The Girl Who Dared (1944)

That was an excellent one.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I've seen the public domain film, "Topper Returns", many times and have pretty much memorized all of the plot twists and dialog in that creepy last chapter of that short-lived screwball ghostly comedy series. Immediately upon beginning to watch this Republic mystery comedy, released just a few years later, I began to notice the similarities. A car breaks down on the way to a spooky mansion where mayhem is about to occur, the heroine (here Lorna Gray) deals with the wise-cracking mechanic (Peter Cookson) with whom romance is about to blossom, and once they get there, they find out that they actually were not invited, but other guests have shown up out of the blue as well. Several people are murdered, and the search for uranium on the distant property (disconnected from the mainland and only accessible by a Key Largo bridge like causeway) leads to further mystery. Like Eddie "Rochester" Anderson in "Topper Returns", there is a scaredy cat black servant (here Willie Best), and like the outcome of "Topper Returns", there is a clever way of trapping the killer. There are also secret panels and surprising clues and even twin sisters (Veda Ann Borg) who obviously hate each other. This is a surprisingly entertaining, if completely unoriginal, who-done-it, grasping the viewer in and not letting go until the final comes just an hour later. The spark between Gray and Cookson makes it all the more entertaining, and Borg gets to display two sides to her usual brash personality to make for an interesting characterization. In spite of the humiliating type of role Best plays, he is very funny, which speaks highly of his talents as a comic, even if it is a shame that he had to endure the types of parts he was cast in during his long career.

Okay, you've likely seen the format before—a creepy isolated house, a series of murders, an attractive cast that includes the murderer, and an amateur sleuth. But also throw in a batch of radium a full year before the A-bomb, plus a purported ghost, for good measure. Surprisingly, the rather murky whodunit is not uppermost, instead it's the characters and atmosphere. What it all adds up to is a decent little programmer for wartime audiences and even for later folks taking a break from the computer.You just know from the outset that despite appearances Blair (Cookson) can't be the bad guy, he's just too good-looking. Besides, the winsome Ann (Gray) takes a shine to him, and you know how Hollywood is in that regard. It's an attractive cast of vets and up and comers, but I did get confused at times with the similar names and appearances. Plus, the reveal scene was much too brief, like someone's contract had suddenly run out. Nonetheless, that one ghost scene was truly spooky, along with the usual secret passages, shadowy rooms, and stormy nights. Come to think of it, I miss old b&w for the effects that color simply cannot duplicate—new Hollywood should loosen up! Anyway, it's a fun little hour with a gang of Hollywood pro's and an old dark house. So how can you lose.

Several people are invited to the home of Beau and Chattie Richmond for a party at which the "ghost of Heron Point" will make an appearance. The thing is - the Richmonds did not send out the invitations. The ghost is supposedly one of the crew of a pirate ship that sunk a hundred years ago near the Richmond estate. Then there's the mysterious mechanic who crashes the party. While the guests await for the ghost to appear, one of them is murdered but her body later disappears. Two more murders follow. This dark house type mystery is devoid of humor, has a thin and unbelievable plot, and a not really spooky atmosphere but is nonetheless mildly entertaining to watch because of the cast. Oh, there's Superman (Kirk Alyn), there's Perry White (John Hamilton), there's the guy that was in a gazillion Westerns (Roy Bancroft), there's Loretta Young's first husband and actor in dozens of B movies (Grant Withers), there's the brassy and always competent character actress Veda Ann Borg, and last, but not least, there's Willie Best as the servant who is always scared. At least the motive for the murder is somewhat innovative as is the ploy for identifying him. The lead characters, played by Peter Cookson and Lorna Gray are pretty bland. It is sad, though, to have to watch the talented comedian Willie Best as a shuffling, scared servant. This an actor who Bob Hope evidently referred to as one of the finest performers he ever worked with. What a waste and what a shame.

"The Girl Who Dared" sounds more like a Western adventure instead of a B old-dark-house mystery, but the latter is what it is. This fast (under an hour), breezy film is something of a variation of "And Then There Were None," and actually beat the film version of the Agatha Christie novel to the screens by a year! It leaves no convention unexplored and no cliché unplumbed, and the identity of the killer is more random than motive-inspired. But it is competently done, with some interesting camera work for such a cheapie, and a couple decent plot twists. The trapping of the killer is unique, too. The cast performs competently, and some of the actors play against their usual types, particularly Roy Barcroft, normally a Western and Serial heavy who here plays the hotheaded, jealous ex-husband of one of the key characters, and Kirk "Superman" Alyn, as the equally hot-headed brother of the "Girl" of the title. John "Perry White" Hamilton also enjoys a larger and different kind of role than he was normally given. If only the filmmakers had been so generous with Willie Best, who once again shuffles around as a pop-eyed, comic relief servant who is afraid of his own shadow. All in all, it's worth an hour of a movie buff's time.