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• Early Jane Wyman

  • Commenter77
  • 3/7/12

  Found out that Jane Wyman's 30's and early 40 pictures were interesting, so caught this dark horse recently. She does that snappy dialog like no other. There was a lot more of it in some of the detective pictures she did for a while ("Crime by Night," "Private Detective"). Old story of an actress/actor getting started in a type, doing it well, and then getting stuck there. It's a wonder they break out, but we know she did. After being featured in this type of picture, Ms. Wyman moved up to better ones, playing the female star's girlfriend and similar for a while. She seemed more energetic and assertive in the early ones than in her later starring dramatic roles. Of course, there are others of interest in the subject picture. It's a programmer actually, with some good actors on their way up. Those can be a bit of a find at times. The Gilbert Roland character was a change from what we have gotten used to seeing from him. Low key, understated performance. Kind of a relief from the more typical volatile crime boss type. Interesting picture to me for these reasons.

• Gambling on the High Seas (1940)

  • Mr. Blandings
  • 1/6/12

  Entertaining enough short film (just under an hour) dealing with a reporter's exposing of a crooked gambling ship. Wayne Morris is likeable in his role as reporter Jim Carver (not "Carter" as listed in TCM's credits). Jane Wyman is very pretty (and blonde!) as the casino's bookkeeper who agrees to help him expose the racket. Watch for a brief appearance by George Reeves as a reporter (sans the spectacles). It's too bad Wayne Morris never hit it big as a film actor, but it seems that he died young at age 45 --the same year and the same age as George Reeves, coincidentally enough. And like George, Wayne's movie career was also derailed after coming back from WWII ... although George went on to become immortalized forever as the one and only Man of Steel -- Superman!

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