The Gang's All Here (1941)

Director: JEAN YARBROUGH. Original screenplay: Edmond Kelso. Photography: Mack Stengler. Film editor: Jack Ogilvie. Settings: David Milton. Art director: Charles Clague. Music director: Edward J. Kay. Production manager: Glenn Cook. Sound recording: Glen Glenn. Producer: Lindsley Parsons. Copyright 11 June 1941 by Monogram Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: not recorded, but probably similar to copyright date. No recorded Australian theatrical release. 6 reels. 63 minutes. SYNOPSIS: The good guy's trucking firm is sabotaged by the bad guy's rival operation. COMMENT: I are not surprised I can find no record of this film's release anywhere, though American exhibitors, keen to save a few bucks, no doubt used it as a first half for a particularly strong "A" feature. True, the cast is not uninteresting (though Robert Homans looks uncomfortable out of his customary cop uniform), with both Keye Luke and Mantan Moreland giving it a bit of luster. But the script is on the dull side. Worse, its lack of vitality becomes progressively compounded by Yarbrough's flat, lifeless direction with its reliance on long, static takes. Worse still, production values are minimal. If ever a movie looked like it had been created in the proverbial phone booth, The Gang's All Here is it!

Don't expect banana-clad Carmen Miranda, polka dot wearing Alice Faye or leg-lifting Charlotte Greenwood. This is not at all related to that blockbuster musical from just a few years hence. This is a racket film where different moods move in and out and make the film fly by extremely fast.When you start watching the first 10 minutes of this Monogram crime drama, you may be confused with the listing of Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland as the frequently paired co-stars, as their teamings were mostly on the light side. It does move into that direction when they take over the action, determined to unmask the villains behind a sabotaging ring out to discredit a trucking company. The actions of the villains are sinister and deadly but toss in the un-aging Darro and the bug-eyed Moreland, and comedy is sure to erupt.Marcia Mae Jones, a forgotten teen-aged actress in such films as "These Three" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", is the romantic interest here, and in a scene with her beau (Jackie Moran), she goes through all the women who stood by important men in history, hesitating ironically only once when she mentions Alexander the Great, adding hesitatingly, "Mrs. Alexander the Great". It turns out that the beloved head of the trucking company (Robert Homans) knows more than he's let on, and the motivations behind the hijackings are rather surprising. But don't underestimate Darro and the seemingly scaredy-cat Moreland who is certainly braver than he realizes he is, especially when he takes on another stereotypical black character, a henchman of the villains played by Laurence Criner (given the silly name of "Ham Shanks").At just an hour's running time, there's a lot to enjoy here, reminding me that sometimes the best gifts come in small packages and you could get them from a Woolworth's rather than a Bloomingdale's.

A trucking company owner tries to get out of debt by killing some truck drivers.This is a neat movie. Well written ,directed,acted, and cast. The interracial angel was particularly heartening. It just goes to show,crime doesn't always pay.Pat Gleason drove the International big truck.Frankie Darro drove the Brockway big truck.Frankie Darro and Pat Gleason were permanent A list actors.Marcia Mae Jones was hot!!erldwgstruckermovies.com

While this comedy does not feature the complex screenplay of "Up In the Air," the best of the Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland team-ups, it is certainly an above-average comedy for its time -- that being a time of segregation laws and the dawning of the nascent civil rights movement. And as if a Black/White buddy movie were not enough of a ground-breaker for 1941, this film also features the wonderful Chinese-American actor Keye Luke as an insurance investigator. Nowadays dual-racial and cross-cultural buddy movies are so common as to hardly merit special notice, but long before such famous films as "48 Hours" with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, savvy audiences were amazed at the comedic interplay between Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland. I sincerely believe that in their own way, fun little movies like this laid the groundwork for racial tolerance and an end to segregation laws -- but that is not the only reason to watch them -- the truth is, Mantan Moreland is one of the great comedians of the 20th century, and every film he made is worth a look.