THE PHANTOM OF 42ND STREET (1945) ** The entire thing is permeated with the the anti-sensationalist unreality so typical of films of the era, and the hurried dialogue (film's expensive, get on with it toots). Or maybe people really didn't stop to think about things back then. The writers have clearly never pondered the subtleties of being a policeman, newspaperman, or cab driver, but they see no reason why that should keep them from definitive explication. Clues are strewn about, forgotten, revived in a random manner, and ultimately...ah, ha! You thought I would tell you, and then you wouldn't have to watch it. Well, I won't and you probably should. Despite the nearly spectacular improbability of their characters, situations, and diction, Dave O'Brien and Kay Aldredge make a reasonably appealing couple. I'm not saying that life isn't pleasantly peppered with improbable characters, only that the writers seem blisslessly unaware that the script's inhabited by no one else. Surrealism born of a marriage of realism and incompetence.
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