Night Waitress (1936)

WHAT A SURPRISE this one was to us. We found it in the off hours at Turner Classic Movies and due to the marvelous invention of the DVR, we were able to view it at our leisure. IT IS TRULY A fine example of how good a "B" movie can be. Without any pretensions of the serious message film or "Art" if you please, this is the sort of "potboiler" that makes movie going the pleasure that it is. In short, it is fun.WE FIND THE starring roles Margot Grahame (a Brit import) and Gordon Jones (from Iowa,USA). This was most pleasing to us to see "Mike the Cop" (from the ABBOT & COSTELLO Television series) in a starring role. This was at the very early stages of actor's career, when anything could happen. His looks, athletic ability and muscukar physique served him well in this regard.BUT AS IS the case with so many, be it in show business or wherever, he didn't quite make the cut to stardom. Instead, the former USC Trojan footballer (starting Guard as "Bull" Jones) and pal of another football player there named "Duke" Morrison (John Wayne) found his niche as supporting player and character actor. Having gradually "filled out", his build helped to establish him in many a role, both villainous and sympathetic. IN REGARD TO this short feature's merits and why we sing its praises, it has the whole package for a movie of its station in life. At 57 minutes, it only occupied an hour of the double bill on Saturdays. This left plenty of time for the cartoon, the live action comedy short, the serial chapter and the trailers (aka "Previews of Coming Attractions"). Its bright and cheerful attitude groomed its audience for more to come on the screen.ONE OTHER ASPECT of this title NIGHT WAITRESS is the manner in which the production team so skillfully puts together the supporting cast. It has been said that you'll never see a bad scene that has Billy Gilbert or Marc Lawrence in it. Well here we have both. Added to the mix, one Don "Red" Barry, Willie Best, Walter Miller (former lead in serial king) and Paul Stanton. PERHAPS THE MOST interesting tidbit of trivia is the casting of Antonio Rodolfo Oaxaca Quinn in an uncredited role as a gangster. This was undoubtedly a great start and boosted his career, getting it off to great start. His tie on the screen is far greater than one would think; bringing us to conclude that Mr. Quinn made such an equally spectacular impression on those bigwigs at RKO.BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY the greatest single attribute and accomplishment of this little picture was in its ability to entertain us and ultimately leave us happy. Then we could move on to the "main event" (Featured "A" Picture).

It sure is interesting seeing how times have changed. Throughout the first portion of the film, Martin (Gordon Jones) shamefully sexually harasses a waitress at a warf-side dive. Again and again and again, he asks her out and completely refuses to take NO for an answer...and HE ultimately turns out to be the hero in the story!! Yikes!!Helen (Margot Grahame) is a waitress in a restaurant catering to the local sea men. Despite having a rough crowd, she keeps her distance, as she's on probation and wants to be a good girl. Later, there is a gangland killing in the restaurant and the police immediately single her out because of her past. So, she does what any heroine in a movie does---she goes on the run and Martin helps her sort things out...and finds out that some hidden gold is involved. This is a great illustration of the saying "Don't try this at home!", as I think running from the law and solving the mystery is NOT the best way of handling things!!This movie has B-movie written all over it. It comes in at a hasty 57 minutes (typical of a B) and has a plot that is very familiar to the style of movie. Apart from the sexual harassment, the film is a competent and reasonably enjoyable picture from RKO...a studio that made a lot of Bs.

Passable crime movie from RKO featuring two actors who didn't quite make the grade. At least in her home country Margot Grahame was known as Britain's answer to Jean Harlow and dubbed the "Aluminium Blonde" as well as being their highest paid star but Hollywood didn't really want to know, even after her sterling performance in "The Informer". Besides her looks had more in common with Lucille Ball or Barbara Pepper. And Gordon Jones, even though he worked solidly from 1932 until 1963 (the year he died), was destined to have a very familiar face even if you couldn't remember his name.Helen Roberts (Grahame) is back at her waitressing job after a brush with the law and with the full support of Papa Torres (Billy Gilbert) who just wants to see her make good. How anyone could have cast Grahame as a probation girl is amazing - her posh tones seemed more at home in Buckingham Palace than Tony's Fish Palace!!! When not brushing off unwanted suitors she also has to put up with the whispered innuendos about her past which makes her particularly hardened to breezy sea Captain Marty Rhodes (Jones) who wants to get to know her better. He seems to be mixed up with some pretty shady characters who feel he can lead them to a gold shipment but, like Helen, he is really just an innocent bystander who doesn't know what the mysterious shipment he has been hired to deliver, is!!!The most interesting thing about this movie is the number of familiar faces in smaller roles, forget about the two leads. Don "Red" Barry of later "Red Ryder" fame is Rigo who is organising the gold cargo, Marc Lawrence (here billed as Laurence) is Dorne, a thug (what else!!), another thug is played by Anthony Quinn who happened to get a couple of good close-ups. There was also Willie Best as a bystander and the always good Frank Faylen, he of the thousand bit parts and Dobie Gillis's always exasperated father, playing a policeman in the crowd.

Well done B-movie about a gal on probation who works as a waitress at the dockside "Torre's Fish Palace", run by Papa Torre (Billy Gilbert, unfortunately seen oh so briefly in this film) who makes sure his wait staff aren't over-perfumed or wearing too much makeup. Just trying to keep out of trouble, our waitress unfortunately is of the attractive blonde variety, and every jerk man in the restaurant keeps trying to hit on her. Soon she, for some reason (I guess it's the guy's big, dopey grin that got her), is mixed up with this really aggressive, but handsome lug who is a racketeer on the watch each night to meet some mug named Rigo, and waits in his regular booth at midnight for the guy to show. Meanwhile, a gang of detectives/gangsters are out to meet up with this Rigo as well.A fast-paced little crime drama, this film is not too bad for a low budget movie. This is another one of those movies (and there sure are a lot of them) where the woman thinks a guy is a creep at first (or as she calls him "a gorilla") but he is just SO assertive, pressing her into going out with him, grabbing her aggressively to kiss her, etc., that she actually starts to like the guy. And, well, he does seem to have his charms, which are not visible in the earlier parts of the film - but I wonder at her easy change of mind. The acting by the two leads (Margot Grahame and Gordon Jones) is quite well done and there is a good deal of chemistry between them as well - and watch for a young Anthony Quinn in this as one of the "detectives". Worth seeing.