Pursuit

Needing the $2,000 payment offered, broke San Francisco pilot Chester Morris (as Mitchell) accepts an offer from child protective agent Sally Eilers (as Maxine Bush). They are to accompany cute little Scotty Beckett (as Donald "Donny" McCoy) to Mexico because his widowed mother has weak lawyers and fears she will lose her son in a custody battle. Since his plane crashes in the opening mishap, Mr. Morris decides to drive young Beckett to Mexico, with Ms. Eilers going along. Of course, Morris and Eilers become a reluctant romantic couple. Beckett is reported kidnapped, with a $20,000 reward offered for his return. It turns out to be a rocky trip, with movie serial-type cliffhangers...

A popular actor in the 1930s, Morris was favored in gangster crime dramas. The situation in "Pursuit" is serious, but his co-stars reveal Morris presented in a one of his lighter pictures. Cute and capable, Eilers never achieved her star potential; possibly, she would have had more luck if a single studio (like MGM) were handling her career. Morris and Eilers have good chemistry, but they're not Gable and Colbert. Fresh from the "Our Gang" kid series, Beckett is a little too sweetly layered, even without the lollipop. To hide from the police, Beckett dresses up as a girl. He also joins Morris and Eilers as a "black-face" family. The trio are inoffensive and Beckett is convincing as a little 1930s black girl.

***** Pursuit (8/9/35) Edwin L. Marin ~ Chester Morris, Sally Eilers, Scotty Beckett, Henry Travers