Got Love'. Kent Taylor provides the romantic interest and the ever polished, suave Taylor (He was Boston Blackie on early TV) gets the same glazed over look that all of Frances leading men do when they look at her. They all look like they are really in love with her and who could blame them? She looks absolutely adorable in this movie! The print that I saw was a little faded, a little grainy but watchable. It would be wonderful to have this movie restored like Warner Brothers did with the Bamboo Blond. Good supporting cast including the omnipresent John Litel in an interesting role. But the movie belongs to Frances Langford. She really lights up the screen!

Newspaper reporter Kent Taylor knows that Douglas Fowley is the murderer, so he tracks him down by getting into Shemp Howard's cab in Brooklyn and heading circuitously to Mississippi. There he spots John Litel, a big gambler who's supposed to be dead, but Taylor, with a memory for faces, recognizes him by his eyes. Can he convince anyone else, like Frances Langford, the singer at the gambling club in Mississippi he has fallen in love with? How about his editor, who is not happy about the taxi fare?

Howard provides the comedy in a workmanlike fashion, but the mystery here is odd; it has an obvious solution, but how to prove it? It may not be a great movie, but it holds up for the 59 minutes it takes to catch the bad guy and get the girl. With Wade Boteler, Harry Hayden, and Claire Dodd.