Night Editor shows some of the strength and weakness of the film noir genre, especially when it's adapted to the B movie. The screenplay, by Hal Smith, is strong -- at one point married detective William Gargan says to his married lover Janis Carter, "You are pure, no-good, first rate, high grade A number one rotten," expressing his own self-loathing for his infidelity to his loyal wife Jeff Donnell after Gargan and Carter see a murder take place while they are on lovers lane. Cinematographer Burnett Guffey, who worked with directors Phil Karlson and Fritz Lang, captures Gargan's shadowy life as the cop assigned to the murder. Director Henry Levin (he had a long and generally routine career) did a workmanlike job with the downbeat story, marred only by a "happy" ending, Gargan surviving after he tries to get Carter to confess what they had seen (the wrong person has been arrested for the crime) and she stabs him in the back with an ice pick.
The story is told in flashbacks by a newspaper editor and includes a significant class-conscious element, with Gargan slogging along on a cop's pay while Carter is married to a wealthy businessman. Carter is neurotically attracted to violence and is excited about seeing the murdered girl in lovers lane, a view that is withheld from her but also from the audience.
Blondie Goes to College was one of the twelve Blondie films directed by Frank S. Strayer, the earliest ones in the series that ran from 1938 to 1950, a total of 28 films. Blondie and Dagwood were effectively portrayed by Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton, who became closely identified with comic artist Chic Young's creations. As usual Dagwood can't stay out of trouble --co-eds find him strangely attractive -- while Blondie is romanced by sports star Larry Parks, as apparently married students were not allowed to matriculate. As usual Dagwood gets in a great deal of trouble and has to be rescued from his arrest for kidnapping his own child, whom Blondie and Dagwood had put in military school so they can go to college; WW II is never mentioned, however. College is effectively satirised as a place where only parties and sports matter; Blondie and Dagwood are only shown in one classroom scene, where a professor of English makes little sense. Dagwood goes out for crew and wrecks the championship race, as several jokes are made about "catching a crab." Whether this film represents "the male gaze" or "the castration of the American male" I will leave for others to decide.
Mystery in Mexico is one of those B movies that has something for everyone: a bit of mystery, a bit of noir, some romance and suspense, even an important role for a child. It is directed by Robert Wise, who started out as an editor for Orson Wells, directed for Val Lewton (The Body Snatcher 1945), made an excellent film noir (Odds Against Tomorrow 1959) and ended up doing bloated musicals (The Sound of Music 1959). William Lundigan plays an insurance investigator looking for some stolen diamonds in Mexico, where the movie was filmed (cinematography by Jack Draper, an American who worked mostly in the Mexican film industry), chasing Jacqueline White to Mexico, falling for Jacqueline Dalya and being set up by sleazy nightclub owner Ricardo Cortez.
These three movies each run just a little more than an hour, are breezy and intense and were meant to be enjoyed on double bills as an antidote to the more slowly paced, star-heavy main feature.
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