Sat 7 Aug 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: KID GLOVE KILLER (1942).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[8] Comments
KID GLOVE KILLER. MGM, 1942. Van Heflin, Marsha Hunt, Lee Bowman, Cliff Clark, Eddie Quillan, John Litel, Cathy Lewis. Director: Fred Zinneman. Shown at Cinecon 27, Hollywood CA, September 1993.
Marsha Hunt, who co-starred with Van Heflin and Lee Bowman in this crackerjack MGM programmer, was sitting a couple of rows in front of me for the screening. She looked about forty when she turned around to acknowledge the audience applause and she gave the best interview I heard at the convention, answering questions precisely, fully and intelligently.
In Kid Glove Killer she played the assistant of a crime-lab doctor (Van Heflin), with her attentive suitor and eventual chief suspect in a bombing-murder played by Lee Bowman, perennial lose-the-girl second lead in romantic comedies.
This was Fred Zinneman’s first directorial stint and Hunt described how he won over the entire crew on the first day of the shooting with a short speech in which he welcomed suggestions from his experienced cast and crew.
Zinneman, of course, went on to a distinguished career, as did Van Heflin, while Hunt, when her movie career faded in the early fifties, moved on to TV and Broadway. She was at Cinecon to sign copies of her new book, Marsha Hunt’s Hollywood. She seemed genuinely touched by the audience’s appreciation and a nice person into the bargain.
Luckily, the film was another sleeper that everybody seemed to enjoy. All that wonderful MGM polish lavished on a B-movie script. Quite a tribute to the old studio system.
August 7th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
KID GLOVE KILLER was originally a short in MGM’s Oscar winning CRIME DOES NOT PAY series. Most of the CDNP’s were warnings about various criminal activities, including the baby racket, the milk racket, and phony spiritualists. It was a showcase for young directors and actors and saw early work by Robert Taylor, Stephen McNally (then still Horace), and Barry Nelson among others. Some of the later CDNP shorts were noirish dramas rather than dramatized police cases.
Lee Bowman was later one of television’s ELLERY QUEEN’s and starred in a series with Rocky Grazziano filmed and set in Miami about a private detective who works as troubleshooter for the cities resort hotel association. At least one episode of his EQ and the private detective series show up in those collections of multiple episodes from old series — the latter featuring then Miami DJ Larry King as the victim of a murder on the air.
Van Heflin also did the Thin Man style mystery GRAND CENTRAL MURDER in this period based on a novel by Sue McVeigh and with a screenplay by Peter Ruric (BLACK MASK alumnus Paul Cain). He was private eye Barney Custer aided by wife Virginia Grey and in the hair of cop Sam Levine. Suspects included Tom Conway, Stephen (Horace) McNally, and Samuel S. Hinds.
Zinneman, Anthony Mann, and Jacques Tourneur were among the directors who got their start doing shorts like the CRIME DOES NOT PAY, PASSING PARADE (which even featured Peter Cushing in one about Dreams), and other at the big studios (comedy was handled at MGM by Robert Benchley, Pete Smith, and the Joe Doaks series starring the future voice of futuristic George Jetson).
But as stated here KID GLOVE KILLER is a very good little film with much better credits and effort put in that might be expected of what was little more than a programmer. Ironically it doesn’t feel stretched even though most of the plot is present in the thirty minute short version.
August 8th, 2010 at 4:39 am
I saw Marsha Hunt this year in Raw Deal and an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, “Tea Time.” She was the nice girl in Raw Deal (Claire Trevor was the bad girl, naturally), but a bad girl in AHP — a fun role. She is 93, nice to read she’s holding up so well.
August 8th, 2010 at 4:40 am
By the way, Van looks like he’s wearing as much lipstick as Marsha in that poster!
August 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am
According to IMDB, Marsha Hunt was still very active on TV through the 1980s, and has made a few small appearances as late as 2008. Apparently she got caught up in the 1950s blacklist, which pretty much ended her movie career.
I’m sure this movie has played many times om TCM, and if so, I’m sure I taped it, but I’ve never seen it. It’s never been released commercially on DVD, nor I have seen it yet on the collectors’ market.
I’ll have to keep looking.
August 9th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Steve
Both the film and the CRIME DOES NOT PAY short it is based on have played numerous times on TCM, often as part of a day devoted to Van Heflin’s films which sometimes has it in tandem with THE GRAND CENTRAL MURDER, making for a nice double feature. Throw in THE STORY OF MARTHA IVERS as they often do and you have a pretty nice set of films.
This one is particularly interesting to watch in light of all the CSI, CRIMINAL MINDS, NCIS and other forensic series on television today. I think, though I’m not sure, that the CRIME DOES NOT PAY short it is based on was nominated for an Oscar as best short subject and may also have been directed by Zinneman.
August 9th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Steve, the picture of her on imdb is from 2005, when she was 88. She looks great! Raw Deal is a good noir film. It’s the one with baddie Raymond Burr, the floozie, and the cherries flambe!
August 10th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
KID GLOVE KILLER will be shown next on TCM in November, on Friday the 5th, at 10:30 AM. Program your Tivo’s and VCRs now!
— Steve
August 15th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
[…] Hunt, the female star of Kid Glove Killer (1942), reviewed here by Walter Albert, and whose career was discussed at length in the comments that followed is […]