BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

MartinHafer Jack Haley stars as a bumbling reporter who has a chess column in the paper. However smart he is when it comes to this game, he's a rather absent-minded and oblivious writer--missing important non-chess stories that occur all around him. The newspaper owner is at his wits end and offers Haley one final chance--or he's fired. It seems all the REAL reporters are off investigating a sensational prison escape, so they have to have Haley report on a grape festival. But, when he gets on the wrong bus, he's pulled into another unexpected story, as the guy next to him is stabbed to death during this trip! And, naturally, they suspect Haley of this crime. Haley is torn between trying to sneak out of town to get to the festival and trying to solve the murder to get the police off him.This film is a comedy-mystery film and it tries very hard to be goofy--with middling results. Sometimes, it's cute and clever and sometimes it comes off as very forced--such as including the ridiculous child prodigy character. This kid is 100% unrealistic and just plain annoying--even though the writer clearly intended the kid to be comic relief. The only relief I might have felt was if HE had been the murder victim! And, as the film progressed, I kept hoping he'd be next! Fortunately, he's not in the movie all that much--otherwise I might have bailed on this movie before it concluded. What I did like was Haley and his pleasant performance. And, for a B-mystery film, this is pretty good for the most part. While not a great film, it's an agreeable film...plus the brat gets it in the end!

Cristi_Ciopron A crime comedy about a chess-deck and chessmen, rather modest as script and performance, TREASURE OF FEAR, with Jack Haley and Ann Savage, directed by Frank McDonald, has too many small ideas to assemble them into a story. A journalist's trip, a romance on the road, the quest for Marco Pollo's chess-deck and the hunt for a murderer are mixed in a story with mysterious, intriguing characters, in an unsatisfying and approximative way. The treatment is light and amusing, but also banal and clumsy. And it ain't too intelligent, either. The performances seem trite, but then the roles were badly written to begin with. A funny, more or less dysfunctional journalist is sent to write an article; he takes the GREYHOUND, stumbles into a murder case and is also co-opted into hiding an old chess-deck. He meets various inscrutable characters—oldsters, a couple of broads, an annoying kid. Too bad a possibly funny subject isn't well handled. The script is weak. So, perhaps this ain't the definitive Marco Pollo chess-deck comedy. It lacks that lively charm which proves that a mind contributed. For ambitious screenwriters, that's a challenge—to write the definitive Marco Pollo's chess-deck comedy.

dbborroughs The plot of this movie has a forgetful chess editor going off to cover a grape festival. His uncle, who runs the paper, hopes this will turn him into a normal reporter (When he covered the funeral of the mayor he failed to mention a woman's suicide over the grave, nor does he mention the riot that occurred at the chess match he was covering when he was called away for the grape festival assignment.) In typical fashion he takes the wrong bus to the wrong place and ends up mixed up in with a gang of wanted killers.This was the first time I had ever knowingly watched a Jack Haley movie other than the Wizard of Oz. While I thought his performance was good I absolutely hated his character. No one could be that stupid and so unaware of what was going on around him. He's the type of person that you could set on fire and he'd pay it no mind. Its completely unbelievable. It ruins what should otherwise be an excellent little film that has a good B cast, some chills and thrills.If you're curious you could try it, perhaps Haley's character won't run you the wrong way, as for me this goes into the no need to repeat pile.

boblipton Overwrought comedy-mystery suffers from unlikeable characters, poorly-paced script. The actors try hard, but between the bratty kid, the scatter-witted hero and the shrill heroine, even veteran character actor Lucien Littlefield (as identical twins who hate each other for unspecified reasons -- probably for signing the contract to be in this picture), the picture does not wear well.