Find the Blackmailer

I agree with howdymax on this one. The plot is fairly nonsensical, but the lead characters' snappy dialogue and quick-moving running time make for a very enjoyable time. Plus, there's a certain amount of joy I feel when I discover a film I've never heard of (directed by some guy I've never heard of) on TCM early on a lazy Saturday morning. Know whatimean

Like the Maltese Falcon, Warner Brothers "B" detective thriller Find The Blackmailer involves a search for a black bird. Here the resemblance ends. In this case the black bird, rather than a jewel-encrusted statuette, is absurdly a talking crow, which can put the finger on the detective's client for a murder. Honestly! Not as bad as it sounds, but not Golden Era Hollywood at its best either.

The principle attractions of this picture are the unusual and charming casting of Jerome Cowan in the lead role as the tough if somewhat bumbling detective and some stylish noir cinematography by James Van Trees. Cowan is ably supported by the ever reliable Gene Lockhart as his blackmailed politician client, Margorie Hoshelle as his breezy, underpaid secretary, and second-billed Faye Emerson as a nasty femme fa-tale. The script is muddled, ridiculous, and padded out with a lot of meandering, unnecessary action. It looks as if director D. Ross Lederman was struggling to squeeze out the required 55-minute running time. If his picture had been tightly edited, it could have easily run only 40 minutes without losing anything. Dialog is cliché-ridden, but fun. Just about every wise-crack and every colorful slang term from every detective, mystery, cops-and-robbers picture from the previous decade as been gathered for recycling in Find The Blackmailer. Surly this picture was meant to be a spoof. Big hint -- the detective's name is Trees, same as the cinematographer. Or does that just mean they were making up the script as they went along? This suspicion will creep in from time to time as you watch the strange proceedings. Never mind, just relax and enjoy. You can't be expected to figure it out if it doesn't make sense. And it most assuredly does not. Cowan's character is more humorous that tough. Cowan didn't have a muscle in his body, but he still manages to get tough when needed by keeping his hand on the .32 automatic in his coat pocket. But mostly he just cracks wise and grins through his trademark pencil-line mustache.

But not so bad for all that. As yours truly has stated elsewhere about other, better second features, the big studios of Old Hollywood could turn out good-looking, entertaining pictures while only half-way trying. In Find The Blackmailer it looks as if they didn't try much at all, yet it still turned out a watchable, even enjoyable picture -- if you're in the right mood.

"Find the Blackmailer" is a Warner Brothers comedy mystery that probably was made to capitalize on the string of such films that were highly successful with other studios. Among those were MGM's "Thin Man" of 1934 and its several sequels that carried past the mid-1940s. Some others were Philo Vance and Boston Blackie films that had different stars over the years, and were made by different studios. But this isn't of the caliber of the Thin Man series and its star roles that William Powell and Myrna Loy owned.

Jerome Cowan as private-eye D. L. Trees, and his secretary, Pandora Pines (played by Marjorie Hoshelle) can't match the acting of Powell and Loy. And the writing and screenplay here are definitely second tier. But Cowan and Hoshelle give it their best, and the film is at least entertaining. Even with some plot holes and guess work that doesn't gel with what the audience sees.

One interesting faux pas I noticed in this film is when Trees discovers the body of the murder victim. He then kneels down and proceeds to touch and handle various things - a broken lightbulb by its base, a drink glass, the coffee table. That's a no-no at a crime scene that Powell's Nick Charles and any savvy private-eye would never do. Well, as I said, it's a second-rate job all around.

Here's my favorite exchange of dialog in this film.

D. L. Trees, "Oh, don't bother me. I'm thinking." Pandora Pines, his secretary and girlfriend, "Uh, uh. You just think you're thinking." Trees, "If you really wanna know, I'm thinking how I'm gonna pay your salary." Pandora, "I have it. I'll lend you the money." Trees, "That ain't funny, Magee. Now be quiet. I'm listening to the radio."

Top character actor Jerome Cowan ("The Maltese Falcon") gets boosted to star status for this B level mystery-comedy from Warner Bros. He plays an unpopular private detective, D. L. Trees, who's currently hard up for cash. Then a mayoral candidate (Gene Lockhart, "Miracle on 34th Street") who promises honesty & integrity in his campaign tasks Trees with finding a pet crow that's been trained to talk, since the bird can supposedly implicate the politician in threatening the life of a shady character named Molner.

Like a lot of mystery plots, the story of "Find the Blackmailer" can get convoluted enough that one may indeed need to watch this more than once to understand everything that's going on. Great cinema it's not, but it's a perfectly serviceable, solidly entertaining B movie with a decent sense of humor; a fair number of the lines actually made me laugh out loud. The cast plays their roles to the hilt, and this little movie, despite mostly consisting of snappy dialogue, just races along, clocking in at an impressively brief 56 minutes (one of the shortest movies released by Warner Bros. In 1943).

Mostly, it's a treat to watch Cowan in this starring role, as he handles himself with great style and utters quips frequently. But it's worth sticking with this to the end for that final twist.

Seven out of 10.

"Find the Blackmailer" stars Jerome Cowan as D.L. Trees, a snappy-talking private eye. It's funny, but although Cowan has well over 200 credits on IMDB, he almost never starred in anything but was a supporting character actor. It's really a shame, as he was great in the film and I would like to see more performances like this. He looks like a normal everyday guy...but comes off well as the snappy private detective.

As far as the plot goes, there is the problem. Although Cowan and all the other actors did a great job, they were saddled with a silly plot...really, really silly. It seems that a new client wants Trees to find a talking crow that has been taught to say that he had murdered someone. Now perhaps I am naive, but I cannot see a crow coming in to court to testify. Fortunately, after a while the talking bird angle becomes less important when bodies start to pile up. But still...a case to find a talking crow?!

Overall, watchable but a bit silly as well. Not surprising when you consider that it's a quickie B-movie...and sometimes plot holes and silly plot devices aren't major concerns by the directors or studios.