Brass Monkey [Lucky Mascot] ** (1948, Carroll Levis, Carole Landis, Herbert Lom, Avril Angers) – Classic Movie Review 13,096

American actress and singer Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948).

The 1948 British musical comedy crime mystery film Brass Monkey [Lucky Mascot] stars radio personality Carroll Levis, Carole Landis, Herbert Lom, and Avril Angers in a case of theft and murder.

Director Thornton Freeland’s 1948 British musical comedy crime mystery film Brass Monkey [Lucky Mascot] stars radio personality Carroll Levis, Carole Landis, Herbert Lom, and Avril Angers, who are involved in a case of theft and murder.

Carroll Levis’s Opportunity Knocks/ New Faces/ Britain’s Got Talent-style wireless talent show Carroll Levis’s Discoveries is the gimmicky basis for this feeble comedy crime drama about Levis (as himself) and his programme’s singing star Kay Sheldon (Carole Landis) stopping a valuable Buddhist object of worship, the brass monkey of the title, getting into the thieving hands of a greedy collector.

Lackadaisical handling and a flat script hold it back, but pleasant appearances by Terry-Thomas (as himself), Herbert Lom, Avril Angers (as herself), Ernest Thesiger, Edward Underdown, Henry Edwards, Albert and Les Ward (as themselves The Ward Brothers), and Leslie ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (as himself) import some charm and bring back the flavour of the era.

It is American star Carole Landis’s penultimate film, before Noose, both made in the UK before her suicide aged 29. She filmed Brass Monkey at Twickenham Studios in England in autumn 1947 and filmed Noose in January and February 1948. Unable to cope, Landis died by suicide on July 5, 1948 in her Pacific Palisades home by taking an overdose of Seconal.

Also in the cast are Henry Worthington, Campbell Cotts, Jack McNaughton, Lyn Evans, John Salew, Duncan Lewis, Michael Brennan, Ida Patlanski, Gwyneth Vaughan [billed as Gwynneth Vaughan], John Lewis, Peter Williams, Lionel Murton, Vincent Holman, Bruce Walker, Edward Hodge, and Alan Lawrance [billed as Alan Lawrence].

Brass Monkey [Lucky Mascot] is directed by Thornton Freeland, runs 84 minutes, is made by Diadem and Alliance, is released by United Artists, is written by Alec Coppel (original story and screenplay), Thornton Freeland (original story) and C Denis Freeman (dialogue director), is shot in black and white by Bert Mason, is produced by Nat A Bronsten, is scored by Bernard Grun, and is designed by Walter A Scott.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,096

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