'Roadhouse Nights' is supposedly based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett which I haven't read, but I suspect that this movie varies hugely from the source material. The most interesting thing about this movie is that it contains some performance footage of Clayton, Jackson and Durante ... who were headliners in vaudeville before Jimmy Durante's solo stardom.
Bud Clayton and Eddie Jackson were Jimmy Durante's vaudeville partners. During Prohibition, before Jimmy Durante became a Broadway star, the three of them performed in Manhattan's swank Club Durant, a night spot which was supposedly owned by Jimmy Durante, but which was actually financed by gangster money. (The club was named 'Durant', not 'Durante': Jimmy Durante claimed this was because he couldn't afford a final 'E' for the sign!) Bud Clayton was a nimble tap-dancer who actually looked like a slightly uglier and darker version of Jimmy Durante. Clayton left the act early, but continued to work as Durante's manager. Eddie Jackson was an Irish-style tenor who did strutting high-kicks while he sang. Following Clayton's retirement, Jackson and Durante continued to work as a two-act for a while... teaming for comedy duets such as the hilarious 'Go On Home, Your Mother's Calling'. Throughout Durante's solo stardom, Jackson occasionally made appearances with him (on the Ed Sullivan Show, among other gigs). 'Roadhouse Nights' preserves a rare glimpse of Clayton, Jackson and Durante's nightclub act from their Club Durant days: fast-paced anarchic comedy, with up-tempo music.
The plot of this movie is a whole other problem. I strongly suspect that the plot line of Hammett's novel was reworked in order to supply a vehicle for Charles Ruggles, a grossly unfunny comedian who was unaccountably popular in the 1930s.
Jim Hanson is a crusading Chicago reporter, risking his life to get the goods on Prohibition bootlegger Sam Horner. (Hanson is played by an actor named Joe King, who probably spent his entire career enduring wisecracks like 'You must be Joe King!') Phoning a scoop to his city editor, Hanson reports that Horner gets his illegal booze from a corrupt police chief in a (fictional) suburb of Cook County. Suddenly, the line goes dead ... and so does Hanson. Horner killed him.
The city editor assigns another reporter (played by Charles Ruggles) to get the goods on Horner and his gang. Ruggles's character is named Bindbugel: a really annoying name that tips the audience he's supposed to be funny. Ruggles turns in a performance that's meant to be serio-comic, but which I found mostly annoying.
SPOILERS COMING. Horner's moll is a tough gal named Lola, played by blues crooner Helen Morgan. (Don't expect much singing from her here.) By an amazing coincidence, Lola was Bindbugel's sweetheart back in high school. She helps him infiltrate Horner's gang. When Bindbugel's incompetence blows his cover, Horner draws his gun and prepares to shoot Bindbugel. There's a gunshot ... and Horner falls dead. Lola shot him.
Charles Ruggles ruins every movie he's in. This movie would have worked better as a straight noir drama, even though the rules of noir cinema were still gestating at this early date. Ruggles does provide a deft performance in one scene, at a bank of coin phones in a roadhouse. He manages to get away from Horner's gang for a few minutes, and he tries to phone the copy desk at his newspaper. Just as the call goes through, Horner catches up with him. Quickly, Ruggles grabs the receiver from the phone in the next stall. With the crooks watching him, Ruggles loudly babbles a banal message into the second phone (which isn't connected to an outside line) whilst he surreptitiously taps a Morse message into the first 'phone. (I hope the copy desk can decode Morse.) This scene is genuinely suspenseful and funny, both at once, and it racks up the tension a notch. I wish that the whole movie could have been like this. As it is, I'll rate this movie only 6 out of 10... mostly for Clayton, Jackson and Durante.
Bud Clayton and Eddie Jackson were Jimmy Durante's vaudeville partners. During Prohibition, before Jimmy Durante became a Broadway star, the three of them performed in Manhattan's swank Club Durant, a night spot which was supposedly owned by Jimmy Durante, but which was actually financed by gangster money. (The club was named 'Durant', not 'Durante': Jimmy Durante claimed this was because he couldn't afford a final 'E' for the sign!) Bud Clayton was a nimble tap-dancer who actually looked like a slightly uglier and darker version of Jimmy Durante. Clayton left the act early, but continued to work as Durante's manager. Eddie Jackson was an Irish-style tenor who did strutting high-kicks while he sang. Following Clayton's retirement, Jackson and Durante continued to work as a two-act for a while... teaming for comedy duets such as the hilarious 'Go On Home, Your Mother's Calling'. Throughout Durante's solo stardom, Jackson occasionally made appearances with him (on the Ed Sullivan Show, among other gigs). 'Roadhouse Nights' preserves a rare glimpse of Clayton, Jackson and Durante's nightclub act from their Club Durant days: fast-paced anarchic comedy, with up-tempo music.
The plot of this movie is a whole other problem. I strongly suspect that the plot line of Hammett's novel was reworked in order to supply a vehicle for Charles Ruggles, a grossly unfunny comedian who was unaccountably popular in the 1930s.
Jim Hanson is a crusading Chicago reporter, risking his life to get the goods on Prohibition bootlegger Sam Horner. (Hanson is played by an actor named Joe King, who probably spent his entire career enduring wisecracks like 'You must be Joe King!') Phoning a scoop to his city editor, Hanson reports that Horner gets his illegal booze from a corrupt police chief in a (fictional) suburb of Cook County. Suddenly, the line goes dead ... and so does Hanson. Horner killed him.
The city editor assigns another reporter (played by Charles Ruggles) to get the goods on Horner and his gang. Ruggles's character is named Bindbugel: a really annoying name that tips the audience he's supposed to be funny. Ruggles turns in a performance that's meant to be serio-comic, but which I found mostly annoying.
SPOILERS COMING. Horner's moll is a tough gal named Lola, played by blues crooner Helen Morgan. (Don't expect much singing from her here.) By an amazing coincidence, Lola was Bindbugel's sweetheart back in high school. She helps him infiltrate Horner's gang. When Bindbugel's incompetence blows his cover, Horner draws his gun and prepares to shoot Bindbugel. There's a gunshot ... and Horner falls dead. Lola shot him.
Charles Ruggles ruins every movie he's in. This movie would have worked better as a straight noir drama, even though the rules of noir cinema were still gestating at this early date. Ruggles does provide a deft performance in one scene, at a bank of coin phones in a roadhouse. He manages to get away from Horner's gang for a few minutes, and he tries to phone the copy desk at his newspaper. Just as the call goes through, Horner catches up with him. Quickly, Ruggles grabs the receiver from the phone in the next stall. With the crooks watching him, Ruggles loudly babbles a banal message into the second phone (which isn't connected to an outside line) whilst he surreptitiously taps a Morse message into the first 'phone. (I hope the copy desk can decode Morse.) This scene is genuinely suspenseful and funny, both at once, and it racks up the tension a notch. I wish that the whole movie could have been like this. As it is, I'll rate this movie only 6 out of 10... mostly for Clayton, Jackson and Durante.
