For 15 years, I had my laser disc copy of Out of the Blue stored away, plastic shrink wrap still on, with two Camelot Music price stickers on, one red Camelot logo above a $14.88 sell price, another black logo showing $5.99. Camelot used to have video and music stores in many malls in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida area before it went out of business. I may have bought this laser at the Camelot store in the Broward Mall. The laser cardboard sleeve had a hole punched in the upper right hand corner, the mark of a remaindered LD. I finally got around to looking at this movie, and the movie is less than the sum of its parts.
The title credit for Out of the Blue identifies Bryan Foy in charge of production. Foy had been in charge of producing B movies for Warner Bros. until about 1941, when Jack Warner decided to make only A movies. Goodbye, Bryan, after 14 years your services are no longer wanted. But Foy remembered the stars at Warners he worked with, so he hired George Brent and the still very pretty Ann Dvorak to star in this 1947 movie that takes place mostly in Greenwich Village. The trouble is, Foy did not hire any of the Warner Brothers early 1930s screenplay writers to help rewrite the script, a lame affair involving a wife who vanishes, some snoopy neighbors and attempts at screwball comedy. The very limited movie budget Eagle-Lion provided meant cheap sets, few extras and mostly interior shots.
The early 1930s Warner Bros. movies were like capturing lightning in a bottle, very difficult to do. In 1947, RKO made a crime picture, Riffraff, with former Warner Bros. star Pat O'Brien playing a tough private detective. O'Brien had previously played a tough police detective in Warners' 1933 movie, Bureau of Missing Persons. RKO had one of the former Warner Bros. top stars, but that wasn't enough, just as with Out of the Blue.
Warner Bros. movies like Hey, Nellie! and Friends of Mr. Sweeney, both set in Greenwich Village, had their comedy aspects but they also provided a grim commentary to the Depression years. Both had subplots involving crooked politicians. All Out of the Blue has are good looking characters in search of a script.
I still cannot figure out why the Turhan Bey character breaks the speed limit while transporting a steamer trunk with what he thinks is a dead body in it. Naturally a motorcycle cop stops him to give him a speeding ticket. When asked, Bey tells the cop the trunk has a body in it, which the cop takes as a joke. How clever you Hollywood screenplay writers are. Out of the Blue has some fine actors in it who deserved better material. Hopefully, none of the actors' paychecks bounced.
The title credit for Out of the Blue identifies Bryan Foy in charge of production. Foy had been in charge of producing B movies for Warner Bros. until about 1941, when Jack Warner decided to make only A movies. Goodbye, Bryan, after 14 years your services are no longer wanted. But Foy remembered the stars at Warners he worked with, so he hired George Brent and the still very pretty Ann Dvorak to star in this 1947 movie that takes place mostly in Greenwich Village. The trouble is, Foy did not hire any of the Warner Brothers early 1930s screenplay writers to help rewrite the script, a lame affair involving a wife who vanishes, some snoopy neighbors and attempts at screwball comedy. The very limited movie budget Eagle-Lion provided meant cheap sets, few extras and mostly interior shots.
The early 1930s Warner Bros. movies were like capturing lightning in a bottle, very difficult to do. In 1947, RKO made a crime picture, Riffraff, with former Warner Bros. star Pat O'Brien playing a tough private detective. O'Brien had previously played a tough police detective in Warners' 1933 movie, Bureau of Missing Persons. RKO had one of the former Warner Bros. top stars, but that wasn't enough, just as with Out of the Blue.
Warner Bros. movies like Hey, Nellie! and Friends of Mr. Sweeney, both set in Greenwich Village, had their comedy aspects but they also provided a grim commentary to the Depression years. Both had subplots involving crooked politicians. All Out of the Blue has are good looking characters in search of a script.
I still cannot figure out why the Turhan Bey character breaks the speed limit while transporting a steamer trunk with what he thinks is a dead body in it. Naturally a motorcycle cop stops him to give him a speeding ticket. When asked, Bey tells the cop the trunk has a body in it, which the cop takes as a joke. How clever you Hollywood screenplay writers are. Out of the Blue has some fine actors in it who deserved better material. Hopefully, none of the actors' paychecks bounced.