Lightning Strikes Twice

What do you get with a cast that includes Thelma Todd, Pert Kelton, Chick Chandler, Walter Catlett, Jonathan Hale and Fred Kelsey as a dumb cop? Well, if it's it's this film, a not particularly funny "comedy" that makes Skeets Gallegher look like a decent dramatic actor. It's a thorough-going waste of everyone's time. Including lead Ben Lyon's, but particularly mine.

I found myself hardly laughing at this unfunny comedy that must read funnier than it plays. With a mistaken identity plot, a crazed gunman running loose, two policemen thought murdered and trapped in the sewer system, an inept detective impersonating a butler to get at the murderer and a fan dancer and her husband pretending to be Lyon's fiancée and her father, this had the makings of a really funny movie. If it weren't for Walter Catlett and Pert Kelton, however, the movie would have been a total waste. It's unfortunate that such a fine actor as Ben Lyon took this role, because he seems to have no flair for comedy. He and friend 'Skeets' Gallagher should have had better lines to play against one another, although I'm not sure Lyon could have pulled it off. Thelma Todd, as his fiancée, is very beautiful, but can't act very well. Her father, Jonathan Hale, gives his usual competent performance, although he often looks as if he can't wait to go home. And Laura Hope Crews, as the rich dim-witted aunt who mistakes Kelton for her future niece, tries hard, but can't rise above the material. The problem may have been related to the fact that Todd, Kelton, Gallagher and Chick Chandler had one film to be made to fulfill their contracts with RKO, and this was it.

In a stormy night, a couple of cops fall into the sewer drains after getting shot at and they struggle to find their way out. They are reported killed and their bodies taken. Steve Brewster and his lawyer friend Wally Richards wake up from a night drinking to find two con artists, Fay and Gus, worming their way into Steve's house. Worst of all, Steve's girlfriend and her Navy Captain father are coming. It gets even worst when shots are fired. Wally thinks that someone got killed with Steve's gun and everything seems to go missing. Steve's aunt mistakes Fay for Judy.

It is a convoluted movie. It is all very chaotic. I have trouble keeping track of all of it. It starts funny enough. The screwball works sometimes. I'm mostly taken with Pert Kelton. First I would reconsider the Keystone Cops opening scene. There really should only be those two cops and there should be no shots. The annoying reporter would make up the story whole cloth. Once the movie gets to the house, they may need fewer characters. It is too complicated. Sometimes chaos is meant to be funny. This one loses the thread and eventually the comedy.

This is a fast-moving farce, the type of thing that Leon Errol would be doing at RKO a few years later. Ben Lyon and Skeets Gallagher, drunk after a stag party, cause a slight accident with Pert Kelton and hubby Walter Catlett. The latter pair wind up disguising themselves as Lyon's fiancé and her father. Laura Hope "Aunt Pittypat" Crews is Lyon's loony aunt who finds the bogus pair charming. All the while John Davidson is sneaking around as a supposed murderer. Great comedy cast topped off in the third act by the entrance of Fred Kelsey as the detective. Thelma Todd is lovely (of course) as Lyon's real fiancé and her role is limited in that respect. Skeets steals the show and, for once, Chick Chandler's excessive mugging is charming and whimsical. All in all, lots of smiles for this fluffy RKO quickie.

"Lightning Strikes Twice" is a dull murder mystery comedy...and, unfortunately, it's not especially funny due to the poorly written dialog. It begins with some apparent murders but a couple of the supposed dead guys are idiot cops who get stuck in the sewers. This bit wasn't funny...and was repeated throughout the film. The rest centers on some confidence men/women and a psychotic murderer...none of which really entertain.

So is the film worth seeing? No. But if you must watch it, there are two things you should look for in the movie. First, the two female stars are mildly interesting due to their life outside films. Thelma Todd is famous for her suicide which many think was actually a mob murder and Pert Kelton was the first Alice Kramden on "The Honeymooners" but her career was damaged due to her politics and the Red Scare. Additionally, although this is technically a Post-Code film, I was surprised that the picture showed folks in bed together- -something specifically forbidden by the code. Plus two of them were guys...a definite no-no for this tough code! You know it's bad when I am looking at these sort of things to provide SOME interest.