Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Hard Guy (1941)

Bar owner Vic Monroe (Jack La Rue) has a rather unlikely scam going. He arranges for his female employees to meet and marry rich men but then engineers a quick annulment making a profit from the settlement. When dancer Doris Starr (Gayle Mellott) marries Anthony Tremaine (Howard Banks) all ends in chaos when Anthony's father (C. Montague Shaw) turns up and threatens to disinherit him, sparking a riot.

Now Jack's nefarious / ridiculous plot goes into action. His friend poses as Doris' father to negotiate an annulment settlement to keep things quiet. Meanwhile detective Tex Cassidy (Jack Mulhall) is investigating the club and involves the ex-governor's son Steve Randall (Kane Richmond). Meanwhile Vic leads Doris on to think he will marry her. When she finds out he doesn't mean it she threatens to blow his whole scheme. He kills Doris and frames Anthony Tremaine. Julie (Mary Healy) the sister of Doris begins to investigate the club and Vic's schemes with the help of Steve and Tex...

So it's all rather ridiculous. Vic's scheme is nonsense of course and some of the characters (such as Tex) are incredibly one dimensional. However the film flows reasonably well and has enough of a spark and good enough job from the leads to be at least watchable.