Mon 13 Jul 2020
Mystery Movie Review: ROGUES GALLERY (1944).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[10] Comments
ROGUES GALLERY. PRC, 1944. Frank Jenks, Robin Raymond, H. B. Warner, Ray Walker, Davison Clark, Bob Homans. Director: Albert Herman.
First of all, this movie has nothing to do with the radio show of the same title, the one starring Dick Powell as a tough guy PI by the name of Richard Rogue, which ran as a summer replacement show on NBC for three years, 1945, 46 and 47. Nor does the title have anything to do with movie itself, a happening which was all too common for Poverty Row movie productions such as this one back in the 40s.
Robin Raymond may have gotten second billing in this one, but she’s really the star of the show. She plays a feisty young reporter named Patsy Clark, hellbent on always getting the big story on the next breaking story. Frank Jenks, her camera-toting partner in crime solving, is there only for comedy relief, as you probably realized as soon as you saw his name in the credits.
At stake in this otherwise totally unremarkable exercise in detective-comedy movie making, is a device cooked up by a home-based inventor that can eavesdrop on any conversation anywhere in the world.
Dead is one of the members of the board financing him, but whenever the cops are called in, the body always seems to disappear before they get there. Not once, but twice.
Pretty ho-hum stuff, you might say, and you’d be right if you did. The mugging act that Jenks puts on gets tiresome after a very short while, but Robin Raymond, who built a career in movies and TV playing uncredited roles over a long period of time, is quite another matter. I used the word “feisty†before, and believe me, she takes no guff from anyone. The way he walks into a room with fast energetic strides, her elbows pumping, made me smile every time she did.
It’s curious what catches your attention in small all-but-unknown murder mysteries like this one. Maybe it’s because there’s no real point in following the story itself.
PostScript. I’m spelling the title as it’s shown on the screen, not as you see it on the poster and the newspaper ad.
July 14th, 2020 at 12:53 am
You would be feisty too if you had to walk around all day with a pizza pie on your head. Least wise that is what Robin Raymond appears to be wearing in the photographs you posted.
July 14th, 2020 at 8:24 am
There’s no way to ignore the hat, is there? She wore it throughout the whole movie, which takes place in the span of one long day and then one even longer night.
July 14th, 2020 at 7:21 pm
A reminder how far H. B. Warner fell after appearing as Jesus in the silent KING OF KINGS. He was always better than this material, but it professional or not it must have been bitter.
Jenks got top billing a few times, but always as comic relief. Sad to say whenever he did, it said a lot about the film in question.
July 14th, 2020 at 7:49 pm
Yes, H. B. Warner in this film was a very sad sight to see.
July 14th, 2020 at 10:56 pm
Re H. B. Warner. He was not running a starring career, He played what was on he table, or more accurately, what the market would bear, and a few years later was importantly cast in Lost Horizon, later on in It’s A Wonderful Life, a significant moment in Hellfire, and probably more, this is just off the top of my head. Add All That Money Can Buy, Action In Arabia, The Ten Commandments.
July 15th, 2020 at 6:22 am
Right you are, Barry. Some perspective is always helpful. One small correction, though. LOST HORIZON came before this movie.
But do you know, I think I remember him most as Colonel Nielson in two or three of the Bulldog Drummond movies. (I just looked it up. It was three.)
July 15th, 2020 at 9:27 am
Yes, it did, I kept thinking of Rogues Gallery as early thirties. Wrong! Thanks, Steve.
July 15th, 2020 at 11:16 am
Warner was a favorite of Frank Capra. He’s in MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN,LOST HORIZON (Oscar nomination), MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON as well as LIFE.
July 15th, 2020 at 4:41 pm
As the inventor of the sci-fi communication device in this picture, you’d think he’d have more to do, but alas he doesn’t.
July 15th, 2020 at 7:43 pm
I didn’t mean to suggest Warner only appeared in these low budget films, but his road back was long and hard, and it would only be human to feel a little chagrined in a part like this one.
At least in the Drummond series he was replacing John Barrymore and C. Aubrey Smith.
He has always been a favorite character actor. Isn’t he also one of the regular card players in SUNSET BLVD. as himself?