Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 6 November 1943 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 6 November 1943. Australian release: 18 July 1946 (sic). 5,026 feet. 55 minutes. SYNOPSIS: An upcoming politician is blackmailed by a talking crow.COMMENT: Obviously designed as a spoof, this dreadful little movie does not succeed on any level, thanks to leaden direction, incompetent scripting, abysmal acting and impoverished production values. Admittedly, I did chuckle once or twice. I don't want to give the impression that every movie produced in Hollywood's golden age rates as a potential crowd-pleaser. (Even the studio didn't number this one too highly. No New York send-off and, after sitting on the shelf for some years, released in Australia in the dead of winter). I also want to set the record straight about Gene Lockhart. Gene is a fine actor. But he seems to have limitations. He gave a brilliant performance in Algiers because he followed the director's instructions to the letter. Here, he is cast on his own devices, yet he does nothing. He finds himself in a rare starring part, but makes not the slightest attempt to entertain the audience. Does he put on a funny voice? No! Does he try a peculiar walk? No! Does he run through a series of odd facial expressions? Not a one! Gestures? No. Talk out the side of his mouth? No. Whistle? No. He does absolutely nothing. Nothing! It's incredible, but true. He just stands there (or sits there) stiff as a board and says his lines. At least Jerome Cowan puts a bit of extra verve into his portrayal. It's still not successful, but at least he tries. Even Lou Lubin, struggling against poorly conceived camera angles, is obviously aware the movie is supposed to be funny. True, Cowan, Lubin, Harmon and Emerson are constantly stymied by Lederman's weak, flaccid and almost totally inept direction (or rather lack of direction), but at least they bend themselves into knots in futile efforts to make their lines amusing! On the other hand, maybe Gene honestly thought the movie simply wasn't worth the effort. And there he was right!

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Hair or feathered brained whodunit where a missing blackbird or raven is the main witness to a murder that the independent candidate running for mayor John M. Rhodes, Gene Lockhart, has been accused of. It's up to private dick D.I Trees, Jerome Cowan, or the California Redwood Family to save Rhodes' political career as well as neck in tracking down the missing bird. That's after the bird's owner Fred Molner was found murdered in his apartment by Trees with his assistant Ray Hickey knocked out cold in the kitchen. There's also the fact that $30,000.00 in cash in found in a cigar box that Molner has collect from his clients as a bookie that he was holding back on them! Could one of them have murdered him but was unable to find the cash before Trees came on the scene? Long winded for a short-55 minutes- movie we have a number of clues to not only Molar's murder but who's behind the scenes in trying to sabotage Rhodes run for major. It was Molner who was at first blackmailing Rhodes in threatening to reveal that his bride to be's brother was a jail-bird in San Quentin instead of being a door to door salesman of totalities for the last three years. And the fact that Rhodes admittedly being at the scene of the murder didn't help his case either!****SPOILERS****It's at the end that the truth is finally found out to who killed Molner to anyone, on the screen or watching the movie, who's still interested which is reviled by the mysterious black bird who in fact wasn't even a witness to the murder in the first place! The bird was just programmed to blurt out the killer's name and what he did before he did it which would make it totally inadmissible in any court of law in the US or anywhere else on earth! As for the bird itself were soon to find out that it doesn't talk at all with what turned out to be ventriloquist Hickey doing all the talking for it!

mark.waltz Find the crow, and you find the blackmailer. That's basically what portly mayor Gene Lockhart tells private investigator Jerome Cowan. Poor Cowan only got the job because he's the least known private detective in the city, and that joke sets them theme for the style of this tongue-in-cheek murder mystery where all sorts of shady characters come in and out, all looking for the mysterious black bird that holds the secret, not the stuff that dreams are made of. Cowan and secretary Faye Emerson, down to no cases, are thrilled for just one chance, especially since solving this crime could open all sorts of doors. It's an entertaining, extremely fast moving Warner Brothers second feature with witty lines, a few red herrings and just an all round fun atmosphere that proved in movies, sometimes less was more.Lockhart made a career out of playing pompous asses, and obviously knowing that his look archetyped this character, played them to the hilt. Here, he's not quite as pompous, although his initial speech on the radio makes him appear that way. He knows he's in over his head, and if he has any chance of winning re-election, that darn crow must be found. The presence of Bradley Page (one of the screen's most darkest of shady villains) gives an obvious suspect to the dirty goings on, but in only 55 minutes, a ton of other characters are introduced as possibilities. The whereabouts of the actual crow (who ironically sounds like a parrot) is amusing as well. Fun, quick and done, you may not find the revelation of the blackmailer a big surprise, but you'll have a fun time getting there.

JLRMovieReviews Politician Gene Lockhart is being blackmailed, so he enlists the help of the most unknown detective (to keep it quiet and out of the news) to get him out of the scrape. Enter Jerome Cowan (Bogart's murdered partner in "The Maltese Falcon"), who has a very likable disposition as a unscrupulous and somewhat sleazy detective. It seems they need a crow that repeats what it hears and it heard the last words of a murdered man, implicating Gene Lockhart. Through a series of twists and turns and interrogations of suspects and run-ins with hoodlums, Jerome tries to get at the truth. What begins very pleasantly and simply turns very complicated quickly with some zippy and witty one-liners. This film was in fact very funny, and by the end I think you'll feel thoroughly satisfied. There's even a twist that you don't see coming. Or do you? Whatever the means to get his man, Jerome Cowan as D.L. Trees earns his money and gives you a good time for a little over an hour. Good job, big guy!