While this is a decidedly minor comedy whodunit, it makes for a mildly diverting entertainment. I found it refreshing to see Jean Parker playing comedy for a change instead of being sweet-Sweet-SWEET in yet another weeper. Peter Cookson, as boyfriend Johnny, seemed to be doing a fair imitation of Cary Grant; I had to look and see where he was from with that curious accent (Oregon) just to be sure that the resemblance wasn't simply a coincidence. Someone, either the director or Cookson himself, clearly had Grant's flair for the screwballs in mind while shooting Johnny. And it's actually quite fun! It's a silly little B-movie, but as long as you don't require your mysteries to make much sense it's perfectly watchable. And if you're a Parker fan her presence makes it quite enjoyable.
9 Reviews
Very enjoyable comedy (90%) - mystery (10%)
gridoon202428 February 2013
Warning: Spoilers
The mystery here is secondary (though there is a memorable death by electrocution in an elevator!); the cute and energetic Jean Parker is the driving force of the film. Behind her sometimes flighty exterior, Kitty O'Day is a feminist pioneer - a brave woman who refuses to act like a robot or "stay in her place", like the men around her order her to do. However, the funniest performance in the film is given by Ralph Sanford as the inspector's assistant; just about any scene with him hits the comedic mark. The production is cheap, but the film moves right along and provides a highly enjoyable hour. I wish the adventures of Kitty O'Day had continued. **1/2 out of 4.
Murders at the Townley Hotel
jotix10016 July 2009
Kitty O'Day, the telephone operator at the Townley Hotel loved her detective stories, popular at one time in America. She was also a snoop who loved spying on conversations from the guests at the hotel. She could spot danger anywhere, but because of her meddling character, she got into hot water all the time. When she overhears one day the shooting of Mr. Williams, the owner of the Townley, she goes to Johnny Jones, the travel desk colleague, and love interest, into coming with her to investigate. Kitty and Johnny don't stop until they solve the crime and attracting the police attention who think the either one of them is really the assassin.
This Monogram Pictures comedy is mildly amusing. It never hides the fact it is a B picture because of the humble production values. Directed by William Beaudine, it featured Jean Parker, an actress who worked a lot in the Hollywood of the 30s and 40s. She never made it big the movie industry. Peter Cookson, seen as Johnny, also did not have much success with important pictures.
Watch it as a curiosity if it shows on cable.
This Monogram Pictures comedy is mildly amusing. It never hides the fact it is a B picture because of the humble production values. Directed by William Beaudine, it featured Jean Parker, an actress who worked a lot in the Hollywood of the 30s and 40s. She never made it big the movie industry. Peter Cookson, seen as Johnny, also did not have much success with important pictures.
Watch it as a curiosity if it shows on cable.
Hard to Believe this Film Entertained Anyone
whpratt112 January 2007
Watched this film on TV and found this film one big COMEDY with also murder, steam rooms, message parlors, dead bodies appearing in almost every room of a hotel. Jean Parker,(Kitty O'Day)," Dead Man's Eyes" ran around and sounded like Lucille Ball and always had a hat on her head no matter where she was; in elevators where a man was electrocuted. Kitty also ran around in circles with Peter Cookson,( Johnny Jones),"Detective Kitty O'Day", who was trying to keep Kitty safe and out of his way so he could solve a crime and at the same time try to keep her safe. This film was so way out in left field, I could hardly believe that anyone would find this film entertaining. I love old time films from way back when, but this particular film I really could have avoided watching.
I had fun!
kraiggb15 January 2007
I had a lot a fun watching both Kitty ODay films, they didn't take themselves seriously so why should we? The leads had wonderful chemistry which went a long way in enjoying the seemingly endless body count that they both had the bad luck to run into! It was unfortunate that the running length was so short. Had it been a bit longer, it may have helped add some depth to the mystery and some additional characters so there were more suspects to choose from. Kitty Oday walked a fine line on being loud and annoying but her boyfriend Johnny was able to reel her in from time to time. He was a great character, thrown into this strange situation and wanting to get out while Kitty jumps in deeper without learning how to swim first! I had never heard of these films until I saw them on Turner Classic Movies and I wish they would have made more.
Kitty and Johnny return
bkoganbing28 September 2013
Jean Parker and Peter Cookson return to make another Monogram feature as secretary Kitty O'Day and her boyfriend Johnny an older and sillier edition of Nancy Drew and her boyfriend Ted. But as teens Bonita Granville and Frankie Thomas were a whole lot more entertaining and believable than these two. I'm trying to figure out how Parker ever held down a job as scatterbrained as she is.
She's losing this one because it's her boss who winds up dead. Parker works as a secretary for a hotel owner who gets himself killed. Problem is that every time she and Cookson decide to report the crime, the body disappears. She's driving homicide cop Tim Ryan to total distraction.
Not that Ryan's not busy because a few other murders happen along the way all connected to this one.
Sam Katzman over at Monogram was obviously looking for another movie series like Cisco Kid and the Bowery Boys. But two films and Kitty O'Day went to the dustbin of cinema history.
She's losing this one because it's her boss who winds up dead. Parker works as a secretary for a hotel owner who gets himself killed. Problem is that every time she and Cookson decide to report the crime, the body disappears. She's driving homicide cop Tim Ryan to total distraction.
Not that Ryan's not busy because a few other murders happen along the way all connected to this one.
Sam Katzman over at Monogram was obviously looking for another movie series like Cisco Kid and the Bowery Boys. But two films and Kitty O'Day went to the dustbin of cinema history.
Cute, funny B movie
cherold12 January 2011
Nonsensical movie with Jean Parker very funny as a daffy dame intent on solving murders, in this case the one of her employer at a hotel.
Nothing in this movie is especially surprising. The cops are gruff and annoyed, the suspects are blandly generic and the boyfriend, who is continually forced to help out in the investigation, is genially frustrated. Bodies appear and disappear, everyone acts suspicious, hotel employees have jealousy issues, Parker keeps doing dumb things that somehow pan out and there's a lot of running around the hotel. In other words, this is a better than usual example of the comedy mystery movie, mainly due to some solid performances.
I have no idea whether the mystery makes sense. I watched this on streaming netflix but then got distracted and forgot I was watching it. I wound up seeing the first and second half of the movie several months apart, and the review is more aimed at the second half since I don't even remember the first half in any detail. So let's say it's fun but very unmemorable.
Nothing in this movie is especially surprising. The cops are gruff and annoyed, the suspects are blandly generic and the boyfriend, who is continually forced to help out in the investigation, is genially frustrated. Bodies appear and disappear, everyone acts suspicious, hotel employees have jealousy issues, Parker keeps doing dumb things that somehow pan out and there's a lot of running around the hotel. In other words, this is a better than usual example of the comedy mystery movie, mainly due to some solid performances.
I have no idea whether the mystery makes sense. I watched this on streaming netflix but then got distracted and forgot I was watching it. I wound up seeing the first and second half of the movie several months apart, and the review is more aimed at the second half since I don't even remember the first half in any detail. So let's say it's fun but very unmemorable.
A sequel with the same plot, which is where this one belongs....
mark.waltz8 April 2014
Warning: Spoilers
That is the cemetery plot of movies that were D.O.A.
One-shot director William Beaudine could sometimes take a sows ear of a script and turn it into a silk purse, with clever dialog, amusing characters and inspired casting. But for this sequel to "Detective Kitty O'Day", he simply took the same story, moved it to the location of Jean Parker and Peter Cookson's newest employer, and had the script changed a bit to make it appear fresh. Now the pair is working for a major hotel when the boss gets the axe, shot rather than drowned like her boss in the first film.
To see this on a double bill with the previous entry in this (fortunately) two entry series is to waste an additional hour of viewing and a reminded that just because the poverty row studios turned out a few classics doesn't exclude them from having had some duds as well. The cheap sets and blurry photography only document the quick production schedule shooting of many Monogram films with no thought to the viewers recalling, "Wait a minute. Didn't I see this one once before with the exact same characters?".
At least the laundry shoot scene where Parker, Cookson and the new detective working with veteran character actor Tim Ryan (husband of "Beverly Hillbillies" granny Irene Ryan and one of the writers of this opus) is a lot funnier than the window ledge sequence of the first. The absence of the original detective is explained by him being in a mental institution. He probably just read the script, panicked and said, "Oh no, not this again!".
One-shot director William Beaudine could sometimes take a sows ear of a script and turn it into a silk purse, with clever dialog, amusing characters and inspired casting. But for this sequel to "Detective Kitty O'Day", he simply took the same story, moved it to the location of Jean Parker and Peter Cookson's newest employer, and had the script changed a bit to make it appear fresh. Now the pair is working for a major hotel when the boss gets the axe, shot rather than drowned like her boss in the first film.
To see this on a double bill with the previous entry in this (fortunately) two entry series is to waste an additional hour of viewing and a reminded that just because the poverty row studios turned out a few classics doesn't exclude them from having had some duds as well. The cheap sets and blurry photography only document the quick production schedule shooting of many Monogram films with no thought to the viewers recalling, "Wait a minute. Didn't I see this one once before with the exact same characters?".
At least the laundry shoot scene where Parker, Cookson and the new detective working with veteran character actor Tim Ryan (husband of "Beverly Hillbillies" granny Irene Ryan and one of the writers of this opus) is a lot funnier than the window ledge sequence of the first. The absence of the original detective is explained by him being in a mental institution. He probably just read the script, panicked and said, "Oh no, not this again!".
Silly comedy-mystery moves fast but really goes nowhere
csteidler30 July 2014
Jean Parker and Peter Cookson return for a second and final Kitty O'Day film—and it's basically a ripoff of the first one.
This time around, Kitty has a job as switchboard operator in a large hotel. Snoopy as ever, she listens in on conversations, suspects guests of being criminals—and keeps an eye on boyfriend Johnny Jones, who works across the lobby at the hotel travel bureau.
Parker does her best as the scatterbrained but persistent and occasionally lucky would-be girl detective; Cookson is again the somewhat saner half of the couple who reluctantly joins her investigations. When Kitty reports hearing a gunshot while phone eavesdropping, Johnny urges her to call the police—an idea she quickly nixes. "We'll investigate first," Kitty says, "then call the police."
Tim Ryan is exasperated police detective Clancy, eventually summoned to the hotel only to find (repeatedly) that the supposed corpse has disappeared. Much of the middle section of the picture is devoted to Kitty and Johnny running around after the missing corpse and Inspector Clancy running around after them.
Inspector Clancy is "assisted" by the usual dumb police sergeant, played this time around by Ralph Sanford. (Clancy: "Why is it every time we get here the corpse runs away?" Mac: "Maybe he don't like cops, Chief .")
There are some funny moments and a few good bits of dialog. The cast is certainly pleasant if unexceptional. However, it all seems kind of forced – possibly because the plot is so similar to this film's immediate predecessor, the previous year's Kitty O'Day, Detective.
Overall, it's a harmless enough picture that seems to mean well .but it lacks surprises.
This time around, Kitty has a job as switchboard operator in a large hotel. Snoopy as ever, she listens in on conversations, suspects guests of being criminals—and keeps an eye on boyfriend Johnny Jones, who works across the lobby at the hotel travel bureau.
Parker does her best as the scatterbrained but persistent and occasionally lucky would-be girl detective; Cookson is again the somewhat saner half of the couple who reluctantly joins her investigations. When Kitty reports hearing a gunshot while phone eavesdropping, Johnny urges her to call the police—an idea she quickly nixes. "We'll investigate first," Kitty says, "then call the police."
Tim Ryan is exasperated police detective Clancy, eventually summoned to the hotel only to find (repeatedly) that the supposed corpse has disappeared. Much of the middle section of the picture is devoted to Kitty and Johnny running around after the missing corpse and Inspector Clancy running around after them.
Inspector Clancy is "assisted" by the usual dumb police sergeant, played this time around by Ralph Sanford. (Clancy: "Why is it every time we get here the corpse runs away?" Mac: "Maybe he don't like cops, Chief .")
There are some funny moments and a few good bits of dialog. The cast is certainly pleasant if unexceptional. However, it all seems kind of forced – possibly because the plot is so similar to this film's immediate predecessor, the previous year's Kitty O'Day, Detective.
Overall, it's a harmless enough picture that seems to mean well .but it lacks surprises.
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