Monday, April 2, 2018

Machine Gun Mama (1944)

Director: Harold Young

Writer: Sam Neuman

Composer: Mort Glickman

Starring: Armida, El Brendel, Wallace Ford, Jack La Rue, Luis Alberni, Ariel Heath, Julian Rivero, Eumenio Blanco, Anthony Warde

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's a rollicking riot of double barreled fun!

Plot: Ollie and John are stuck with car trouble. Luckily they have Bunny the elephant. They try to sell him to a fair in financial trouble.



My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

The title is bullshit.  Near the beginning of the picture when the boys are at a carnival, things get a little crazy and Nita (Armida), who works there, somehow gets stuck randomly shooting a shooting game machine gun which apparently shoots real enough bullets to do some damage.  It's supposed to be funny.  That's the only time a machine gun is seen, heard or mentioned.  Then what the hell is up with the title?  I was all set for some chick crime action with a title like that.  Instead it's just a Poverty Row low budget romantic comedy.  Armida is adorable and Ford, as John O'Reilly, is pleasant and amiable.  There's a really cute moment when John starts spinning a tall tale to Nita about his gangster days and how he was going to do this hit on this fella.  "Did you have a gun?" she says and he responds that he didn't but one of his 'gun girls' did.  I laughed but that was the only time.  For the most part I was close to boredom but it is mildly amusing.  It's low budget cute at best.  Everyone looks like they're giving it that old college try but the material proves to be the weakest link.

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