Adventures of Kitty O'Day (1945)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

not as good as all the hype

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

That is the cemetery plot of movies that were D.O.A.One-shot director William Beaudine could sometimes take a sows ear of a script and turn it into a silk purse, with clever dialog, amusing characters and inspired casting. But for this sequel to "Detective Kitty O'Day", he simply took the same story, moved it to the location of Jean Parker and Peter Cookson's newest employer, and had the script changed a bit to make it appear fresh. Now the pair is working for a major hotel when the boss gets the axe, shot rather than drowned like her boss in the first film. To see this on a double bill with the previous entry in this (fortunately) two entry series is to waste an additional hour of viewing and a reminded that just because the poverty row studios turned out a few classics doesn't exclude them from having had some duds as well. The cheap sets and blurry photography only document the quick production schedule shooting of many Monogram films with no thought to the viewers recalling, "Wait a minute. Didn't I see this one once before with the exact same characters?".At least the laundry shoot scene where Parker, Cookson and the new detective working with veteran character actor Tim Ryan (husband of "Beverly Hillbillies" granny Irene Ryan and one of the writers of this opus) is a lot funnier than the window ledge sequence of the first. The absence of the original detective is explained by him being in a mental institution. He probably just read the script, panicked and said, "Oh no, not this again!".

While this is a decidedly minor comedy whodunit, it makes for a mildly diverting entertainment. I found it refreshing to see Jean Parker playing comedy for a change instead of being sweet-Sweet-SWEET in yet another weeper. Peter Cookson, as boyfriend Johnny, seemed to be doing a fair imitation of Cary Grant; I had to look and see where he was from with that curious accent (Oregon) just to be sure that the resemblance wasn't simply a coincidence. Someone, either the director or Cookson himself, clearly had Grant's flair for the screwballs in mind while shooting Johnny. And it's actually quite fun! It's a silly little B-movie, but as long as you don't require your mysteries to make much sense it's perfectly watchable. And if you're a Parker fan her presence makes it quite enjoyable.

The mystery here is secondary (though there is a memorable death by electrocution in an elevator!); the cute and energetic Jean Parker is the driving force of the film. Behind her sometimes flighty exterior, Kitty O'Day is a feminist pioneer - a brave woman who refuses to act like a robot or "stay in her place", like the men around her order her to do. However, the funniest performance in the film is given by Ralph Sanford as the inspector's assistant; just about any scene with him hits the comedic mark. The production is cheap, but the film moves right along and provides a highly enjoyable hour. I wish the adventures of Kitty O'Day had continued. **1/2 out of 4.

Watched this film on TV and found this film one big COMEDY with also murder, steam rooms, message parlors, dead bodies appearing in almost every room of a hotel. Jean Parker,(Kitty O'Day)," Dead Man's Eyes" ran around and sounded like Lucille Ball and always had a hat on her head no matter where she was; in elevators where a man was electrocuted. Kitty also ran around in circles with Peter Cookson,( Johnny Jones),"Detective Kitty O'Day", who was trying to keep Kitty safe and out of his way so he could solve a crime and at the same time try to keep her safe. This film was so way out in left field, I could hardly believe that anyone would find this film entertaining. I love old time films from way back when, but this particular film I really could have avoided watching.