Wed 11 Feb 2015
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: UP IN THE AIR (1940).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[9] Comments
UP IN THE AIR. Monogram, 1940. Frankie Darro, Mantan Moreland, Tristram Coffin, Marjorie Reynolds, Lorna Gray. Written by Edmond Kelso. Directed by Howard Bretherton.
A painless if uninspiring hour-killer from Monogram, with the pleasure of watching Marjorie Reynolds and especially Lorna (“Vulturaâ€) Gray, plus the always-entertaining Mantan Moreland.
The story revolves around murder(s) at a radio station, and when I say “revolves†you should appreciate that the narrative spins its wheels quite a lot but never actually seems to get too far. Alluring Lorna Gray plays a bitchy singer who is, alas, the first to go. A couple of loud and none-too-bright cops show up to investigate, but the real sleuthing is done by the team of Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland.
The word “team†is key to the interest and charm of this movie and the others in this low-budget series, where Frankie and Mantan took turns playing unskilled workers in crappy jobs that invariably got them mixed up in murder. Mantan was always the reluctant throttle to Frankie’s racing engine, but it was he who provided the laughs and charm with his snappy patter, comic timing and — in this film anyway — snappy one-man dance numbers.
The concept of interracial-but-equal crime-solvers may have broken some cultural ground back then, but it didn’t catch on; Monogram was a never a trend-setting studio after all, generally content to pick up on well-worn themes and discarded series from the major studios, like Cisco Kid and Charlie Chan, where Moreland again showed up to good advantage.
But it’s interesting to note that they trotted it out decades before Culp & Cosby in I Spy when nobody was looking. I’m not saying they did particularly well with it, but the film passes painlessly as I say, and the interplay between Moreland and Darro is often fun to watch, especially when they trot out one of Mantan’s “infinite talk†routines.
To anyone interested in learning more about this ought-to-be-legendary black comedian, I recommend Michael H. Price’s Mantan the Funny Man (Midnight Marquee Press, 2007). It’s written by an old white guy, but offers some worthwhile insights into race relations in the middle of the last century, and it takes a close and appreciative look at movies most critics wouldn’t give the time of day to.
February 11th, 2015 at 8:45 pm
According to Price’s book, Moe Howard wanted Moreland to become one of the 3 Stooges after Shemp’s death, but Columbia wouldn’t go for it.
February 11th, 2015 at 9:12 pm
Available from Oldies.com and Amazon is: Darro & Mantan Moreland Collection (Up In The Air (1940) / Gang’s All Here (1941) / Irish Luck (1939) / You’re Out of Luck (1941) / On The Spot (1940)).
It’s in my shopping cart now.
PS. I didn’t know about the Moreland/Three Stooges connection/possibility. Thanks, Gary. It makes you wonder, what if?
February 11th, 2015 at 11:18 pm
I’ve always loved this modest little film. It has a way of picking me up when I need picking up. And I’ll watch Mantan in anything he’s in, and from the Charlie Chan series to Cabin in the Sky and beyond, that covers a lot of territory. The guy was hilarious.
February 12th, 2015 at 1:30 am
Willie Best was the better physical comic, but no one beat Moreland for the patter and facial expressions. Over all I would easily give him the funniest crown. Many an otherwise forgettable film (including most of the Chan’s he did) was only saved by his presence, and in a good film he always contributed greatly.
I don’t know how groundbreaking racially these were, because though he is a servant Best has roughly the same relationship with Bob Hope in GHOST BREAKERS, and Moreland is a pretty even match for Jimmy Chan in those films despite being a hired hand.
The kid and the older black man dated back to Huck Finn and Jim, and was pretty well accepted. Because black men were not judged in movies to be real adults having them on roughly the same level as a boy Darro’s age was not as revolutionary as we may think. It was, in fact, a well established cliché in books and films.
Even in these there is still that unspoken acknowledgement that this low level job is as good as Moreland will have and Darro will grow up to better things because energetic go getter Darro is white and better things are there for the taking.
Someone once pointed out Stepin Fetchit in the Oland Chan’s is the only person in most of them other than Chan who knows Charlie is right and believes him, making him smarter than all the white people in the film. There is a subtle thing going on there where a Chinese and a black man are smarter than all the Europeans, much the same as the Mr. Moto films though he has no black companions.
The Hollywood approach to race was complex: Hattie MacDaniel could win an Oscar but there was a real question if she would be invited. Paul Robeson was a black actor in lead roles in films not made for black audiences alone, and Lena Horne made them very nervous since her beauty so obviously transcended race.
The black second fiddle could be almost the equal of a comic actor or a bit wiser than a child or teen actor but not portrayed as an adult in an adult world with a non menial job unless they were valet or chauffer and never equal to an adult hero. Preacher was about as high as they could go in film and that usually in a small run down Southern church. Rarely you saw a doctor.
But I agree with Dan to the extent that watching these films, seeing Best and Moreland in other films, I didn’t see them as derogatory stereotypes, I often saw them as the funniest and most sensible person in the film. Dick Purcell and Dick Foran are absolute idiots compared to Moreland in that Universal voodoo zombie film they were in. They are so stupid it is hard to root for them, but Moreland sees something wrong from the first scene.
I understand why many African Americans don’t like to be reminded of this era because those were the only roles they had, but watching AMOS AND ANDY on television what I got from it as a boy in Texas wasn’t just the comic performers, but straight black policemen, doctors, lawyers, judges, and businessmen something not all that common in the 1950’s South.
Of course I was brought up to respect everyone regardless of race, but there was enough racism around to have tainted me if I hadn’t grown up on Willie, and Mantan, and Snowflake, and Hattie, and Stepin and the rest who certainly improved most of the films they were in and in their own way were friends I grew up with.
Moreland one of the Stooges. I would have loved to have seen that.
February 12th, 2015 at 9:58 am
I think Mantan Moreland would have been great as one of the Stooges. They were all about comedy as slapstick fast action and he would have fit in with no problem.
The Stooges still make me laugh even when the comedy is the old pie in the face trick. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that the Stooges are just about strictly a guy thing. I’ve met very few women who like them at all. My theory is that the violence turns them off plus the Stooges are pretty homely and ugly looking to most women.
I think they look great though…
February 13th, 2015 at 11:13 pm
Walker,
Sarah, my second wife, was a Stooges fan. I was floored by it. Then my third wife, Sally liked them too. Maybe it is just Oklahoma girls, something in the endless wind and undrinkable water.
Dan,
I read somewhere that Moreland’s infinite talk routine influenced Bob Newhart’s early telephone routines though I don’t know how accurate that observation was.
February 14th, 2015 at 8:21 pm
Back in ’99, when the TV bio-movie of The Three Stooges aired on ABC, the then-cast of The View had Michael Chiklis, who played Curly, to plug it.
Meredith Vieira, who was in charge back then, mentioned that she’d always been a Stooges fan herself, attributing this to having been brought up with brothers. (David Vineyard can perhaps confirm this from his own experiences.)
The other panelists that day agreed on this; Barbara Walters also mentioned that she’d been a childhood friend of Larry Fine’s daughter (back when her father ran the Latin Quarter nitery).
If we’re going to keep mentioning Mantan Moreland’s signature routine –
– it’s called “indefinite talks”.
And one last nit to pick:
The man’s name was Frankie Darro – without a ‘w’.
February 14th, 2015 at 8:40 pm
Mike
I’ll fix all those misspelled Darro’s. Thanks for letting me know. I knew that but I didn’t catch it!
From IMDb: “A solo performer by nature, he [Moreland] often teamed up with other famous comics (such as Ben Carter) to keep working, and became a deft performer of “indefinite talk” routines, where two quicksilver comics continually topped each other in mid-sentence, as if reading each other’s mind (i.e., “Say, did you see…?” “Saw him just yesterday…didn’t look so good”).”
February 15th, 2015 at 5:03 pm
In re Frankie Darro (whose real real name was apparently Frank Johnson):
Late in his life, Mr. Darro gave an interview in which he observed that the parts he was still able to get (he was in his early 60s at that point) consisted of:
– messengers;
– elevator operators;
– news vendors;
– little old ladies (usually on Red Skelton’s show; he could still take a pretty good pratfall).
In typing this up, I note that at least two (possibly three) of these occupations are pretty much nonexistent today – and I’m old enough to remember when they weren’t …