Fly-By-Night

A 39 Steps clone but not a bad one by any means. Richard Carlson plays a doctor who finds himself on the run accused of murder, which leads to Nazi business of course because it's 1942. I believe the term often used in wrongfully accused stories is "through no fault of his own." Well that's not the case here. Carlson's character is a total idiot who makes one mistake after another. I don't blame the police for suspecting him. The guy was acting guilty as sin.

Despite the writing for him, Carlson does a fine job. He's a likable guy even when he's manhandling half-dressed women, waving guns around at people without provocation, or robbing a sweet old couple. The rest of the cast is even better. No, not Nancy Kelly. She's pretty bland. I mean the list of notable character actors in this - Walter Kingsford, Cy Kendall, Miles Mander, Martin Kosleck, Albert Bassermann among others. Robert Siodmak directs and does a fine job with one of his earliest American movies. There's one scene near the end where things get dark in a shocking way that really surprised me. It's a tease of what would come later with Siodmak's film noir successes.

Above-average Paramount "B" thriller from director Robert Siodmak. A few surprises (including an imaginative action sequence and a jolting revelation during a climatic confrontation) elevate a standard falsely-accused-man-on-the-lam plot. Well-paced and atmospheric.

Lots of superior, busy, jobbing actors and an excellent screenplay elevate an otherwise silly, farfetched yarn which has been told a thousand times before.

Chap goes on the run to clear his name and initially unenthusiastic girl gets roped in to help and everything works out in the end.

The chemistry between the leads is fun to watch and there are some laugh out loud moments even after eighty years. My favourite is the scene in the shrinks office, when the doctor has a fit when the shrink lights a match! There are other delicious comedic moments, too.

Despite the silliness, it's not a screwball comedy. Despite some deaths, it's not really a mystery thriller, either. It has a light touch of espionage, though.

Well worth a watch.

At this moment it's on YouTube under the heading 'Fly By Night (1942)'.

Saw it when I was in high school and enjoyed the auto driving backwards off the auto-carrier. Am looking for a VHS or DVD copy. Any suggestions. I found out later that this picture was Nancy Kelly's first picture for Paramount. Also believe that Ms Kelly displayed her nice legs at least 2 times ,with Richard Carlson covering them up by pulling down her skirt, as she was lying ,havng fainted, on a couch. I think , if I remember correctly, that Richard Carlson, was a innocent man that got involved and could not help himself. Even though it was ab picture, the director gave it plenty of suspense and action. The best naturally, was the great ending. Naturally , it was a long time ago , but it made quite an impression on me,especially since it was during the War. As I said before , I would be happy to find even a good copy of this film.

Doctor Richard Carlson is accosted by an escaped madman, babbling about a respected scientist, a train station check, and G-32. While Carlson is on the telephone, the man is knifed. Carlson tries to tend to him, but the police break in and are about to arrest him, when he goes out a window and winds up in Nancy Kelly's room.

Robert Siodmak's second American feature spends its first half looking like a tired retread of Hitchcock's THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS. I grumpily noted that Nancy Kelly comes to trust Carlson awfully rapidly and the humor is both more forced and mechanical; there's none of Robert Donat's loopy "How could this be happening to me?" humor. It's in the second half, when Carlson and Kelly are actually tracking down the Maguffin's mystery, that it goes off on its own track. At this point, the movie comes into its own, with a shocking denouement that renders it worthwhile.

Within a few years, Siodmak would be directing solid film noir movies. Given the Hitchcock background, one would think this would be an early film noir, but John Seitz' camerawork is far too American and brightly lit and cheery. When it came out, in January, there wasn't much of a noir impetus at Paramount. It wouldn't be until the fall, when Theodore Sparkuhl's camerawork on THE GLASS KEY showed that the company would produce a real noir.