Thursday, April 14, 2011

Radio review – Lux – “Slightly Dangerous” (1943) **

Proof they made just as many lame rom-coms back in the 1940s. Lana Turner normally specialised in playing glamour-pusses but here she’s in a role that Ginger Rogers would specialise in – to wit, a bored small town girl dreaming of something more. (She’s a soda jerk – perhaps a nod to how Turner was discovered.) So she fakes suicide, which is a bit full on, and winds up in the big city pretending to be a rich man’s daughter, which isn’t terribly believable. Still, like today’s junky rom coms it can pass the time if you’re in the mood. Victor Mature plays her small town boss who pursues her to the city thinking she’s going to kill herself – then drags her away by claiming to be her husband. Charming. There’s a section where he or Turner must have pulled a face or something because the audience goes into hysterics. Without her beauty and just her voice Turner is a 80% less effective performer. Mature is accomplished in a handsome-male-prop part, a sort he played surprisingly often.

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