Thu 11 Feb 2021
A PI Mystery Movie Review: X MARKS THE SPOT (1942).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[7] Comments
X MARKS THE SPOT. Republic Pictures, 1942. Damian O’Flynn as PI Eddie Delaney, Helen Parrish, Dick Purcell, Jack La Rue, Neil Hamilton, Robert Homans, Anne Jeffreys, Dick Wessel. Co-screenwriter: Stuart Palmer. Director: George Sherman. The movie can currently be seen online here.
Just two days before he’s off to help fight the war, the father of PI Eddie Delaney is killed while on duty as an on-the-beat policeman. Grieving, Delany is given a chance to do something about it when he’s hired by a man to look into a case of trucks being hijacked while loaded with tires. Rubber being at a premium in the early days of the war, this is no trivial matter.
And besides working on the case, Delany senses a connection between it and his father’s death. His dad, he thinks, stumbled across something he shouldn’t have, and it cost him his life.
That’s about the extent of the plot, but the 52 minutes of running time is filled to the brim. Besides at least three deaths (I may have lost count), a budding romance between Delaney and Linda Ward (Helen Parrish) as one of the girls working at the headquarters of a citywide telephone jukebox system, and of course she helps him out with the case he’s on.
As a detective story, the screenwriters had a tough job keeping the killer’s identity a secret, with all of the suspects being killed off, one by one. By the time the last reel is shown, there are no suspects left.
The cast consists of players who have no name recognition today, and they may not have even back then. I sometimes wonder if they might not even be recognized by people such as ourselves who watch movies such as this one and go look them up on IMDb as soon as the movie is over.
Centralized telephone jukebox systems have come up for discussion on this blog before, that so happening as part of my review of Swing Hostess (1944), starring Martha Tilton, and the comments following. Here’s the link: Click here.
More details on such an operation and better photos from X Marks the Spot can be found here: Click here.
February 12th, 2021 at 1:17 pm
I saw this movie not long ago and it reminded me of that long-ago discussion.
February 12th, 2021 at 1:25 pm
There is a lot of the history of the everyday lives in this country that you will never find in history books. And that’s why preserving old movies such as this one is so important.
February 12th, 2021 at 3:47 pm
Programmers and mystery novels often reflect the lives and mores of their era more unselfconsciously than their “classic” counterparts, for better or worse.
February 12th, 2021 at 8:16 pm
I’d only say Jack LaRue, Dick Purcell, Neil Hamilton, Anne Jeffries, and Dick Wessel may not be well known now, but most were fairly recognizable for quite a while after their careers ended, Jeffries and Hamilton more for television than films perhaps (Marion Kirby in TOPPER and Commissioner Gordon in BATMAN), and Purcell as CAPTAIN AMERICA in the Republic Serial as well as a second lead in quite a few films, especially during the war when there was a shortage of leading men.
LaRue is probably best remembered today for being in THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE and NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH which was plagiarized from it pretty much in the same role, but was a fairly familiar face to anyone who likes older movies, and any lover of gangster films and B Westerns.
The leading man, O’Flynn is probably less known than any of them.
February 12th, 2021 at 8:53 pm
O’Flynn was completely new to me, too, but from Wikipedia, here’s a long list of some of the films he was in. (Most are NOT starring roles, true.)
Selected filmography
Marked Woman (1937) – Ralph Krawford
Rage in Heaven (1941) – Bill – Steelworker #3 (uncredited)
Lady Scarface (1941) – Lt. Onslow
The Gay Falcon (1941) – Noel Weber
The Great Man’s Lady (1942) – Burns (uncredited)
Broadway (1942) – Scar Edwards
Powder Town (1942) – Oliver Lindsay
Wake Island (1942) – Capt. Bill Patrick
X Marks the Spot (1942) – Eddie Delaney
Flight for Freedom (1943) – Pete (uncredited)
Sarong Girl (1943) – Gil Gailord
So Proudly We Hail! (1943) – Capt. Saunders (uncredited)
Winged Victory (1944) – Col. Ross (uncredited)
Miss Susie Slagle’s (1946) – Dr. Benton (uncredited)
Crack-Up (1946) – Stevenson
The Bachelor’s Daughters (1946) – Rex Miller
The Devil on Wheels (1947) – John Clark
The Beginning or the End (1947) – C.D. Howe
Philo Vance Returns (1947) – Larry Blendon
Saddle Pals (1947) – Bradford Collins
Web of Danger (1947) – Bill O’Hara
Devil Ship (1947) – Red Mason
On Our Merry Way (1948) – Charlie Smallwood – Movie Director (uncredited)
Half Past Midnight (1948) – Murray Evans
A Foreign Affair (1948) – Lieutenant Colonel
The Snake Pit (1948) – Mr. Stuart
Disaster (1948) – Detective Dearborn
Words and Music (1948) – Producer (uncredited)
Riders of the Whistling Pines (1949) – Henchman Bill Wright
Outpost in Morocco (1949) – Commandant Louis Fronval
Black Midnight (1949) – Bill Jordan
Pioneer Marshal (1949) – Bruce Burnett
Young Daniel Boone (1950) – Capt. Fraser
Bomba and the Hidden City (1950) – Dennis Johnson
Mystery Submarine (1950) – Admiral (uncredited)
Gambling House (1951) – Ralph Douglas
You’re in the Navy Now (1951) – Doctor (uncredited)
Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) – Capt. Baxter (uncredited)
Fighting Coast Guard (1951) – Captain Adair
Yellow Fin (1951) – Capt. John Donovan
Hoodlum Empire (1952) – Ralph Foster
The Pride of St. Louis (1952) – Johnnie Bishop (uncredited)
The Half-Breed (1952) – Captain Jackson
Plymouth Adventure (1952) – Clarke (uncredited)
Thunderbirds (1952) – Minor Role (uncredited)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) – Col. Baker (uncredited)
The Miami Story (1954) – Police Chief Martin Belman
The Far Country (1954) – Second Mate on Riverboat (uncredited)
The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) – Sir Alexander (uncredited)
Two Guns and a Badge (1954) – John Wilson – Banker
Daddy Long Legs (1955) – Larry Hamilton (uncredited)
One Desire (1955) – Fire Chief (uncredited)
Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955) – Police Chief (uncredited)
Hidden Guns (1956) – Kingsley
D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) – Gen. Pike (uncredited)
Drango (1957) – Gareth Blackford
Apache Warrior (1957) – Major
Teenage Doll (1957) – Harold Bonney (uncredited)
Eighteen and Anxious (1957) – John Bayne
Why Must I Die? (1960) – D.A. Walter Dennison
Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) – Asa Winton (uncredited)
Mirage (1965) – Bar Patron (uncredited)
February 16th, 2021 at 11:55 am
The above list is only Damian O’Flynn’s feature films.
Mr. O’Flynn was all over TV in the later years of his career.
They always need someone to be the crime victim in the first few minutes of the show, and that’s what Damian O’Flynn, and others like him, did for many years.
One of Mr. O’Flynn’s appearances was in the pilot film of Batman; he’s the art dealer whom Frank Gorshin’s Riddler sticks up at the start of the show – and likely more people saw that show in its first airing than saw this movie ever (not a quality judgement, just a fact of life).
There are no small actors – only paychecks.
February 16th, 2021 at 4:03 pm
You’re right, Mike, as always. I would have had to have gone to IMDb for his TV credits, and it would not have been easy to cram them all into one of these small comment boxes.