Alias a Gentleman starts with Jim Breedin (Wallace Beery) in jail, serving out his last week and making the best of it. He works a prison farm and when a brash, young kid shows up, Johnny Lorgen (Tom Drake), he tries his best to guide him down the good path. He likes Johnny and wants him to end up good in life and not become an old man with nothing like him. That's just before he finds out that the dried up patch of land he has waiting for him on the outside has oil on it and before he's even released, he's a rich man. Rather than revel in his newfound wealth, he bemoans the fact that his daughter left years ago and he doesn't know where she is. He'd love to give her the life she deserves and now that he's rich, he can.
Once released, some of his old partners in crime want to cut him in on deals but he shows no interest. He's clean now and wants to stay that way. What he won't say is how he got all the money and his old partners naturally suspect he's working deals without him. That's when they call in an actress, Elaine (Dorothy Patrick), to play his long lost daughter in an effort to find out where the money's coming from and maybe steal it while they're in the process.
Alias a Gentleman is the kind of ridiculous comedy that would have been a screwball in the thirties or a madcap TV sitcom in the sixties (think Beverly Hillbillies) but in the forties, it does its level best to be a sophisticated comedy instead, playing most of the jokes at the expense of Beery's lack of refinement. When Elaine, disguised as his daughter Nora, makes him breakfast, naturally it's all French food. Otherwise we'd have no recourse to hear Wallace Beery pronounce "soufflé" incorrectly or puzzle over what exactly is "café au lait" (if only he had a Starbucks handy).
That it succeeds most of the time is a tribute to Wallace Beery in the lead and Gladys George as his lady. The two have a great chemistry and though their back and forth is limited (Beery spends more time with Elaine and his old partners in crime than Gladys), it's a pleasure to watch.
Gladys George was also to die relatively soon after Alias a Gentleman, making it only six more years before a host of debilitating illnesses cut her down at the young age of 50. Before that, she'd been Madame DuBarry in Marie Antoinette (1938), Iva Archer (Miles Archer's widow) in The Maltese Falcon (1941), and the title character in Madame X (1937). Alias a Gentleman may not match those earlier efforts for either George or Beery but it's a pleasure to watch and a reminder that a movie is only as good as the actors in it and when those actors are Wallace Beery and Gladys George, well, that's good enough.
Producers: Nat Perrin Director: Harry Beaumont Writers: Peter Ruric (story), William Lipman Original Music: David Snell Cinematography: Ray June Film Editing: Ben Lewis Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Stan Rogers Cast: Wallace Beery (Jim Breedin), Tom Drake (Johnny Lorgen), Dorothy Patrick (Elaine Carter), Gladys George (Madge Parkson), Leon Ames (Matt Enley), Warner Anderson (Capt. Charlie Lopen), Sheldon Leonard (Harry Bealer)
By Greg Ferrara
