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Up in the Air

Up in the Air (1940)

September. 09,1940
|
5.7
|
NR
| Drama Comedy Mystery Music

A none-too-popular (nor good) radio singer, Rita Wilson is murdered while singing on the air in a radio studio. Radio page boy, Frankie Ryan, and his janitor pal, Jeff, solve the mystery for the none-too-sharp police.

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Hottoceame
1940/09/09

The Age of Commercialism

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Chirphymium
1940/09/10

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

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Mandeep Tyson
1940/09/11

The acting in this movie is really good.

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Juana
1940/09/12

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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gridoon2018
1940/09/13

Marjorie Reyolds has one pleasing song ("By The Look Of Things"), and Mantan Moreland has one delightful scene where he dances - surprisingly well! Other than that, "Up In The Air" comes straight off the mystery-comedy assembly line (the cut-rate production department). The lead, Frankie Darro, is a non-entity, and at the end the killer seems to be chosen at random (no clues are given to the viewer). ** out of 4.

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JohnHowardReid
1940/09/14

One movie genre that a normal person might think off-limits to Poverty Row is the musical (because of the extra expense involved with orchestras and singers, not to mention songs and copyright clearances). Yet quite a few musicals made their appearance from time to time along the Row. For this one, Monogram has ingeniously combined the songs and musical capers with a typical murder mystery. And who solves these radio killings that have stumped the keenest minds of the Los Angeles Police (Hollywood Division)? Why none other than dapper, personably brash Frankie Darro and his delightfully hesitant, broom-wielding sidekick, Mantan Moreland (soon to enrich the Charlie Chan series with his smile-a-minute, banjo-eyed presence). Further enjoyment is provided by that really lovely girl, Marjorie Reynolds, as the one-step-into-fame heroine. Her voice is a real treat too. The support players do everything that's expected of them and Mr Bretherton's direction definitely rates a cut or two above the average.

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Case
1940/09/15

B-movie star Frankie Darro and everyone's favorite bug-eyed comic relief Mantan Moreland made several murder mystery comedies together around 1940 (with some other more-or-less recurring cast members, including Tristram Coffin) for Monogram Pictures. In this one, the guys work at a radio station (Frankie as a bell-boy as usual) when they get mixed up in the murder of the station's popular, but problematic singing star, Rita Wilson (played by Lorna Gray) who is shot during a rehearsal. As usual, the police detective who handles the case is quite arrogant and incompetent, but he ends up working together quite fine with Frankie. And Mantan. Who, while doing his regular scared-of-everything act, is definitely much more than a mandatory comic relief here: he gets top billing, proves again that he is an excellent comedian and also takes part in the detective work quite effectively and in general, his role is more similar to what we usually see from Lou Abbott. So even the people who are extra-sensitive about the racial stereotypes of classic Hollywood are safe with this one. And talking about Abbott and Costello: they actually did their own version of the "murder mystery at the radio station" theme two years later in Who Done It? (1942), while Monogram remade the story in 1945 as There Goes Kelly.Up In The Air has a little bit of everything: mystery, action, comedy, musical and the mixture works pretty well, but as the hour-long entry has several musical numbers, comedy acts and even a dance performance by Mantan, you can imagine how thin the plot is. But it is actually nothing more than a tool to keep the story going and to hold the movie together and at that, it does a pretty fine job and makes this a rather enjoyable little time-passer, complete with car chase, Frankie and Mantan's black face comedy act and a mysterious singing cowboy.

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mark.waltz
1940/09/16

If you can get past some of the racist jokes thrown out at the expense of radio studio janitor Mantan Moreland, you'll have a good time in this hour-long second feature with Frankie Darro as a studio page who helps solve the murders of a temperamental singer. Suspects are many as this rather untalented singer (Lorna Gray) is extremely obnoxious, threatening as many times as she can to station owner Dick Elliott that she can get another gig anytime she wants. She's already threatened to walk out when she agrees to go on, notices a cowboy (Gordon Jones) in the audience, and when the lights go out briefly, is shot dead. There's more murder, a dumb detective (Clyde Dilson), and plenty of banter between Darro and Moreland. Like "42nd Street's" Ruby Keeler, there's the brand new receptionist (Marjorie Reynolds) who goes on in her place.The best material goes to Darro and Moreland, who even if thinking an eight-ball reference is meant for him or telling detective Dilson when Darro is caught in black face that his face doesn't rub off, comes off with his dignity intact. That is a testament to Moreland's talent that he can rise above comical material that depends on racist humor for laughs. While the songs aren't classic, they are fairly sweet, and the film never lags.

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