mark.waltz Weak comedy involving murder, criminals and missing corpses, all with a newspaper and a wax museum setting. George Zucco, the British Erich Von Stroheim, is in the first scene shooting an alleged crime figure and for the rest of the movie, he's hunting down the corpse which walked while still alive into the museum and ends up being lost. The comedy comes in the form of reporter Ann Savage and museum worker Leo Gorcey (of the Bowery Boys series) and their efforts to find the corpse and get it to the police so the murder can be solved. It's all pretty confusing and silly and ultimately it really makes absolutely no sense. For a movie made from the Pine Thomas division of Paramount studios, this proves after "One Body Too Many" and "Scared Stuff" that comedy was not their forte. They did mostly war movies, so it seems out of their element. Savage better the same year when she starred in the film noir "Detour". Zucco comes off unscathed as the villain. Leo Gorcey is, while playing Slip Mahoney, although with a different character name. It's adequate for an hour long time filler with a few amusing lines, but the plot is absurd behind belief.

tavm This was the only film Leo Gorcey made outside of the East Side Kids series which would soon become the Bowery Boys after a year or so. He plays a worker at a museum that displays dummies of gangsters. The stars are William Gargan and Ann Savage as a couple of reporters mixed up in the mystery which takes place during one late night a murder takes place. I'll just now say this was quite a compact thriller with plenty of good humor to liven the proceedings. Among the players is someone from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life, a Charles Halton-who was Carter, the bank examiner in IAWL- who has quite a lot of screen time here as the easily tired owner of the place! So on that note, I recommend Midnight Manhunt.

wes-connors "A dead body is discovered in a wax museum and two rival reporters compete to break the story in this fast-paced, tough-talking crime caper. Renowned criminal Joe Wells is shot in his hotel room and stumbles into a wax museum, where office boy Clutch (Leo Gorcey) sweeps the floor and butchers the English language," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis, like he does in the "East Side Kid" movies ("I figgered this whole thing out by a process of mental reduction")."Feisty reporter Sue Gallagher (Ann Savage) discovers Wells' body and rushes to file the scoop, but is interrupted when her part-time lover and news colleague Pete Willis (William Gargan) learns of the story. Tensions flare up even more when Wells' killer (George Zucco) corners Sue in search of the corpse, unaware that Clutch has found it and moved it out of the museum!" "Midnight Manhunt" wastes an interesting cast and setting in a careless execution.*** Midnight Manhunt (7/27/45) William C. Thomas ~ William Gargan, Ann Savage, Leo Gorcey

djensen1 Diamond-thieving gangster Joe Wells winds up dead in a gangster wax museum where the jokers who run it not only recognize him but also happen to be pals with a couple of rival crime reporters. The reporters want the scoop. The cops want the corpse. And the old man just wants to go home because he's "so tired." Leo Gorcey provides a bit of comic relief with malapropisms and a troublesome cigar. The reporters cooperate and betray each other as it becomes convenient, regardless of how many laws they're breaking or how much danger they're in.The acting is generally good, not great, but the direction is very stagy. With so few sets and so little camera movement, this could easily be a stage play. It's the kind of movie where people tell each other to stop beating their gums and to go soak their heads, offer each other stiff drinks, and light a lot of cigarettes.The killer's explanation of why he hasn't just fled is ridiculous. And the shenanigans with the corpse are just bizarre.