The House Across the Street

A routine B level remake of the Paul Muni film "Hi, Nellie", "The House Across the Street" offers adequate entertainment for people addicted to vintage crime dramas. Wayne Morris plays Dave Joslin, the crusading managing editor of a newspaper. He's printed one too many stories criticizing the police force and vilifying crime kingpin Matthew Keever (Bruce Bennett), so his boss (Alan Hale Sr.) demotes him to working the advice column section. A dejected Dave quickly sees a way in which doing this thankless job can lead to a real break in terms of actually proving Keever of any wrongdoing - in a roundabout way, of course.

Some folks might consider this "noir", but it's more of a straightforward crime picture with a heavy accent on comedy. Not that the comedy isn't pretty funny, as Dave is a rather obnoxious, sexist guy who constantly spars with would-be girlfriend Kit Williams (an adorable Janis Paige), who was previously toiling on the advice column. Kit would much rather be covering stories of substance, and is often there following leads when Dave is otherwise busy.

You won't get a lot of stark atmosphere, or much physical violence, or much gunplay here, but the story is reasonably entertaining, and as I said, some of the humor works fairly well. The strong supporting cast also includes James Mitchell as a henchman, Barbara Bates as a "bad girl", James Holden as a hard-luck young working stiff, Phyllis Coates as a camera girl, and Billy Gray, Charles Lane, Lila Leeds, Doreen McCann, and Ray Walker as well.

Overall the picture is unmemorable, but it's fast-paced & quick and rather snappy: in other words, a decent B movie from this era.

Six out of 10.