Midnight Manhunt (1945)

In a cheap hotel-room in New York City Jelke shoots gangster Joe Wells, takes a package from his pocket and flees.Wells staggers into an alley. On her way to her apartment above a wax ... See full summary »

Director:

William C. Thomas

Writer:

David Lang (original screenplay)

Stars:

William Gargan, Ann Savage, Leo Gorcey

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Gargan	...	Pete Willis
Ann Savage	...	Sue Gallagher
Leo Gorcey	...	Clutch Tracy
George Zucco	...	Jelke
Paul Hurst	...	Murphy
Don Beddoe	...	Detective Lt. Max Hurley
Charles Halton	...	Henry Miggs
George E. Stone	...	Joe Wells

Storyline

In a cheap hotel-room in New York City Jelke shoots gangster Joe Wells, takes a package from his pocket and flees.Wells staggers into an alley. On her way to her apartment above a wax museum, Sue Gallagher, a reporter for the Chronicle, finds Wells' body and hides his corpse among the wax-figures in the museum and calls her paper to send a photographer so she can get a scoop on the killing of Wells, who had a $5,000 reward for his capture, dead or alive. Meanwhile, Henry Miggs, the museum owner find the body and is ready to call the police but his handyman, Clutch Tracy tells him to conceal it and avoid suspicion. From this point on it is a game of where-is-the-body....and the stolen South American diamonds Wells was carrying.

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Plot Keywords:

wax museum | reporter | gangster | corpse | apartment | 

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Taglines:

YOU'LL HAVE THE THRILL OF A LIFETIME! (original poster-all caps)

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 July 1945 (USA)

Also Known As:

One Exciting Night

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pine-Thomas Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

64 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

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Quotes

[repeated line]
Henry Miggs: Miggs: I'm so tired!

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Connections

Featured in Home (2017)

User Reviews

A Bit of Low Budget Fun from the Depths of the 1940's

Conventional Wisdom seems to indicate that this film retains some charm and entertainment value, in spite of its cheap jack budget, inconsistent tone, weak jokes and plot holes you could drive The Super Chief through (keeping with a 1940's reference).

I'll have to go along. This low budget programmer was entertaining to watch in spite of itself. Everyone in the cast seems to be having a good time in their roles, and giving their all in spite of what was probably a one week long production schedule. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but that's part of the fun of the whole thing. Leo Gorcey does his usual thing with the street-wise attitude and a malaprop polysyllabary. My favorite Gorceyism involves Ann Savage's character, who lives in a "flea-bitten dump" of an apartment above the wax museum where most of the plot unfolds. The hero says that she's "gone upstairs for the night," to which the Gorcey character adds, "That's right. She is retarded for the evening."

There are worse ways you could waste an hour, and Alpha Video sells many of them. This is one of the better flicks that they have scraped up from the bottom of the barrel. I would recommended it especially if you like Gorcey's malapropisms and the 1940's era "snappy" patois. You get plenty of "Why I oughta..." and "Say, what's the big idea?" You even get a character getting into a cab and spouting, "The Chronicle, Driver, AND STEP ON IT." I was waiting for one of the reporters to grab the telephone and holler, "Hold it chief, I've got an exclusive! STOP THE PRESSES!" or at least a paperboy hollering "EXTRY! EXTRY! READ ALL ABOUT IT!" Too bad I got cheated there, but this movie is a bit of fun, overall.