By Violet LeVoit
One Thrilling Night
Brief Synopsis
A couple's honeymoon is sabotaged by gangsters looking for missing cash.
Cast & Crew
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William Beaudine
Director
John Beal
Horace Jason
Wanda Mckay
Millie Jason
Warren Hymer
Pat Callahan
J. Farrell Macdonald
Sergeant Haggerty
Barbara Pepper
Dotty
Film Details
Also Known As
Army Bride, Do Not Disturb
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Aug
28,
1942
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Supreme Pictures Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 9m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6,035ft
Synopsis
Newlyweds Horace and Millie Jason check in to a New York hotel for their one-night honeymoon, while Horace is on twenty-four-hour leave from the Army. As Horace is out getting champagne and Millie primps in the bathroom, two thugs named Skinny and Tubby dump the body of unconscious gangster Duke Keesler in their bed. Horace and Millie are horrified when they discover Duke and run through the halls calling for the police. When house detective Pat Callahan comes to their room, however, Duke has disappeared. Horace and Millie then find Duke in Millie's trunk, and while they leave the room to retrieve Pat, Duke revives and escapes through a window. After they find the trunk empty, Pat becomes irritated by the apparently addled couple, and when Horace crawls into the trunk to demonstrate how they found Duke, Millie accidentally locks him in, and she and Pat leave to get a key. Skinny and Tubby, meanwhile, take the trunk which they believe contains Duke to their boss, notorious gangster Frankie Saxton, hoping to find some stolen money which Duke has hidden. Tubby and Skinny then go back to the hotel to search the room before Frankie releases Horace. Unaware that Frankie has mistaken him for Duke, Horace fails to comprehend his threats and escapes when someone shoots at the gangster through a window. Horace is still wearing his pajamas and is picked up by a patrolman for indecent exposure. After Horace is retrieved by Pat and Millie, Frankie almost kidnaps the couple, who escape into a movie theater. Although they try to hide in the darkness, the lights come up for a contest, and Horace has the dumb luck to hold the winning ticket for a sterling silver coffee set. Millie is kidnapped while Horace is on stage accepting the gift, but Frankie's moll, Dotty, takes him back to Frankie's apartment, where they finally determine that he is not, in fact, Duke. Frankie and his gang leave Horace and Millie bound and gagged, but when neighbors hear a radio crime drama through Frankie's walls, they call the police, who free the bewildered couple. Soon after returning to their hotel room, Horace and Millie, who have been put under Pat's protection, find Duke's dead body in their closet, and this time, he is still around when Pat comes to their room. Just as Horace finds $50,000 in the pocket of his robe, Frankie, Skinny and Tubby enter through a window, knock out Pat and take the money. Horace becomes angry when they grab Millie, and he and his wife soon get into a fistfight with the gangsters, which the gangsters lose. The gangsters are arrested, and by the time the exhausted newlyweds settle down to sleep, the phone rings with their six o'clock wake up call.
Director
William Beaudine
Director
Cast
John Beal
Horace Jason
Wanda Mckay
Millie Jason
Warren Hymer
Pat Callahan
J. Farrell Macdonald
Sergeant Haggerty
Barbara Pepper
Dotty
Tom Neal
Frankie Saxton
Ernie Adams
Pete Mooney
Lynton Brent
Joe Richmond
Pierce Lyden
Duke Keesler
Gene O'donnell
Skinny
Jim O'gatty
Tubby
Tim Herbert
Hotel clerk
Charles Williams
Crew
Film Details
Also Known As
Army Bride, Do Not Disturb
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Aug
28,
1942
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Supreme Pictures Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 9m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
6,035ft
Articles
One Thrilling Night -
Concieved with the prurient working titles Do Not Disturb and Army Bride, this extraordinary quickie shot in six days (!) was the first picture B-director William "One Shot" Beaudine made for Monogram Studios. But for all its haste of production, the light comedy doesn't suffer: Newlyweds Horace (John Beal) and Millie (Wanda McKay) have only 24 hours to enjoy a Times Square honeymoon before hubby ships out to the Army in the morning. The blushing duo suffers little obstacles at first (nosy bellhops, a shy bride) but just when it seems they might actually enjoy a glass of champagne, gangsters invade their bridal suite searching for lost cash. Then Horace mistakes a corpse in their bed for Millie, and all hell breaks loose on a rip-roaring overnight romp through the New York underground that presages other bad-time-in-the-Big-Apple pictures like The Out Of Towners (1970) and After Hours (1985). Hugely popular with critics of the time, with raves from Variety and Hollywood Reporter, One Thrilling Night was a real feather in the cap for Monogram, whose reputation for quick, cheap, dirty and thrilling was well served by Beaudine's breakneck auteurship.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
One Thrilling Night -
Concieved with the prurient working titles Do Not Disturb and Army Bride, this extraordinary quickie shot in six days (!) was the first picture B-director William "One Shot" Beaudine made for Monogram Studios. But for all its haste of production, the light comedy doesn't suffer: Newlyweds Horace (John Beal) and Millie (Wanda McKay) have only 24 hours to enjoy a Times Square honeymoon before hubby ships out to the Army in the morning. The blushing duo suffers little obstacles at first (nosy bellhops, a shy bride) but just when it seems they might actually enjoy a glass of champagne, gangsters invade their bridal suite searching for lost cash. Then Horace mistakes a corpse in their bed for Millie, and all hell breaks loose on a rip-roaring overnight romp through the New York underground that presages other bad-time-in-the-Big-Apple pictures like The Out Of Towners (1970) and After Hours (1985). Hugely popular with critics of the time, with raves from Variety and Hollywood Reporter, One Thrilling Night was a real feather in the cap for Monogram, whose reputation for quick, cheap, dirty and thrilling was well served by Beaudine's breakneck auteurship.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were Do Not Disturb and Army Bride.
