Thu 26 Apr 2012
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE CRIMSON KEY (1947).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[5] Comments
THE CRIMSON KEY. 20th Century Fox, 1947. Kent Taylor, Doris Dowling, Dennis Hoey, Louise Currey, Ivan Triesault, Bernadene Hayes, Victor Sen Young. Original story and screenplay: Irving Elman. Director: Eugene Forde. Shown at Cinevent 39, Columbus OH, May 2003.
This “B” film, independently produced by Sol Wurtzel for release by Fox back in 1947, was an entertaining (if somewhat muddled) crime drama, with Kent Taylor as private eye Larry Morgan attempting to sort out the conflicting loyalties (and dubious innocence) of the various characters (mostly women) who keep hiring him for what turn out to be motives that don’t make him a great favorite of the police.
It was fun to see Dennis Hoey, the befuddled Lestrade of the Sherlock Holmes series, as a befuddled husband, and Victor Sen Young, buried at the bottom of a very long list of credits (from which I resurrected him), registers strongly as a faithful, possibly sinister Oriental servant.
Kent Taylor’s crisp performance, dotted with breezy one-liners, validated his star billing, and Doris Dowling, Bernadene Hayes, and Louise Currie, played (respectively) two women who hire Taylor, and his faithful, seldom paid secretary.
April 26th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
When I think of Kent Taylor, what comes to mind first is the starring role he had in the 1950s BOSTON BLACKIE series. Looking at his list in credits, I see he also had the leading role in THE ROUGH RIDER, as Captain Jim Flagg. Yet another ABC series that not only have I never seen, I’d not even heard of it till now.
Doris Dowling’s third and fourth movies were THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) and THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946), followed immediately by this one, which seems to have been a big step down. She had a long career on TV into the 80s, but I’d never noticed her name until now.
April 27th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Kent Taylor had a distant relationship to Jerry Siegel. His name, along with that of Clark Gable, formed Clark Kent. Gable was the personal favorite film actor, at a time when such things surely mattered, of Siegel. In any case there is a lot out there, socially and politically, for and about the Superman character.
April 27th, 2012 at 11:44 am
Actually, it was THE ROUGH RIDERS which starred Taylor as an ex-Union captain, Jan Merlin as an ex-Confederate lieutenant and Peter Whitney as an ex-union sergeant as they roamed the west.
April 27th, 2012 at 11:54 am
What a difference an “S” makes! Thanks for catching that, Ray.
There’s a long write-up of the series on Boyd Magers western site, with lots of photos. Check it out at
http://www.westernclippings.com/remember/roughriders_doyouremember.shtml
April 27th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Barry @Comment #2
That’s a great story about where Clark Kent’s name came from. I may have heard it before, but if so, I’d forgotten all about it until you reminded me.
It is too bad that Taylor’s film career ended so badly, with such a slew of D-ranking horror films like Satan’s Sadists, I Spit on Your Corpse, and Psycho A-Go-Go.