(1942)
2.5
Bruce Eder
This still very amusing B-movie -- from Producers Releasing Corporation, no less, which wasn't known for its comedies -- is worth tracking down. An unassuming genial comedy set in the early days of the war on the home front, Baby Face Morgan is strongly reminiscent of Damon Runyon's best work and has a charm similar to that of Frank Capra's Lady for a Day, albeit from a much poorer, more threadbare production. Not surprisingly, there was a real writer behind the story in Oscar Brodney, a lawyer-turned-screenwriter with the common touch where humor was concerned, responsible for adapting Mexican Hayride (1948) for Abbott and Costello and Harvey (1950) as a screen vehicle for James Stewart. Here he steps into Damon Runyon territory, devising a fable about aging gangsters, a protection racket, and the wide-eyed innocent (Richard Cromwell) who sets things right with his own good nature, amid a string of comical misunderstandings and instances of mistaken identity -- the notion of gangsters being set at cross-purposes to themselves holds up even today as humorous. Cromwell is charming as the innocent hero, and Robert Armstrong is a hoot as the conniving gangster trying to manipulate his fellow mobsters. Director Arthur Dreifuss obviously had his hands full bringing this low-budget vehicle in on time (with a pretty big cast and lots of comic timing required), but he moves his actors well and even gets a convincingly (and necessarily) realistic performance out of Ralf Harolde as the quick-on-the-trigger would-be mob leader. And Warren Hymer and Vince Barnett are worth the price of admission as a pair of slow-on-the-uptake tough guys who look like they're auditioning for a road company production of Guys and Dolls.
cast-crew for Baby Face Morgan on AllMovie
Baby Face Morgan (1942)
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