Thieves Fall Out

Fast-paced family comedy similar to what Disney produced in the 50's and 60's. Very likeable cast includes Eddy Arnold, Jane Darwell, Alan Hale. Son of a mattress factory owner buys his own factory and gets involved with gangsters (Anthony Quinn and Frank Faylen!). If you don't like feisty, wise-cracking grandma's (Jane Darwell hams it up), skip it; otherwise, quite enjoyable.

Jane Darwell as Grandma Allen sure stole the show in this old black and white rags to riches story from 1941. Darwell had just won the Oscar for playing Ma Joad in Grapes of Wrath. Robert Barnes (Alan Hale) and Ed Barnes (Eddie Albert) are father and son, in this love story and mistaken identity caper, with Grandma helping things along. Joan Leslie is Mary, the blushing bride, along for the ride. Even a young Anthony Quinn as "Collins" the thug. Blossom, the laughing maid, is played by Etta McDaniel, sister of Hattie. Looks like the McDaniel sisters only worked together once in "Stella Dallas" in 1937. Alan Hale, who usually played the old, gruff sea salt, made 235 films, starting in 1911. Eddie Albert's biggest movie was Roman Holiday in 1953 and of course he played "Oliver" in the Green Acres TV series. He had only been in films for three years when he made "Thieves Fall Out". Any flick that has the good guys trying to outwit the bad guys has to have inept cops, and Edward Brophy and Edward Gargan are here, playing their usual roles.

Eddie Barnes (Eddie Albert) is a young man still living with his family and working for his father. Slimy George keeps diminishing him in front of his girlfriend Mary Matthews. He needs money to move out. He is the beneficiary of a life insurance policy but his mother has to die first. He tries to buy a business. For the money, he sells the policy. Chic Collins (Anthony Quinn) is a gangster who needs to get paid and is willing to kill for it.

The premise is a little convoluted, a little dark, and not all that funny. It's great to see a young Eddie Albert and it doesn't hurt to have Anthony Quinn. The premise is really a black comedy, but it's done in a light comedic tone. Instead of a comedy, this premise may work better as a noirish crime thriller. The light comedic tone is conducive to Chic Collins being a wet bandit.

... one of them is interesting. Nor do they all really mesh.

I have noticed that many of the movies falling into the "hicks nix sticks pix" type have rather complicated legal and financial transactions at their center. This one is about a legacy -- and how and why not to sell one.

How many people in 1941 knew what that even meant? Eddie Albert, always a likable performer, is the one who sells one. It's his mother's but there is a clause allowing for him to get money while she's still alive if he marries and ... Oh, forget it. That is another plot. He gets married.

He buys a company. He doesn't tell his father. He doesn't tell his father-in-law.

His grandmother, Jane Darwell, tries to help the young couple out. And she gets into quite a pickle herself.

This is neither fish nor fowl. It isn't especially funny. It isn't really romantic. And it's one of those movies in which gangsters are adorable bumbling and ostensibly cute.

As a post script, the two gangsters in question have a couple sequences that presage the two in "The Big Combo." I'm sure Anthony Quinn, who plays the boss, didn't know this. It may have been subliminal even. But it's there.

B-movie comedy from Warner Brothers and director Ray Enright. Eddie (Eddie Albert) and Mary (Joan Leslie) elope, upsetting their respective fathers who are business rivals. Eddie struggles to get started in business himself, but his grandmother (Jane Darwell) convinces him to sell his inheritance to a broker for quick cash. Unfortunately, the broker is also in league with some gangsters.

I was disappointed at first, as judging by the title, I expected a crime drama of some sort, only to be met with a slightly-dopey domestic comedy. However, it grew on me a bit during its brief running time, mainly due to the fun performance by Jane Darwell as the meddling grandmother. I still don't think this is anything people should seek out, but it's a pleasant time-waster if you happen to run across it. Joan Leslie was only 16 at the time of filming. Etta McDaniel, playing a stereotypical maid, was the less well-known sister of character performers Hattie McDaniel and Sam McDaniel