Juke Girl ** (1942, Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, Richard Whorf) – Classic Movie Review 10,069

Director Curtis Bernhardt’s 1942 black and white mystery crime thriller Juke Girl stars Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan, supposedly the first choices to do Casablanca, are Lola Mears and Steve Talbot, migrant fruit and veg pickers in the sunshine state of Florida, who get mixed up in murder.

Richard Whorf plays Steve’s buddy Danny Frazier, working for big guy Henry Madden (Gene Lockhart), while Steve works for small farmer Nick Garcos (George Tobias).

Juke Girl offers forgettable, fruity dramatics with a screenplay by A I Bezzerides and Kenneth Gamet from Theodore Pratt’s novel, but this forgotten movie is quite likeable just the same. Sheridan and Reagan work well together and there is plenty of hot atmosphere under the Florida sun.

Somehow, they even work in a song for Sheridan to croon – ‘I Hates Love’ (music by M.K. Jerome and lyrics by Jack Scholl) – and another for Betty Brewer to sing – ‘Got Me a Blue Bell’ (music by M.K. Jerome and lyrics by Jack Scholl). It was the era.

Also in the cast are Faye Emerson, George Tobias, Alan Hale Sr, Howard Da Silva, Donald MacBride, Fuzzy Knight, Willie Best, Betty Brewer, Willard Robertson, Spencer Charters, William B Davidson, Frank Wilcox, William Haade, Irving Bacon, Al Bridge, Paul E Burns, Clancy Cooper, Frank Darien, Joan Fitzgerald, Pat Flaherty, Jack Gardner, Sol Gross, William Gould, Kenneth Harlan, William Hopper, Fred Kelsey, Milton Kibbee, Frank Mayo, Patrick McVey, Edward Peil Sr, Frank Pharr, William Phillips, Dewey Robinson, Glenn Strange, Forrest Taylor, Eddy Waller, Guy Wilkerson and Victor Zimmerman.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,069

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