South of Panama

Just to help wasting time. From the early forties, it is after all an agreeable moment to spend, if you crave for B movies taking place in exotic countries. This one could be seen as a very poor man's CASABLANCA like rip-offs. One more and not the most to be remembered of. I repeat, that's not a junk because there are many veiwers, moviegoers searching lost films from this perod. A sort of CASABLANCA scheme or at least atmosphere inspiration, but also with a bit of Alfred Hitchcock like espionage film. There is nothing exceptional, I warn you. Directed by a rather sympathetic film director, B film director, Jean Yarbrough. Not his best, not his worst either.

An engaging, very poor man's 'North by Northwest' scripted for PRC by Sydney Sheldon & Ben Roberts before they went on to bigger things; with the MacGuffin an uncharacteristically dapper, moustached Lionel Royce and his goons are after being "protective paint" for camouflaging bombers.

Most of the cast wear big suits with even bigger shoulders; including button-eyed female lead Virginia Vale who spends half the film suited up as an all-American blonde and the other half (with the help of a black wig and a beauty spot) as a seductive Latino.

South of Panama... 1941. The only big name in here that i recognize is hugh beaumont, as paul. In leave it to beaver, beaumont was ward, the dad! Also sam mcdaniel, brother of hattie! He was in SO many films over the years, but mostly in smaller, background roles. When jan flies down to panama. She realizes she is being followed, and tries to throw the crooks off the tail. But they aren't fooled for long. Can she stay ahead of the guys trying to kidnap her brother paul ? Directed by jean yarbreau. This was released in april 1941, even before the united states was officially pulled into the war. I had seen leading man roger pryor in numerous films, but none were anything too special.

When you've only got 68 minutes to make your case, you don't have time for time wasting shots. To me, that's about the only real problem with this predictable but enjoyable romantic spy movie. The plot follows the tried and true mistaken identity approach with reporter Roger Pryor thrown under the bus by Virginia Dale who intentionally fingers him as her inventor brother, a very early role for Hugh Beaumont. From that point on poor Roger is on the wrong side of mysterious circumstances and meets Vale in and out of disguise but for some reason can't figure it's the same person but, well, who really cares in these sort of movies? A new paint is the McGuffin and that would be fine except they take a full 6 minutes, almost 10% of the movie, on meaningless plane sequences.

One could easily envision William Powell in the Pryor role but Vale is a better match for her role than Loy would be; if you know early Powell, you know Pryor's mannerisms. Except for the needless filler, I'd give this 7 stars. You know exactly what is going to happen, when, but it's a painless ride and generally keeps moving along so if you've got an hour to spare, it's a decent movie.

Roger Pryor is a reporter who's just flown into Panama. Saloon singer Virginia Vale meets him at the airport, kisses him and says to come along with her. She's there to meet her brother, Hugh Beaumont, who's just invented a paint to make planes invisible, but she's spotted a tail and figured that spies are out to snatch him for the secret. She's right, too. Later she puts on a wig and a Spanish accent and she's unrecognizable.

Actually, the script is a lot better than that; once you've accepted that the script works -- and there's a demonstration -- it make sense. It's the first movie credits for writers Ben Roberts and Sidney Sheldon. They would break up as a team, and Sheldon would win an Oscar in 1947 and devise I DREAM OF JEANNIE; Roberts would go on to create CHARLIE'S ANGELS. There's some excitement, some good humor under the direction of Jean Yarborough, some hokey stuff -- Sam McDaniel plays a stereotypical Black waiter -- and a car chase through the rugged mountains roads of the Canal Zone. If you can ignore those and Pryor's indifferent line readings, there's some fun here.