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Shane & Anes Detective Agency, half of the team is introduced being run out of town. "If you ever need me, boys, you'll know where to look—right where there's the most trouble." The gumshoe (Warren William) is a jaunty smoothie, the partner (Porter Hall) is soon an addition to the cemetery, the secretary (Marie Wilson) can barely spell her own name. ("Murgatroyd. Sounds like the technical name for killing your mother.") Romance with the enigmatic client (Bette Davis) boils down to taking turns pointing pistols at each other, dealing with the underworld dowager (Alison Skipworth) is a more cordial affair. "A fabulous trumpet" is on everyone's mind, the medieval antique that causes "a great, big, tall Englishman" (Arthur Treacher) to ransack the building only to return and apologize to the hero. (A knocked-over lamp comes in handy when inspecting a counterfeit bill.) "I'm supposed to be a detective solving a crime case, and everybody thinks I committed the crimes." A screwball treatment of Dashiell Hammett's baroque constellation, William Dieterle with one delight after another in a ticklish style akin to Whale's. A confrontation with cops outside a busy stage door, a chummy glass of sherry in the demolished office, mystery tropes treated like pirouettes. The gunsel (Maynard Holmes) is a peeved Baby Huey and the priceless horn is filled with sand, the whole gang is reunited in the rain with a toy boat burning in the distance. "You know, even with me being pretty sure that you're trying to double-cross me, and you being pretty sure that I'm trying to double-cross you, being together has been grand." Huston is certainly appreciative, if not in The Maltese Falcon then in Beat the Devil. With Winifred Shaw, Olin Howland, Charles C. Wilson, Barbara Blane, and May Beatty. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |