Movies

Don't Tell the Wife (1937) Guy Kibbee and Una Merkel get top billing in this RKO bill-filler. Merkel is the wife of a Wall Street Hustler, Kibbee the duffer duped into fronting for a phony gold mine company. Takes the idea and runs with it, then flips it around in the last reel so justice is served and virtue rewarded. Some good laughs, but it emits sleep-rays through the middle third which almost put both of us out. You could do worse. 4/10

The Face of Marble (1946) I'll bet you anything that someone at Monogram Studios said, "We need a movie called The Face of Marble and this is when we need it by." Completely incoherent script from start to finish, especially the finish. John Carradine is a scientist working on a means of reviving the dead, but the revived fall under the sway of his voodoo housekeeper and gain the ability to walk through closed doors. A revived dog becomes a sort of ghost vampire. The titular face is a momentary side-effect of the revival process which plays no part in the proceedings. A ridiculous muddle of pseudo-science and voodoo with flashing neon and spark machines, directed by champion hack William Beaudine. The best feature of the film is statuesque Maris Wrixon, who spends most of her screen time in a luscious satin nightgown. This movie stands as evidence that a really lousy script can be far more entertaining than a pretty good one. 6/10

Maris Wrixon, an ornament to any laboratory.