"Irish Luck" is the first film of the unheralded and forgotten comedy team of Mantan Moreland and Frankie Darro. The two men sadly only had a handful of pictures in which to craft their partnership but these films are historically important and deserve to be better known. Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland remain the very first film team in cinematic history to depict a white man and a black man as equal partners. In each one of their films together, Darro and Moreland were on equal social and professional levels in the depiction of their film characters. Both men were friends on screen and in real life (in fact, Darro served as pallbearer at Moreland's funeral). In each film, Darro interacted with Moreland as if there were no color barrier between them while Mantan behaved as Frankie's equal in each film situation. The significance of such a matter of fact cinematic depiction of racial equality is monumental in film history (especially as it occurred in 1939: the year Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for playing Vivien Leigh's slave -- no equality to be found in their screen partnership!)
"Irish Luck" (subtitled "Amateur Detective") is based on the obscure mystery novel "Death Hops the Bells" by Charles Molyneux Brown and concerns the amateur crime-fighting exploits of bellhop Buzzy O'Brien (Darro) and hotel baggage clerk Jefferson (Moreland). The film opens seemingly halfway into another movie. Fire engines and police cars speed to the Hotel Royale with sirens screaming. Buzzy is seen hiding underneath a bed in a hotel room while unknowing gangsters discuss their plans. Simultaneously a suicidal woman paces back and forth on the hotel roof ledge; this is the cause for concern among the racing fire engines and police cars. A bewildered viewer must at this point be thinking that the DVD company must have left out a couple of reels from the beginning of the film. What is going on?!?
Of course, this isn't the actual plot of "Irish Luck" but only a quick setup to portray the characters of Buzzy and Jefferson as amateur sleuths. The suicidal woman on the roof is in actuality only a dummy rigged up by Jefferson to get the cops to the hotel quick in order to catch the gangsters who have Buzzy trapped under a bed. This is the only way to get help fast since the pair's previous amateur sleuthing has so annoyed the authorities that calling the police would be a case of our heroes merely "crying wolf". Naturally, Detective Steve Lanahan (Dick Purcell who would later co-star with Mantan Moreland again in both "King of the Zombies" and "Phantom Killer") arrests the gangsters and gives Buzzy a telling-off about playing detective. Buzzy promises he's through with sleuthing and the pair go back to work at the hotel.
Before too much time goes by, Buzzy's penchant for clue-gathering lands him right in the middle of another mess. Hotel guest Kitty Monahan (Sheila Darcy) asks Buzzy to call down to the front desk and ask if there is a Thaddeus Porter staying in the hotel. There is. When Buzzy looks at the tip Kitty has slipped him, it turns out to be a small charm of the "see no evil hear no evil speak no evil" monkeys. Buzzy discovers that Porter is a big time banker and manages to finagle delivering a telegram to the man. On the way up to Porter's room, Buzzy barrels into another man as he exits the elevator. Buzzy falls flat on his back as the man, holding his injured nose, berates him for clumsiness. The man gets on the elevator and disappears before Buzzy notices a baggage claim check the man must have dropped. Too late to return it, Buzzy heads for Porter's room. He just glimpses the door to Kitty Monahan's room closing. When he turns the corner, he finds Jefferson knocking on Porter's partially ajar door. The two men push open the door to find the dead banker's corpse. Jefferson tells Buzzy he saw a woman in a striped dress leaving Porter's room. Buzzy secretly opens Porter's telegram which reads: "K. M. left for Bluff City by bus this morning. Have Her Watched. She may contact Jim. Signed Wilkins, Sheriff". Buzzy pretends to call the police, locks Jefferson in the room with the corpse and bolts to Kitty's room to warn her she was seen leaving Porter's room. Kitty insists she went to see Porter and was told to hide in the bedroom when two unidentified men knocked on the door. They argued with Porter and left. She came out to find the banker had been stabbed. Buzzy has Kitty quickly get out of her striped dress and go down to the lobby to await instructions. Buzzy disposes of the dress down a laundry chute and rejoins Jefferson in the murder room. Buzzy then calls the police for real this time and once again faces the exasperated displeasure of Detective Lanahan. The plot soon comes to involve Kitty's missing brother Jim and $100,000 in missing bank bonds but the plot of "Irish Luck" is only secondary to the screen presence of Darro and Moreland. They are the real reason to watch the film; even though the mystery plot is quite good in itself.
Michael Price and George Turner (in their book "Forgotton Horrors 2") remark that "Darro and Moreland are about equally matched in the google-eyes department when it comes to scared-silly reactions." This fact can readily be seen by just glancing at the back of the Alpha DVD of "Irish Luck" which displays a photo of both actors in full "google". Price and Turner go on to say: "Darro concentrates on the boyish impulsiveness that generates their close shaves, where Moreland is more the wise and resourceful party who has a philosophical quip for every occasion and an outlandish solution for the final desperate encounter." This formula for their film characterizations would be used in all of their further screen teamings.
Being the first film in this loose series, "Irish Luck" hasn't fully crystalized the on screen chemistry of the Moreland/Darro team. Subsequent entries in the series would showcase the comfortable and relaxed magic the two actors could create effortlessly when working together in such joyful romps as "Up In the Air" and "You're Out of Luck". Frankie and Mantan were a natural team. Someone must have realized how good they were on screen together or why else would they have been assigned to make over a half dozen pictures together. This realization makes it even more odd that the two were never touted as a screen team even though they clearly were (and a great one at that). As Price and Turner lament in "Forgotten Horrors 2" (as the only champions of the Darro/Moreland team I've ever seen), the simple addition of an ampersand in movie posters and advertising would have drawn the public's attention to the fact that Mantan & Frankie were a team and cemented that idea in the collective public consciousness. This could have led to more and better film teamings and a wide recognition among film scholars of the ground-breaking importance of the film partnership of Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland.
Friday, February 03, 2006
"Irish Luck" is the first film of the unheralded and forgotten comedy team of Mantan Moreland and Frankie Darro. The two men sadly only had a handful of pictures in which to craft their partnership but these films are historically important and deserve to be better known. Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland remain the very first film team in cinematic history to depict a white man and a black man as equal partners. In each one of their films together, Darro and Moreland were on equal social and professional levels in the depiction of their film characters. Both men were friends on screen and in real life (in fact, Darro served as pallbearer at Moreland's funeral). In each film, Darro interacted with Moreland as if there were no color barrier between them while Mantan behaved as Frankie's equal in each film situation. The significance of such a matter of fact cinematic depiction of racial equality is monumental in film history (especially as it occurred in 1939: the year Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for playing Vivien Leigh's slave -- no equality to be found in their screen partnership!)
"Irish Luck" (subtitled "Amateur Detective") is based on the obscure mystery novel "Death Hops the Bells" by Charles Molyneux Brown and concerns the amateur crime-fighting exploits of bellhop Buzzy O'Brien (Darro) and hotel baggage clerk Jefferson (Moreland). The film opens seemingly halfway into another movie. Fire engines and police cars speed to the Hotel Royale with sirens screaming. Buzzy is seen hiding underneath a bed in a hotel room while unknowing gangsters discuss their plans. Simultaneously a suicidal woman paces back and forth on the hotel roof ledge; this is the cause for concern among the racing fire engines and police cars. A bewildered viewer must at this point be thinking that the DVD company must have left out a couple of reels from the beginning of the film. What is going on?!?
Of course, this isn't the actual plot of "Irish Luck" but only a quick setup to portray the characters of Buzzy and Jefferson as amateur sleuths. The suicidal woman on the roof is in actuality only a dummy rigged up by Jefferson to get the cops to the hotel quick in order to catch the gangsters who have Buzzy trapped under a bed. This is the only way to get help fast since the pair's previous amateur sleuthing has so annoyed the authorities that calling the police would be a case of our heroes merely "crying wolf". Naturally, Detective Steve Lanahan (Dick Purcell who would later co-star with Mantan Moreland again in both "King of the Zombies" and "Phantom Killer") arrests the gangsters and gives Buzzy a telling-off about playing detective. Buzzy promises he's through with sleuthing and the pair go back to work at the hotel.
Before too much time goes by, Buzzy's penchant for clue-gathering lands him right in the middle of another mess. Hotel guest Kitty Monahan (Sheila Darcy) asks Buzzy to call down to the front desk and ask if there is a Thaddeus Porter staying in the hotel. There is. When Buzzy looks at the tip Kitty has slipped him, it turns out to be a small charm of the "see no evil hear no evil speak no evil" monkeys. Buzzy discovers that Porter is a big time banker and manages to finagle delivering a telegram to the man. On the way up to Porter's room, Buzzy barrels into another man as he exits the elevator. Buzzy falls flat on his back as the man, holding his injured nose, berates him for clumsiness. The man gets on the elevator and disappears before Buzzy notices a baggage claim check the man must have dropped. Too late to return it, Buzzy heads for Porter's room. He just glimpses the door to Kitty Monahan's room closing. When he turns the corner, he finds Jefferson knocking on Porter's partially ajar door. The two men push open the door to find the dead banker's corpse. Jefferson tells Buzzy he saw a woman in a striped dress leaving Porter's room. Buzzy secretly opens Porter's telegram which reads: "K. M. left for Bluff City by bus this morning. Have Her Watched. She may contact Jim. Signed Wilkins, Sheriff". Buzzy pretends to call the police, locks Jefferson in the room with the corpse and bolts to Kitty's room to warn her she was seen leaving Porter's room. Kitty insists she went to see Porter and was told to hide in the bedroom when two unidentified men knocked on the door. They argued with Porter and left. She came out to find the banker had been stabbed. Buzzy has Kitty quickly get out of her striped dress and go down to the lobby to await instructions. Buzzy disposes of the dress down a laundry chute and rejoins Jefferson in the murder room. Buzzy then calls the police for real this time and once again faces the exasperated displeasure of Detective Lanahan. The plot soon comes to involve Kitty's missing brother Jim and $100,000 in missing bank bonds but the plot of "Irish Luck" is only secondary to the screen presence of Darro and Moreland. They are the real reason to watch the film; even though the mystery plot is quite good in itself.
Michael Price and George Turner (in their book "Forgotton Horrors 2") remark that "Darro and Moreland are about equally matched in the google-eyes department when it comes to scared-silly reactions." This fact can readily be seen by just glancing at the back of the Alpha DVD of "Irish Luck" which displays a photo of both actors in full "google". Price and Turner go on to say: "Darro concentrates on the boyish impulsiveness that generates their close shaves, where Moreland is more the wise and resourceful party who has a philosophical quip for every occasion and an outlandish solution for the final desperate encounter." This formula for their film characterizations would be used in all of their further screen teamings.
Being the first film in this loose series, "Irish Luck" hasn't fully crystalized the on screen chemistry of the Moreland/Darro team. Subsequent entries in the series would showcase the comfortable and relaxed magic the two actors could create effortlessly when working together in such joyful romps as "Up In the Air" and "You're Out of Luck". Frankie and Mantan were a natural team. Someone must have realized how good they were on screen together or why else would they have been assigned to make over a half dozen pictures together. This realization makes it even more odd that the two were never touted as a screen team even though they clearly were (and a great one at that). As Price and Turner lament in "Forgotten Horrors 2" (as the only champions of the Darro/Moreland team I've ever seen), the simple addition of an ampersand in movie posters and advertising would have drawn the public's attention to the fact that Mantan & Frankie were a team and cemented that idea in the collective public consciousness. This could have led to more and better film teamings and a wide recognition among film scholars of the ground-breaking importance of the film partnership of Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland.
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1 comment:
Great review! Keep on unearthing those gems for us...
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