THE LAST WARNING

US, 1938, 63 minutes, Black-and-white.

Preston Foster, Frank Jenks, Kay Linaker, E.E.Clive, Joyce Compton, Frances Robinson, Raymond Parker, Robert Paige, Albert Decker, Roland Drew.

Directed by Albert Rogell.

One of the features of going to the movies in the 1930s to the 1950s was the double program. The emphasis was on the main feature. Before the interval there were either short films as at MGM, Featurettes, or there were 60 to 70 minute long supporting feature films, especially from Colombia and Universal.

In retrospect we can see that they were the equivalent in later decades of episodes in the television series.

These three films featured Preston Foster as a private detective, not the norm at all, loud, drinking, always wanting to have a sleep, more live and eyeing the girls, but, not always particularly evident from the screenplay, always working out the solution ahead of everyone else. And, the screenplay gives him a whole lot of wisecracks. And, as with so many of the detectives, he has a sidekick, Don Williams, played by comedian Frank Jenks, sometimes shrewd, sometimes awkward, sometimes comic, and a propensity for ogling all the glamorous girls who turn up in numbers in these films.

These films are murder mysteries, the first having a dead body and many suspects, the second the discovery of a woman in the morgue, processes of identification and revelations true stories, the third with a young man hiring the two detectives because he is being thr’s eatened with notes signed by The Eye, his owing great deal of money to the casino operator, the abduction of his sister, the British Guardian, played by E.E.Clive, with his very English butler.

The film move along with quite some pace within the limited time, the puzzle of the mystery – but basically 1930s style supporting features. These three films were based on novels by Jonathan Latimer.