Movie Review: Adventures of Kitty O'Day (1945)
Synopsis: Kitty O'Day, a hotel switchboard operator who is obsessed with detective stories, overhears her boss, Mr. Williams, being murdered over the phone. Her boyfriend, Johnny Jones, confirms this but by the time the police arrive, the body is gone and Williams' wife, Gloria, claims he is alive and on his way to Chicago. Despite warnings from the police, Kitty continues to investigate and when more bodies turn up, she and Johnny become the primary suspects.
Who's in it? The movie stars Jean Parker, Peter Cookson, Tim Ryan, Lorna Gray and Dick Elliott.
Review: I ended up selecting Adventures of Kitty O'Day solely because it sounded intriguing when I read the description. I didn't know what to expect when I started watching it this morning, but it turned out to be an entertaining and funny film.
The movie, as I later learned, is a sequel to Detective Kitty O'Day and one of the things I liked about this movie is, while it did reference that film (which I now need find and watch), the overall movie didn't assume I had seen the previous film and did enough of a refresher for me to not be completely lost. That's something too few sequels do.
I thought Kitty (Parker) was an intriguing and fun character because she was someone who was smart but in a deceptive way. For a while, I wasn't sure if she'd actually solve the case or would just stumble upon the solution by accident and was pleasantly surprised when it was arguably a mix of the two, with quite a few incorrect accusations lobbed in various directions along the way.
The way she was able to confuse and manipulate the men around her was also entertaining, whether it was convincing Johnny (Cookson) to take risks on her behalf or keeping Inspector Clancy (Ryan) on his toes by always seeming to be one step ahead of him and quick with the casual insult. When Clancy mentioned his former partner being in an insane asylum because of working with Kitty, I believed it (and now want to watch the first movie even more as a result).
I thought the mystery itself was a solid one. Williams' wife, Gloria (Gray) seemed like the best and only suspect for his murder, especially since she would be the one with the best reason to hide the body. However, as more people were killed, seemingly at random, the suspect list became much murkier (though she did do a good job of acting suspicious throughout).
On the negative side, I did think this was one of those movies that help the protagonist look good by making the police incompetent at their jobs. I mean, in addition to Kitty and Johnny, there was a third witness (Shelton Brooks) who also saw the body, and I find it hard to believe, based on how easily the one guest, Bascom (Elliott) was continually disturbed, they wouldn't have been able to find someone who heard the shots. Yet, Clancy gave up on the case immediately and barely did the minimum when other bodies were found. Perhaps he wouldn't need to worry about amateur detectives like Kitty if he did his job.
Final Opinion: Kitty O'Day probably isn't quite on the same level as other female movie sleuths, like Torchy Blane for example, but she was still an entertaining character, and I had fun watching the movie. I probably will even appreciate this movie more if/when I have a chance to watch the first film and add a bit more context.
My Grade: B+
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Here are some reviews of other movies featuring a female amateur detective:
Movie Review: Murder on a Honeymoon (1935)
Movie Review: Fly Away Baby (1937)
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