Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

ksf-2 Stars Fank Darro as "Frank"... takes a job as a truck driver, unaware of the shenanigans behind the scenes. Apparently the competitor has hired thugs to drive the company out of business, but Frank and sidekick "Jeff" need the money. A lot of repetition.. we keep seeing the same two trucks on the same stretch of road.... but in different incidents and different smashups. Then Mr. Lee shows up, and no-one knows what he's really doing there. Because of his shorter size, Darro had played the robot in "Forbidden Planet", although someone else did the robot's voice. Darro died quite young of a heart attack. This one is a Monogram Pictures shortie, at only 62 minutes. Which in this case is a blessing, since it's really not so good. Directed by Jean Yarbrough, who was known as king of the hacks, according to his bio here. Yarbrough and writer Edmond Kelso made twelve films together! It's just ok. No big names in this one.

Cristi_Ciopron An action comedy directed by Yarbrough, and gathering Darro, Moreland, Marcia Mae Jones, Keye Luke, Moran, Homans as a dishonest patriarch, and Laurence Criner as Ham Shanks, the black henchman. The script's ideas about dignity and honor seem very conventional (the dubious morality of exonerating the compromised oldster), so there's enough silliness and amorality, coldly registered and assumed. The humor is light, but the main characters do face death. Today, this may seem indifference, perhaps it was a tougher mind. This trend of making crime comedies very light has vanished since. But even back in the day some protested against the mindless playfulness of the crime comedies.Luke plays a distinguished detective, who's ahead of everyone else in understanding the situation.Moreland, who offers the acting highlight (as in almost every other movie he has been in), is sadly billed 5th. But he has been given the 2nd lead, because he's more than the truck-driver's sidekick. For the early '40s, 75 yrs ago, Mantan was Frankie's sidekick, assistant, the unworthy carrier of his shield, nowadays we perceive him as the buddy, indeed like a foreboding of the '80s crime movies; there's an implied more positive attitude toward other races in this movie, see the Chinese detective, also the fact that Criner has been given a part, though a not very flattering one, yet he managed to make a strong impression.Both Darro and Luke are very likable. As in other comedies, Darro and Moran are contrasting characters, with the 2nd being the sillier, and the 1st, more determined, sterner, tenacious, pushing.The usual couple of Marcia and Moran is relegated to the supporting cast. Even in terms of acting, she was way better.Much of the movie's genuine fun should be credited to its director, who knew how to handle light humor (the girl educating the mechanic, or Frankie giving Mantan a driving lesson in the garage).Most of what Monogram had best to give is here.

mark.waltz Don't expect banana-clad Carmen Miranda, polka dot wearing Alice Faye or leg-lifting Charlotte Greenwood. This is not at all related to that blockbuster musical from just a few years hence. This is a racket film where different moods move in and out and make the film fly by extremely fast.When you start watching the first 10 minutes of this Monogram crime drama, you may be confused with the listing of Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland as the frequently paired co-stars, as their teamings were mostly on the light side. It does move into that direction when they take over the action, determined to unmask the villains behind a sabotaging ring out to discredit a trucking company. The actions of the villains are sinister and deadly but toss in the un-aging Darro and the bug-eyed Moreland, and comedy is sure to erupt.Marcia Mae Jones, a forgotten teen-aged actress in such films as "These Three" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", is the romantic interest here, and in a scene with her beau (Jackie Moran), she goes through all the women who stood by important men in history, hesitating ironically only once when she mentions Alexander the Great, adding hesitatingly, "Mrs. Alexander the Great". It turns out that the beloved head of the trucking company (Robert Homans) knows more than he's let on, and the motivations behind the hijackings are rather surprising. But don't underestimate Darro and the seemingly scaredy-cat Moreland who is certainly braver than he realizes he is, especially when he takes on another stereotypical black character, a henchman of the villains played by Laurence Criner (given the silly name of "Ham Shanks").At just an hour's running time, there's a lot to enjoy here, reminding me that sometimes the best gifts come in small packages and you could get them from a Woolworth's rather than a Bloomingdale's.

catherine yronwode While this comedy does not feature the complex screenplay of "Up In the Air," the best of the Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland team-ups, it is certainly an above-average comedy for its time -- that being a time of segregation laws and the dawning of the nascent civil rights movement. And as if a Black/White buddy movie were not enough of a ground-breaker for 1941, this film also features the wonderful Chinese-American actor Keye Luke as an insurance investigator. Nowadays dual-racial and cross-cultural buddy movies are so common as to hardly merit special notice, but long before such famous films as "48 Hours" with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, savvy audiences were amazed at the comedic interplay between Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland. I sincerely believe that in their own way, fun little movies like this laid the groundwork for racial tolerance and an end to segregation laws -- but that is not the only reason to watch them -- the truth is, Mantan Moreland is one of the great comedians of the 20th century, and every film he made is worth a look.