hondo551

This one rings true as a good Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe) sort of period mystery with the interesting twist of the PIs being gals rather than guys. Probably done as a Crystal Bernard vehicle early in her Wings popularity, it goes out of its way to try to bring 1943 southern California alive and show the home front horrors of WWII as the murders are being solved. Bernard is more than adequate in her role as a soft boiled PI, as is most of the cast, but the one weak showing is her partner in investigations Annabeth Gish. One wonders just what her character adds to the detective agency, Bernard seems to do all the work. Gish has done much better stuff since, as in The X-Files, but here falls flat and leaves all the work for Bernard. The one performance that sizzles is Barbara Luna as a local madame. She evokes the memory of Rita Hayworth in looks and dress and expressions, has never looked better, and steals the few scenes she's in. I was hoping for something along the lines of the excellent A&E Nero Wolfe series, it certainly has the period look down well, but it never rises above your typical movie of the week quality. Blame it on some underdeveloped characters, maybe Bernard being too cute for a PI role, but there seems to be something missing that could have taken it from being a pleasant 95 minute diversion to something far better and noteworthy.

I've gotta be honest. I never cared for racing films till I saw Cornel Wilde's "Devil's Hairpin" at a Saturday matinée a long time ago. It seemed like the start of 'modern' racing to me, where cars looked like cars and not bathtubs on wheels, and guys like Newman and Garner and McQueen were behind the wheel. Stuff made before that seemed too old and dated and creaky. So it was with some trepidation that I stayed up to watch this Gable/Stanwyck vehicle race around my TV screen for the first time. God knows it had to be creaky. They were making it while I was being conceived, and showing it in theaters while I was learning about baby formula! Yeah, there's a similar theme of drivers killing drivers like in "Devil's Hairpin", but there's Stanwyck going from being too hard-nose to sappy in love just a little too fast, Gable knocks her over way too quickly with no reason shown why he's even attracted to her, and the stars of the film look like they should have made this movie ten years earlier. But then, these stars were at the top of their game. When Stanwyck's assistant swoons over Clark Gable, she should. He's still the king! There were still plenty of women in the audience who would. And let's face it, Gable just had to dig Stanwyck because she was the best tough cookie with a soft center to come out of Hollywood ever. Gable slapping her, and some lines of dialogue stand out, especially Stanwyck saying, "You're nobody till somebody loves you," which had to predate Dean Martin's first recording of that by five years! There are lots of scenes of auto racing history for fans who appreciate that sort of thing to enjoy, but there's also the stars themselves to enjoy. Unlike today, there was a time when faces and personalities meant more to a film than the story itself, and it's watching these two stars go through the motions that really make this film worth watching even after all these years have passed.