The Film Detective has plans for five new film restorations
that will be heading to the collectible DVD market on July 18 … so let us get
right to it with a look at these new selections.
Director Vin Moore’s 1934 film release of Flirting
with Danger stars Robert Armstrong (fresh from his successes as Carl
Denham in King Kong and The Son of Kong) as Bob Owens, an
explosives expert, who is worried that his buddy, William “Lucky” Davis (played
by Jimmy Cagney’s brother, William Cagney) might be signing his own death
warrant by marrying the lovely Marian (Marion Burns — The Dawn Rider, Paradise Canyon).
His reasoning is that being married will cause him to lose
focus in this dangerous profession of “mixing” new explosive combinations …
“dames and dynamite” simply don’t mix.
A series of forged letters concocted by Owens and his buddy Jimmy (Edgar
Kennedy) lead to Marian breaking off the engagement. Their buddy is safe!!!
The trio end up in Central America on an assignment for the Duplex
Gunpowder and Dynamite Manufacturing Corporation (where Marian works as a
secretary) and in short order they develop a new explosive and Owens is tricked
by Jimmy into proposing marriage to Rosita (Maria Alba — as Nadji in The
Return of Chandu), a cabaret dancer.
Oh how the worm turns!
Marian arrives to investigate monkey business at the local
Duplex plant, which is promptly blown up … and the boys are the chief suspects!
Also on the way to retail come July 17 is director Howard
Bretherton’s 1939 comedy, Irish Luck.
Frank Darro stars in the first of a series of eight highly
successful Monogram Pictures that teamed him with Mantan Moreland. Here he plays Buzzy O’Brian, a bellhop at the
Hotel Royale, who fancies himself something of a detective … and his sleuthing
skills are quickly put to the test when an attractive young woman by the name
of Kitty (Sheila Darcy — as the Dragon Lady in Terry and the Pirates)
starts asking questions about a hotel guest named Mr. Porter.
In no time Mr. Porter is dead, a mysterious telegram points
in Kitty’s direction, but Buzzy figures that she is just too cute to be a
killer. With the help of the hotel’s
janitor, Jefferson (Mantan Moreland), he starts investigating “the case” of the
murdered Mr. Porter.
Irish Luck is a wonderful, breezy comedy — and a fun murder
mystery — and you can see the immediate chemistry between Darro and Moreland.
Rounding out the July 18 DVD film restorations from The Film
Detective are Loser's End (1935, a rare Jack Perrin Western), The Oklahoma
Cyclone (1930, early sound Western with Bob Steele) and Paradise
in Harlem (1939, directed by Joseph Seiden and starring Frank Wilson).
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