Fri 17 Apr 2020
A PI Mystery Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: FIND THE BLACKMAILER (1943).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[12] Comments
REVIEWED BY DAN STUMPF:
FIND THE BLACKMAILER. Warner Brothers, 1943. Jerome Cowan, Faye Emerson, Gene Lockhart, Marjorie Hoshelle, Bradley Page, John Harmon, Lou Lubin, and Jimmy the Crow. Screenplay by Robert E Kent, from a story by G. T. Fleming-Roberts. Directed by D Ross Lederman.
I’m not really sure what prompted me to watch this, because if I saw it listed on TCM, the cast alone would have made it a “Must-Miss.†I mean, a movie starring Jerome Cowan? Jerome Cowan? Whothehell would ever make a movie starring Jerome Cowan? Whothehell would watch it?
Well I did, and I’m glad because this little 55-minute b-feature offers wit, speed, and a certain awareness of its own silliness I found irresistible.
Jerome Cowan tops the cast as D. L. Tree, the least-known Private Eye in town, and selected for that reason by aspiring mayoral candidate “Honest John†Rhodes (Gene Lockhart, who looks like he never did an honest thing in his life ) to deal with a gambler named Molner, who owns a crow he has trained to say, “Don’t kill me, Rhodes!†It seems Molner has plenty of enemies, and if he turns up dead, Rhodes could get convicted on the crow’s testimony.
Yeah. Convicted on a crow’s testimony. Okay. Well then. Faster than a speeding simile, Tree goes to Molner’s apartment and finds him dead on the floor, in the time-honored tradition of such stories. And so the search is on for the squawking squealer.
Said search gets quickly complicated by:
Molner’s rather ineffectual bodyguard (John Harmon) now in search of new employment;
Tree’s brassy secretary (Marjorie Hoshelle) in search of back pay;
Faye Emerson as a gold-digger with an inside track on the felonious fowl;
Cool gangster Bradley Page, who holds IOUs from a dead man;
A diminutive Hired Gun (Lou Lubin) sort of a smaller, nastier Wilmer Cook type with a ready gun.
A bent lawyer and the usual too-persistent cop showing up whenever they can be unhelpful.
That’s a lot of beef to be moving around in a movie this short, and Blackmailer takes the only reasonable course of action — chuck logic out of the script, throw in some rapid-fire patter and hope no one notices this thing makes no damn sense.
It works. Find the Blackmailer is a near-hour of fast-paced silliness with an ending so ludicrous I don’t dare reveal it – no one would believe me!
April 17th, 2020 at 3:38 pm
G. T. Fleming-Roberts was a well-known and very prolific pulp writer. I wonder if this could be the story the movie is based on: “Blackmail with Feathers,” novella, Detective Novels Magazine, August 1942.
April 17th, 2020 at 5:48 pm
Cowan had a brief period of playing fast talking private eyes, he even played Geoffrey Homes’ Humphrey Campbell opposite Jane Wyman and Jane Greer.
This one was more fun than it ought to be really, outrageous true, but also a lot of fun largely due to Cowan’s excellent timing and delivery of P.I. patter. It actually helps he’s nobodies idea of a tough guy private eye lead and even as a good guy always feels a bit sleazy.
April 17th, 2020 at 6:11 pm
Cowan didn’t have the greatest screen presence in the world, but yes, you’re right. He did play PI’s more often than you think he might have.
I’ve been trying to see if this is watchable anywhere online, but with no luck so far. That may be because Warner Archives issued it in a 6 movie, 3 DVD set a while back. I didn’t buy it when it came out, because some of the other movies that were included didn’t sound as though they’d be worth the money. Shh! The Octopus anyone?
April 17th, 2020 at 8:04 pm
Miles Archer!
April 18th, 2020 at 8:46 am
April 17th, 2020 at 8:21 pm
Steve,
Try Hastings Mystery Theater Find the Blackmailer on YouTube.
April 17th, 2020 at 9:26 pm
And there it is. Thanks, David. Don’t know why I couldn’t find it. I used to be able to find stuff right under my nose, but obviously not any more.
April 18th, 2020 at 8:11 am
Steve, I’ve seen 3 of the films in the set so far, sand all were worth watching. Not good films by most standards, but possessed of a certain bizarre charm.
As for SH! THE OCTOPUS, it wass immortalized by the late Johhn Nierminski in the pages of DAPA EM, back when ye were but a wee bairn.
April 18th, 2020 at 12:06 pm
Hah! I found my copy. I did buy the set of DVDs this one’s in, way back when it first came out. And do you know what’s the best way to find something that’s gone missing like ts? Be looking for something else.
April 18th, 2020 at 11:26 am
Regarding Jerome Cowan, and just to be clear, he was a terrific actor, effective in a broad range of parts. I’m surprised that he did not play more leads, but whenever he appeared, he was welcome.
April 18th, 2020 at 11:31 am
About presence, or lack of it; he held the screen against all manner of top stars. That is the defining quality we call presence.
April 18th, 2020 at 12:13 pm
Barry, You’re quite right. I spoke way too quickly about Cowen not having the greatest screen presence in the world. Comes from talking off the top of your head without thinking it through. And yet. If he had been chosen to play Sam Spade in TMF I don’t think we’d remember it as well as we do the one with Bogart in the role. . He was perfect as Archer, and I think that photo I found shows why.