Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Movie review - "Wrecking Crew" (1942) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Pine Thomas were hitting their stride by this time - this is an expertly constructed tough guy melo about men who wreck buildings. They cast their two stars, Chester Morris and Richard Arlen, opposite each other - co workers who fall for the same woman.

Jan Parker is the female lead and the writers (Max Shane and Richard Murphy) give her a decent role to play, at first any way - a suicidal woman with a shady past who is befriended by Morris. Morris considers her his lucky charm - he thinks he's bad luck because people die on his work sites.

There's other interesting touches - footage of buildings exploded, the novelty of the jobs, the fact the team work for a little old lady. I was unsure whether Parker would pick Morris or Arlen - Arlen played the more responsible character with Morris as the buccaneer, who normally get the girl, and Morris gets to be more heroic at the end... but Parker picks Arlen.

The second half is less good - the film lacked a villain. There is a drunken worked who causes trouble but I guess I wanted more. And wish Parker could've gotten more involved in the action in the second half. Still, it's a pretty good film.

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