Detective Kitty O'Day (1944)

Charming and brutal

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A comedy with Jean Parker, Veda Ann Borg, Tim Ryan (who has been a worthy scriptwriter and didn't really have the look of an actor), E. Gargan as the humbled, submissive copper, Fowley as the lover of the widow: one of Beaudine's best hours ever, a smart movie, deliciously played, sampling loveliest scenes comes across as useless, since this comedy charms in its entirety. Jean offers an awesomely funny role, as she's irresistibly joyful, wholesome and dynamic.It's also the movie where Kitty O'Day starts her solving mysteries; she's an irresistible, lovely person.The audiences are teased with an undressing scene.Beaudine could be proud of this movie. It's better than 'Midnight Manhunt', and way sexier, classier and lovelier.Jean was perhaps the best actress from her league, and here she seemed pleased with her role.Jean and Veda Ann both have made movies with Sekely, and both have been in movies with Carradine.

What would you do if you discovered your boss dead, murdered in their own shower? Most people would simply file for unemployment, but not Kitty O'Day (Jean Parker), the nosy secretary who seems to be around every time a new corpse is discovered, even when she is found hiding in the tub with one whom she had no idea that they were there. Along with co-worker Peter Cookson, she gets in over her head searching for the killer, annoying the heck out of the police detectives who make the Keystone cops look like Serpico. A good majority of the film is spent on slapstick, putting Parker, Cookson and one of the dumb detectives out on a skyscraper window ledge. Minus this footage and other attempts at comedic interludes, the film would run about 40 minutes. Perennial tough girl Veda Ann Borg adds some spark as the boss's cheating wife, but the majority of the film is so ridiculously structured that even at just over an hour, it is a mystery how the viewer didn't fall asleep, tune out or hit the fast forward button.

If you weren't around when Monogram and Producers Releasing Corporation were churning out grade Z pictures for third-rate movie houses, this is the perfect introduction to them. You have flimsy sets, even flimsier dialog, co-stars Jean Parker and Peter Cookson trying against insurmountable odds to rival Myrna Loy and William Powell and a yarn about a murdered stockbroker that makes no sense whatsoever. Even better, you have the talent of William "One Shot" Beaudine,a director prized by poverty row studios because he invariably found the first take he took so brilliant, there was no need to waste money shooting another. As a side-trip into cinema history, Kitty O'Day is of interest. As a movie, that's another story. And a pretty lame one.

Detective Kitty O'Day is the sort of movie that perfectly explains why some low rung movie studios were said to be Poverty Row, its almost as cheap a movie as you can get and still have film in the camera.The plot concerns a theft of securities. Johnny Jones brings Mr Wentworth some securities. He's the boyfriend of Wentworth's secretary, Kitty O'Day. When Wentworth heads home he asks that Kitty meet him there so he can make last minute arrangements before a trip. On the way out Kitty and Johnny get into a fight and Kitty heads to Wentworth's in a huff. When Kitty gets there she is let into the home by the butler and told that there is something wrong with the power. Not long after that Wentworth turns up dead, the securities are found to be missing and the house fills with police and suspects.Done on the cheap, most of the sets are just walls with a minimal amount of furniture. The rooms they represent seem unnecessarily large and empty. The furniture is cheap and well worn. When Kitty and her boyfriend follow the wife of the dead man and her lover the film shifts to a "ritzy" apartment building. Actually the place looks like a dive and not the place a rich woman would live in.Its here that the film really shows its cheapness in all departments as the plot pretty much stops as Kitty and beau are chased from room to room and around the outside of the building. It's suppose to be a laugh riot as they are forced to wear stupid clothes as disguises while they run back and forth, but its not. It's just not funny nor does it advance the plot much other than to allow the suspect pool to diminish. It's a 20 or 25 minute long set piece that serves no purpose other than keeping the movie in a few easily redecorated sets while the time runs off the clock. It completely kills the film.I can't recommend this movie much. Sure it's amusing at times, the pair of police detectives do manage to work miracles with poor material, but its still nothing that should be sought out. The ideal place for this would be the late show at 3 am when you have acute insomnia and want to see something other than another infomercial. It's a poverty stricken Poverty Row cheapie.