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Seven Keys to Baldpate
USA 1935
produced by RKO
directed by William Hamilton, Edward Killy
starring Gene Raymond, Margaret Callahan, Eric Blore, Grant Mitchell, Moroni Olsen, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Henry Travers, Walter Brennan, Ray Mayer, Erville Alderson, Murray Alper, Harry Beresford, Emma Dunn, Monte Vandergrift, Philip Morris
screenplay by Anthony Veiller, Wallace Smith, based on the novel by Earl Derr Biggers and the adapted play by George M. Cohan, musical director: Alberto Colombo
Seven Keys to Baldpate
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In the depth of winter, writer Magee (Gene Raymond) arrives at
closed-for-the-season summer resort Baldpate Inn to have all the peace and
quiet in the world to write a novel in a mere 24 hours to win a wager. But
he must find out there's little peace and quiet to be had at Balpate Inn
as he soon catches an intruder, Bland (Ray Mayer) playing around with the
place's safe. He manages to chase him away, but soon more people arrive,
like beautiful Mary (Margaret Callahan), whom he immediately falls in love
with, professor Boulton (Eric Blore), local hermit Peters (Henry Travers),
lovely Myra (Erin O'Brien-Moore) who beseeches Magee to help her get her
hands on the content of the safe, crook Cargan (Moroni Olsen) and his
sidekick Monk (Murray Alper), and Hayden (Grant Mitchell), who claims with
some authority the content of the safe is his. So basically everybody but
Magee and the hermit are after the money that's apparently in the safe,
but for some rason or other, Magee has decided to trust Mary and help her
get her hands on the money, money that in a series of incidents changes
hands rapidly, but eventually Magee gets his hands on it, hands it over to
Mary and covers her escape. Then Monk shoots Myra by mistake, Magee can
get his hands on a gun and holds everybody at gunpoint, waiting for the
police to arrive. But when local chief of police Roberts (Erville
Alderson) and his deputies (Philip Morris, Monte Vandergrift) arrive, the
others are quick to pin the murder of Myra on Magee - only Myra turns out
not to be dead at all. Then the professor turns out to be an insurance
detective, and he accuses Cargan and Hayden as well as their cronies Bland
and Monk of attempted insurance fraud and clears Magee's name. And Mary?
She turns out to be a reporter who's just been looking for a scoop. And of
course, Magee gets the girl in the end. Now it's much to the
film's credit that it keeps the light-footed, comedic tone of its source
material, and one can't really blame the screenwriters for ironing out the
book's rather convoluted backstory for brevity's sake, and the insurance
fraud bit actually works pretty well. However, in trying to streamline
other portions of Earl Derr Biggers' novel, the film is much less
successful, as some of the characters simply lose their motives, to the
point where one questions why they're there even. Likewise, Magee and
Mary's romance is somewhat downplayed, so much so that one wonders why he
has agreed to help exactly her at all. That all said, it's still a nicely
flowing film with a likeable cast giving fun performances - you just
better not think too much about the on-screen goings-on and just let it
flow.
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