Washington Melodrama (1941) User Reviews

An enjoyable murder mystery.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 27 May 2017]

During the era in which "Washington Melodrama" was made, there must have been a bazillion murder mystery B-movies. However, this film uses the familiar formula and brightens it up with an A-movie treatment. This means that instead of a 60 minute (give or take) running time like a B would have and mostly unknown actors, this one has a few bigger name actors, a running time of 80 minutes and a nice polished MGM look.

When the film begins, Calvin Claymore (Frank Morgan) is in DC pushing for a war relief bill. His family, on the other hand, are traveling about and he's left alone...alone and lonely. So a Senator decides to take him for a night on the town...at one of the strangest nightclubs in film history!* Morgan meets a nice young lady and soon they begins spending time together...platonic time...nothing sexual. However, after breaking off their friendship before it goes further, her vicious boss arrives at her apartment and he murders her. There doesn't appear to be any evidence the boss was there...but there is about Calvin and soon he'll be the #1 suspect. To help save his butt, his daughter (Ann Rutherford) comes to the rescue.

The acting and plot are quite nice and the film enjoyable. Overall, a very good film with a few noir qualities--such as the incredibly brutal murder--one of the nastiest and most vivid of the era!

*The nightclub features a water show...which makes little sense because it would be difficult for the audience to really see the ladies doing their synchronized swimming. In fact, the only way to really see them well is from above...and filmmakers of the era employed this odd technique quite a few times. Odder yet was when audience members were given fishing rods and were told to try to catch the girls!! Weird.

DEPENDABLE FRANK MORGAN

[jbacks3 · 7/10 · 7 February 2003]

MGM had 2 stalwarts under long time contract: Lionel Barrymore and Frank Morgan... okay, you might throw Lewis Stone in there too. But of all of them, Frank's the most lovable and not given to the hammy theatrics of Barrymore. Here he's a lonely wealthy do-gooder, whose wife's off on an extended vacation in South America. He get's hooked up with a night club floozie at the urging of her coniving partner (Dan Dailey, playing against type) and after an innocent flirtation (she actually begins to care for Frank), she's MURDERED and obviously all fingers seem to point to him, which threatens everything. His daughter (the extremely attractive Ann Rutherford who does a mean French accent when called for) helps save the day with the help of her publisher boyfriend. There's some interesting debate on helping the innocent victims of WWII (we weren't in it yet) and you can see where our sympathies were. This isn't a who done it... it's more of a "how does he get out of it." Is it just me or does Douglass Drumbrille always seem to play the part of Lionel Atwill?

A Bit of everything

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 3 July 2012]

Washington Melodrama has a bit of everything in it, murder, infidelity, politics, the war, and a Busby Berkeley style musical number in a nightclub with a swimming pool. All that in a film from the B picture unit with MGM's B contract players.

At one time Frank Morgan played more serious type roles as he does here primarily. But after he scored such a success in The Affairs Of Cellini getting an Oscar nomination playing the oafish, addle-pated Duke of Florence and following that up with the French territorial Governor in Naughty Marietta, the movie-going public saw him rarely do anything else. Here he's the lead as a millionaire industrialist who is in the nation's capital lobbying for a bill to bring relief to the starving in war torn Europe.

Taken to a nightclub by a rakish US Senator friend Thurston Hall, he gets an arranged meeting with dancer Anne Gwynne and they begin an innocent flirtation that has the potential to get serious with Morgan's wife and daughter away. Then Gwynne gets herself murdered and Morgan is involved.

His daughter Ann Rutherford stands by him, but her boyfriend Kent Taylor is a newspaper columnist and his instincts takeover. Between the two of them sometimes working at cross purposes it's a job to clear Morgan and find the real culprit. We know who it is, but they don't. And looming in the background is Morgan's pet project the relief bill which is in danger of being torpedoed in the scandal.

Lee Bowman plays Taylor's sidekick reporter, Douglass Dumbrille for once is not a villain playing the District Attorney. And as a song and dance couple at the nightclub are Dan Dailey and Virginia Grey. This film shows all of Dailey's talents as dancer and actor.

Most of all this film belongs to Morgan showing him capable of doing more than being an oaf. I'm sure he was grateful for the chance.

Good Frank Morgan -- OK Movie

[Appalled · 20 April 2004]

Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz) usually played to perfection the utterly likable fraud, or the erring aging playboy. But around 1940, MGM began to give him the opportunity to play different types of roles in a series of pleasant but not too demanding pictures. In this one, Frank is a steel tycoon who is the head of a relief organization who gets mixed up in the murder of a showgirl. Frank, as always, is absolutely likable, but has one scene where he gets to utterly lose his temper. It's a revelation of a side one almost never sees in his pictures.

Rest of the movie isn't bad, except for a really dull production number early on. (The choreography is surprisingly ragged for MGM.) The acting besides Frank is only fair, the comic interludes painful, but the plot is actually pretty good, and the political debate that provides much of the conflict is eerily reminiscent of the debates about providing food aid to Iraq in Saddam's era. All in all, worth your time, but you might want to fast forward through the "funny" bits.

some lively performances and some so-so musical acts

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 4 July 2012]

Frank Morgan gets mixed up in a "Washington Melodrama" in this 1941 film also starring Dan Dailey, Kent Taylor, and Ann Rutherford.

Morgan plays steel tycoon Calvin Claymore, who is preparing to go before Congress to champion his relief organization, which wants the U.S. to help the children who are starving overseas as a result of World War II. Since this film was released in 1941, we hadn't yet entered the war. He's got some opposition, including his daughter's fiancé, newspaper editor Hal (Kent Taylor). Calvin's family, daughter Laurie (Ann Rutherford) and wife (Fay Holden) are away for the summer, and he's terribly lonely.

He and a friend go to a nightclub, where he meets a showgirl, Mary (Anne Gwynne) whom he takes sightseeing and escorts around town. I think that's all there was to it - you know these old films, it's sometimes pretty obscure as to what's going on.

Anyway, when his family returns, Mary understands that he won't be seeing her. She then reveals something he's known all along: the whole meeting was a set-up by an entertainer at the club, Whit (Dan Dailey) but though she went out with Calvin, she didn't soak him for money as planned. After Calvin leaves, Mary finds an envelope from him with a letter and a bunch of money. She starts to run after him but is stopped by Whit. He wants the money; she wants to return it. The two fight and she is killed. This is going to cause some problems for poor Calvin.

When all is revealed, Laurie goes to work trying to find out the identity of the killer with the help of a reporter (Lee Bowman).

Solid movie, with a delightful performance by Ann Rutherford, who dons a French accent for part of the film, and an excellent one by Frank Morgan, in a different kind of role for him. Actors in those days were typecast by their studios and it's difficult to see them in other roles, and when you do, it's often a revelation. Morgan here shows he can hold down a lead and do serious roles - something he did early in his career before getting noticed in his usual type of part.

Lee Bowman is terrific as reporter Ronnie Colton - funny, smooth, and charming. A leading man type with the soul of a character actor - good combo.

Entertaining.

Scandal...Blackmail...Melodrama......................

[Panamint · 7/10 · 4 June 2007]

Frank Morgan and Fay Holden are the essence of dignity in this movie. It is a pleasure to watch these pros as they make dignity and honest virtue so believable. It just isn't done much on screen anymore, at least not with such conviction and believability.

It is also a pleasure to see a strong female role ("Laurie Claymore") as it is ably played by Ann Rutherford. Imagine this- a strong, intelligent young woman fighting for her parents. It works, but again is something not done anymore. Modern script writers are missing out on a lot.

Anne Gwynne is effective and noticeable in this movie, as a young chick who gets caught up in a tease scam. It is completely believable that she could successfully tease the rich and powerful men, because she is so flat-out gorgeous.

Dan Daily delivers one of the nastiest punches ever seen on film as he knocks Gwynne's character over a chair and out cold. A powerful bad-guy effect is achieved in this scene.

Washington, D.C. scandal and blackmail. Perfect setting for this good melodrama. Its an old movie but the crime could happen again now, at any time. Isn't there a Washington "Madam" case making headlines in 2007?

The Wizard right after he was the Wizard

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 3 June 2017]

The awesome Frank Morgan (the WIZARD, of course!) is Calvin Claymore, in a pretty calm, low-key role, compared to how we usually see him! Here, he's taking a senator out to try to work up support for his Europe war-children aid group. Takes a whole long time to get the plot going here... the usual song and dance numbers, some with Busby Berkely-type water-unison performances. All of a sudden, about half way through, the action really kicks into high gear; Claymore, who is married, is caught up in a scandal that may or may not be his fault. This one takes some strange turns, with blackmail, politics, and pitting friends and family against each other. Claymore's "wife" and "daughter" play pretty significant roles as well (Fay Holden and Ann Rutherford). Regular film viewers will recognize character actor Douglass Dumbrille as Prosecutor Donnelly; Dumbrille had appeared in films with the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope, usually as the shady, shifty foil. This one kind of goes all around the mulberry bush, as they used to say, but it's certainly entertaining. Director Sylvan Simon died quite young, at 41, about ten years after making this film. Frank Morgan himself would die quite young, at 59, about eight years after this film. Showing on Turner Classics, but with only 131 votes, they must not show this one very frequently. Pretty Good. I always enjoy anything with Frank Morgan.

Better than average B picture; Frank Morgan shines

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 4 July 2012]

Frank Morgan is just about my favorite character actor. So, when TCM began to show a few more of the B movies he starred in for MGM, I was very enthusiastic. My enthusiasm didn't last long. Not because of Frank Morgan, but because the starring roles MGM was giving him were nothing but fluff.

So, when I sat down to watch this one, I was ready to turn it off after checking it out for a few minutes. I'm glad I stuck with it, because while it seemed a bit light at first, it sure didn't stay that way. This may be a B movie, but I'd give it a B+ or even an A- (yes, I know that's not how films are rated).

A well-meaning politician goes out for a night on the town (Washington) while his wife and daughter are taking a long vacation in Rio. This part of the movie seems like fluff. At the nightclub there's a rather impressive water ballet, and a very chauvinistic segment when the customers get to "fish" for the mermaids...which Morgan does...and hooks a beauty...who turns out to be a rather nice girl and he spends some very innocent time with her sightseeing in Washington...until his wife telegrams him that she and the daughter are about to return home.

He leaves the "mermaid" with roses and some money, which she decides to return. She just enjoyed their innocent time together. Then the MC from the nightclub (Dan Dailey) catches her writing the letter to return the money, knocks her down, and discovers he has killed her. The letter turns out to be a clue that Frank Morgan has killed her, instead.

Frank Morgan is excellent here, a bit restrained, as is appropriate for the part. Dan Dailey is very good as the crooked MC; not sure why his winning persona on screen didn't push him further. Virginia Grey is a bit over the top as Dailey's sometimes-fiancé. Ann Rutherford is quite good as Morgan's daughter, and key to the story line. Lee Bowman is out of place here. He plays his reporter role as if the film was a comedy, which it is not. Kent Taylor isn't quite right as the newspaper editor, either. But, the latter two actors don't detract much from the story.

With a slightly better script and slightly better casting of a couple of the parts, this could have been an A picture. Savor it for a very good performance by Frank Morgan.

Watch at least until the synchronized swim

[rayresnyc · 6/10 · 20 December 2021]

It's a little cute and a more than a little politically incorrect. But try to keep watching until you get to the delightful implausibility synchronized swim bit.

Good cast. Terrible script kills this early on.

[richard-1787 · 6/10 · 19 December 2021]

One of the previous reviews calls this a murder mystery. If only it were! There is no mystery about who kills the young chorus girl early in the picture, because we see Dan Dailey do it - granted, unintentionally - early in the picture. Since this is 1941 and an MGM picture with Frank Morgan, just shortly after he endeared himself to Americans as the Wizard of Oz, 1941 viewers knew that it was not going to end with Morgan being sentenced to death for murder.

That leaves us sitting through an 80 minute picture with no suspense, and therefore not much interest.

It would have been ten times better, and actually interesting, if

1) we had not been shown almost from the get-go who killed the girl, and 2) we had also be left in doubt about whether Morgan's character had cheated on his wife with her.

Since neither of these things are true, there's really not much to this picture.

melodrama

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 2 November 2023]

Calvin Claymore (Frank Morgan) is a tycoon trying to pass a humanitarian bill for Nazi occupied Europe. He is opposed for helping the enemy. He gets drawn to a nightclub and becomes attached to showgirl Mary Morgan. Their encounter was set up by a blackmailer. When she turns up murdered, the blackmailer frames him for it.

Morgan's politics is naive at best and wrong at worst. The audience would know it soon enough. His political position actually bugs me a lot and the other side isn't that helpful either. They are debating about the effects without trying to fix the root cause. In the end, that part isn't necessary to the blackmail. He would still be after his money with or without the issue. As for Calvin, he is still the cause of his own problem no matter how much of a gentleman he tries to be. He willingly gets hooked. He has no one to blame but himself. Well, it's in the title. It's all melodrama.

Frank Morgan As The Confused Hero of A Film Noir??

[Handlinghandel · 9/10 · 7 February 2003]

This has some cheery trappings but it's a brutal little movie. Dan Dailey could be a mean villain. He certainly is here.

Frank Morgan is framed, but the real noir heroes -- heroines --are the two pretty dancing girls.

This movie has a lot of bite, despite its having been directed by a workaday director and its starring the generally affable -- always, always likeable Morgan

Another enjoyable Frank Morgan movie

[adamj-4 · 8 February 2003]

This is a "nice" movie, typical of the times. If you are a Frank Morgan fan, as I am, you will like this film. Ann Rutherford is great with a Spanish accent. Dan Dailey plays the bad guy, and, as usual, is very convincing. All ends well, as it always does in these "old" movies.

Lacks Overall Impact

[dougdoepke · 3 June 2017]

Despite actor Morgan's subtly effective performance, it's a concocted screenplay, part murder, part politics, part floorshow, and part romance. Then too, the focus shifts midway from Morgan to daughter Rutherford, further dispersing plot progression. No whodunit here since we see Dailey smack the doomed girl into a fatal tumble. For song and dance man Dailey, it's quite a career departure that takes some getting used to.

Seems wealthy Morgan's trying to get a Congressional bill passed to help those Europeans now under Nazi conquest (1941). In this, he's opposed by newspaper editor Taylor who thinks Nazis will simply seize the assistance for their own. Thus the subtext somewhat mirrors the bigger issue between isolationists (Taylor) and interventionists (Morgan) of the time. Anyhow, Morgan gets innocently involved with a showgirl who's murdered by Dailey. Trouble is Morgan's left incriminating evidence in murdered girl's room. So how will he clear himself, and maybe more importantly not compromise his Congressional bill.

That indoor pool that suddenly opens up from the nightclub floor is a grabber. But then so are the swimsuit chorines that dive in. Seems like that queen of aquanauts, Esther Williams, should be there, somewhere. Then too, the overhead geometry the pool girls perform made me think Busby Berkeley lurking above with a camera. In fact, those floorshow routines may be the movie's best part.

On the whole, the film's well acted and well mounted for a B-production, but then it is MGM. However, the screenplay could use some serious shaping and trimming to achieve needed impact. As is, it's 80-minutes of occasional parts, but a ho-hum whole.