Fashion Model (1945)

This is the usual corny Monogram serve-up, revolving around murdered models and missing brooches, with Dewey Robinson (not Dewey Robinson, junior, but his heavy, tough-looking, if somewhat obese dad) in the unlikely roles of a comic detective on-screen, and the actual script- writer (in collaboration with Victor Hammond) off-screen! Tim Ryan's Inspector O'Hara delivers the resultant corny jokes on screen, whilst it must be admitted that Marjorie Weaver makes an appealing heroine. Lorna Gray/Adrian Booth is in there kicking too, as are Sally Yarnell and Nell Craig (both in rare credited roles). As per usual, however, William Beaudine's direction is totally bland and undistinguished, although I must admit that the pace is reasonably fast and the budget not nearly as skimpy as the average Monogram time-waster.

Monogram pictures was one of the first movie studios to jump on the film noir bandwagon with such early examples of low-budget artistic genius in films such as "When Strangers Marry", "Detour" and "Decoy". What looks on the outside like another attempt at conquering that genre ends up being a comic flop. There's something very "noirish" about a murder inside a fashion house, the victim a nasty model (Lorna Gray) who made a play for the another model's man (Robert Lowery). The film does start off rather amusingly with the portly Nell Craig giving a hard time to each of the models exhibiting dresses that are obviously totally wrong for her, and Craig's milquetoast husband (Harry Depp) unable to get a word in edgewise. It almost seems like the victim is going to be the snooty society matron, but when Lowery finds Gray inside a dumb waiter, that theory is proved wrong. Everybody who was in the modeling house at the time (which includes its society kissing hostess Dorothy Christy) becomes a suspect, the only clue being a missing brooch which shows up in the costume jewelry box, only to disappear, leading to another murder.What sounds easy entertainment in writing ends up being a ridiculous excuse for a "B" budget film on script. There's too many red herrings, and it seems that the two idiotic detectives (Tim Ryan and Dewey Robinson) came right out of another cheaply made Monogram comic mystery, the two "Kitty O'Day" films made prior to this. Indeed, Ryan played a practically similar idiotic detective in those films, only the names have been changed to protect the stupid. While the film actually looks pretty elegant, that doesn't cover the fact that this is really the epitome of what makes the Z-grade movie studios sometimes what PRC was commonly called-"Pretty Rotten Cinema". Monogram's film output was hit or miss, sometimes surprisingly artistic, even their hour long westerns. But "Fashion Model" deserves an extra "Z" because not only is it a massive disappointment, but you might find yourself nodding off because of its insipidness.

Fashion Model feels like an adaptation of a play--a very poorly written farce. Released in 1945, this B&W film has almost no plot. It is merely a series of gags, most of which fall flat.It is as sophisticated as a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but was probably meant to be a madcap romp. At various times, it reminded me of an episode of the Superman TV show. Jimmy and Peggy reminded me of Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane with their "Aw Shucks" and "Jeepers" approach to acting.The movie might have worked if they had Groucho Marx out front, or Laurel & Hardy. Then the core of the movie might have been funny or clever.Unconvincing acting and horrible dialogue plague this film. The police are depicted as stupid--so stupid that, again, it feels cartoonish. Time spent watching this film could be better spent.

Fashion Model (1945)** (out of 4)Cheap but fairly entertaining murder-mystery from Monogram has stock boy Danny O'Brien (Robert Lowery) being accused of killing a model so he runs off with his girlfriend (Marjorie Weaver) to try and clear his name while a detective (Tim Ryan) tries to find them. When you see the Monogram logo go up on the screen that there should tell you not to expect any type of art film or masterpiece. Those who enjoy these "B" movies will probably find this one here slightly entertaining or at the very least it's a good way to kill an hour. As with the majority of films like it, this one here suffers from some really bad comic relief. I've seen dozens of these films and I've always wondered why they added so much comedy relief and especially considering how over-the-top and rather silly they make it. We of course have the one standard cop role who is such a moron that he could only be a cop in a "B" film like this. The comic banter between Lowery and Weaver is also pretty high as it appears they're wanting to be some sort of Abbott and Costello team. I thought the two were fairly good together but it's very possible that 'One Shot' Beaudine really wasn't giving them the opportunity to build anything in terms of chemistry but instead just wanted the quickest take they could give. Ryan is pretty good in his role as well and we got some nice stuff from Lorna Gray and Dewey Robinson. The actual mystery behind the film isn't too bad but then again you shouldn't be expecting something like Hitchcock. There is one major goof in the film when a character offers a $5,000 reward for a piece of jewelry that is missing. The next scene one of the characters this reward was told to says that the reward money is three times as much as what was previously said.