The Mysterious Mr. Valentine

"Janet" (Linda Stirling) gets a puncture and seeks the assistance of "Armstrong" (Tristram Coffin) incurring the chagrin of that man's rather jealous wife "Rita" (Barbara Wooddell). To make matters worse, she now drives off in the wife's car only to collide with another car and then find herself embroiled in a previous, and fatal, hit-and-run with the partner of the husband of the wife of the car she is driving. Still with me? Now she engages the help of PI "Morgan" (William Henry) to try to get to the bottom of an internecine mystery that involves fraud, insurance and mysterious women. It packs quite a lot of plot into an hour, but the acting and the dialogue is banal at best with very basic production values that smack more of television than cinema. It probably looked OK at a drive-in when the audience maybe had better things to do, and it really is pretty instantly forgettable fayre.

Linda Sterling (Janet) seems to be caught up in a big, complicated mess that involves murder, blackmail, adultery and theft and we see it all in the first 10 minutes or so. William Henry (Steve) is the private investigator who helps to solve the case and keeps her protected. He gets involved with various characters but you need to pay attention as no time is wasted in this fast-paced offering.

The acting is good although we get a few lame comedy attempts, eg, Linda Sterling pretending to be a secretary and wearing big glasses that means that she can't see properly. Yes....very funny. Actually, Linda Sterling is quite funny on another occasion, albeit unintentional. When William Henry is taking a beating and fighting for his life in the same room as Linda Sterling, she phones the police and does absolutely NOTHING to help him. And then, when the bad guy runs off, she shouts at Henry to get after him. WHAT? Get after him yourself, you silly bitch. Like I said, it is actually quite funny.

This film is a fun way to spend an hour but make sure you pay attention or you will lose the plot. And I doubt you'll guess who is behind it all.

I admit I lost the thread of this plot after its powerful first ten minutes of this film from Republic Studios.

A young woman, Janet Spencer (Linda Stirling) has a blowout. She walks to a nearby chemical company to use the phone. The chemist inside (Tristram Coffin) is a distracted wreck. Turns out there's a body in the back room, except it's gone.

Just then, the chemist's wife Rita (Barbara Woodell) walks in with a photographer, claiming to have found her husband in a compromising position with Linda.

Linda beats the hell out of there, jumps into a car, and takes off. Then she hits a body. Two men emerge from another car and tell her it wasn't her fault; she was probably blinded by their headlights. They offer to take the man to the hospital.

Linda doesn't know it, but the body was that of the dead man who disappeared from the lab. Soon, she finds herself being blackmailed about the accident by a "Mr. Valentyne" who sends her notes demanding money.

Other people seem to have enjoyed this noirish film better than I did. It does start out as a noir but ends up as a fairly normal crime drama. Linda Stirlng is very pretty and as the detective who helps her, William Henry does a good job. Nice to see Virginia Christine as such a young woman in this. She later became the Folgers coffee lady, Mrs. Olsen.

It's an implausible romp and the switches between romantic comedy and serious criminal investigation makes you think that the film can't really settle on its identity.

Despite that, the script, cast and the characters manager to keep your interest for the hour.

It's silly, confusing and ultimately a lightweight B movie.

There's a genuinely funny moment when the heroine is forced to play a secretary and wear ridiculous coke bottle glasses.

For nostalgia freaks (like me) this film has enough going for it too keep me paying attention.

For others it might be a bit of a letdown.

Not as good as Charlie Chan or Bogey, but entertaining for an hour with an interesting plot. Other than that; cliche performances with stereotype roles. Dialogue corny.