ADVENTURES OF KITTY O’DAY (KITTY O’DAY COMES THROUGH)

(director: William Beaudine; screenwriter: story by Victor Hammond/Victor Hammond/George Callahan/Tim Ryan; cinematographer: Mack Stengler; editor: Richard Pike; music: Edward J. Kay; cast: Jean Parker (Kitty O’Day), Peter Cookson (Johnny Jones), Tim Ryan (Inspector Clancy), Ralph Sanford (Mac), Jan Wiley (Carla Brant), Hugh Prosser (Nick Joel), Byron Foulger (Roberts), Lorna Gray (Gloria Williams), William Forrest (Sauter), (Michael Tracy/Walter Harris), Shelton Brooks (Jeff), Dick Elliott (Bascom); Runtime: 63; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Lindsley Parsons; Monogram; 1945)

“Breezy formulaic B-film crime drama that shoots for slapstick comedy, but that only modestly materializes.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Breezy formulaic B-film crime drama that shoots for slapstick comedy, but that only modestly materializes. Hampered by an annoying overbearing performance by star Jean Parker and a bland one by co-star Peter Cookson. All the uninspired director William Beaudine(“The Old-Fashioned Way”/”Boys Will Be Nosy”/”Voodoo Man”) does is point the camera and shoots. It’s based on a story by Victor Hammond, who pens the inane script with co-star Tim Ryan and George Callahan.

Nosy blabbermouth switchboard operator Kitty O’Day (Jean Parker), at the ritzy Townley Hotel, an amateur detective and regular reader of Detective Magazine, hears two gunshots when receiving an in-house call from Mr. Williams, the hotel’s owner, and when hearing no response orders her work colleague boyfriend, a clerk at the travel desk, Johnny Jones (Peter Cookson), to go up to the room to investigate and he finds that Williams has been slain. Investigating police detectives, Inspector Clancy (Tim Ryan) and his moronic sergeant sidekick Mac (Ralph Sanford), arrive at the crime scene to find the corpse vanished.

The dim-witted hotel couple work on the case even though the real detectives find them more of a nuisance than a help and want them to stop interfering. Soon two more murders unfold and the meddling couple are temporarily jailed as suspects, until their alibis check-out. Later it’s uncovered that the murders are linked to another hotel employee involved in a hotel jewelry heist scheme with the deceased hotel owner. We learn the murder of the hotel employee who discovered the scheme was because he was blackmailing the thieves.

REVIEWED ON 9/8/2013 GRADE: C+  https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ