I Love Trouble **** (1947, Franchot Tone, Janet Blair, Janis Carter, Adele Jergens, Glenda Farrell, Steve Geray, Tom Powers, Lynn Merrick, John Ireland, Donald Curtis) – Classic Movie Review 13,120

‘FIVE LOVELIES LEAVE A TRAIL OF PERFUME… AND MURDER! ‘ Franchot Tone stars as LA private eye Stuart Bailey, on the case of a missing wife (Lynn Merrick), in the sophisticated 1947 film noir mystery thriller I Love Trouble.

‘FIVE LOVELIES LEAVE A TRAIL OF PERFUME… AND MURDER! ‘

Producer/ director S Sylvan Simon’s sophisticated 1947 Columbia Pictures black and white American film noir mystery crime thriller I Love Trouble stars Franchot Tone, who plays Stuart Bailey, an LA private eye on the case of Jane Johnson (Lynn Merrick), the missing wife of the wealthy politician Ralph Johnson (Tom Powers).

Among a cast of splendid star character actors, Glenda Farrell stands out in a most friendly turn as Tone’s secretary, Hazel Bixby, and there are also three strong star roles for Janet Blair as Norma Shannon, Janis Carter as Ligia Caprillo and Adele Jergens as Boots Nestor. So, yes, there are FIVE LOVELIES!

Stuart Bailey is hired by the politician to investigate after Jane Johnson has gone missing. He finds that she had been a dancer, had left her Oregon home town with nightclub entertainer Buster Buffin (Sid Tomack), had enrolled in college at UCLA using a fake name and stolen papers from a girlfriend, and had stolen $40,000 from the nightclub where she worked, owned by Keller (Steven Geray). Norma Shannon (Janet Blair) comes looking for her sister Jane but says the photograph of the missing woman is not of her. Oh, and yes, there’s MURDER as Buffin is soon killed befioe he talks too much.

Roy Huggins’s screenplay is taken from his own 1948 first novel The Double Take. With its darkish tone and its sly cynical humour, it is in the Raymond Chandler vein and nearly in his class too.

Release date: January 10, 1948 (premiere) and January 15, 1948 (US release).

Columbia failed to renew the copyright so the film fell into the public domain.

Years ago Huggins said the film was lost, had not been seen for decades and had never run on TV, but the film has since been found and screened publicly. It was shown on the Turner Classic Movies show Noir Alley on September 24, 2022, and in the UK screens on Talking Pictures TV. And it’s available on You Tube.

The detective character of Stuart Bailey was later played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr in the 1958 movie Girl on the Run (1958), which was spun off into the TV series 77 Sunset Strip that ran from 1958 to 1964. Girl on the Run was re-edited and aired as the show’s first episode. 77 Sunset Strip was created by Huggins, who also created Maverick, The Fugitive, Hunter, and The Rockford Files.

The film’s production company Cornell Pictures was formed by Franchot Tone and S Sylvan Simon, and named after Tone’s alma mater, Cornell University. It followed their only other film, Her Husband’s Affairs (1947).

Janis Carter, Janet Blair and Franchot Tone in I Love Trouble.

The cast are Franchot Tone as Stuart Bailey, Janet Blair as Norma Shannon, Janis Carter as Mrs. Caprillo aka Jane Breeger aka Janie Joy, Adele Jergens as Boots Nestor, Glenda Farrell as Hazel Bixby, Steven Geray as Keller, Tom Powers as Ralph Johnson, Lynn Merrick as Mrs. Johnson, John Ireland as Reno, Sid Tomack as Buster Buffin, Donald Curtis as Martin, Eduardo Ciannelli as John Vega Caprillo, Robert H Barrat as Lt. Quint, Raymond Burr as Herb, Garry Owen as Gus, Eddie Marr, Arthur Space, Sid Tomack, Gene Roth, George Bell, Paul E Burns, Claire Carleton, Lane Chandler, Douglas D Coppin, Louise Franklin, Karen X Gaylord, John Hart, Mary Adams Hayes, Nan Holliday, Martha Montgomery, Roseanne Murray as Fannie Phipps (uncredited), Vesey O’Davoren, William Stubbs, Harry Tyler, and Isabel Withers.

I Love Trouble is directed by S Sylvan Simon, runs 95 minutes, is made by Cornell Pictures, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Roy Huggins, based on the novel The Double Take by Roy Huggins, is shot in black and white by Charles Lawton Jr, is produced by S Sylvan Simon, is scored by George Duning, and is designed by Stephen Goosson.

Roy Huggins (July 18, 1914 – April 3, 2002).

It is the final film of red head Roseanne Murray, whose started at MGM as a stand-in for Myrna Loy in 1940, had a minor, mostly uncredited career from 1941 to 1947,  but lived long and we hope prospered. She is best remembered as the scatter-brained waitress Miss Fannie Phipps who ‘talks in tongues’ with detective Franchot Tone in I Love Trouble.

Roseanne Murray was born on October 31, 1920 in Binghamton, New York, and died on August 14, 2015 in Fountain Valley, California.

Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte star in the similarly titled I Love Trouble (1994).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,120

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