Thursday, May 31, 2018
516 - Who Done It?, United States, 1942. Dir. Erle C. Kenton.
What do you do when you dream of being a writer for a nationally syndicated radio program?
Get a job as a soda jerk at the soda counter in the lobby.
Of course it helps to be competent. After all, this is Abbott and Costello we are talking about.
Or Chick Larkin and Mervyn Q. Milgrim in this case.
They do gags at the counter, showing off their lack of skills.
But through a series of shenanigans, including getting in with the Colonel's secretary, they find themselves upstairs in the studio during the live broadcast of the big show, Murder at Midnight.
And as the show progresses and the plot unfolds, the events of the show really happen in real life.
Or to put it another way, the Colonel--Col. J. R. Andrews, president of the radio network--is killed. Electrocuted, to be precise. In his chair during the show. As he depresses the button to engage his microphone.
Someone has rigged his seat. Turned it into an electric chair.
And for the rest of the film we will ask that simple, age-old question, Who done it?
As we parade past a cadre of characters. Many of whom are prime suspects.
The film begins with shadows. Dark blacks. Hard lights. Three men in silhouettes. A fourth man. A shadowy figure. Enters and shoots. Fires a shadowy gun. Establishes the film noir vocabulary of the film. And the tone of parody that is to come.
After the service comedies, and the Western, and the trip to the islands--all musicals, all song-and-dance shows--this one stands apart as a genre parody. A comedy of a crime drama.
With performances by actors from real crime drama actors. Including William Gargon, Don Porter, Jerome Cowan, Thomas Gomez, and William Bendix.
By the end of the film, we will know who done it.
But we will spend the bulk film caring less about that question than about following all the nonsense.
And no one does nonsense quite like Abbott and Costello.
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