Directed by Cristy Cabanne
Written by Dennis J. Cooper from a story by John Faxon
Starring Robert Lowrey, Doris Merrick, Eddie Quillan, Byron Folger
IMDB Entry
Monogram pictures was the low-rent district of
Hollywood. They produced pictures that
aspired to be B-movies and were usually at the bottom of the barrel, most of
them forgotten and forgettable. As I was looking up film noir for this series,
I stumbled across Sensation Hunters. I had seen very few Monogram pictures, so
decided to look it up.
Julie Rogers (Doris Merrick) is a young woman who's going out with Ray Lawson (Eddie Quillan), a trumpet player. Her domineering father (Bryon Folger) doesn't like the match. One evening, Ray had to leave for an audition, and she sees Danny Burke (Robert Lowry). Burke is a cad, who loves 'em and leaves 'em, but Julie doesn't care.
Ray takes her to a gambling club, which is raided. He is sentenced to 30 days in jail. Julie can't pay the fine, but her father shows up and takes care of it. Once that's done, he kicks her out of their apartment and out of his life.
Julie gets a job singing at the Club Paradise, and rekindles her infatuation for Danny, even when Ray establishes himself as a successful bandleader. I
t all leads to the inevitable (but arbitrary) tragedy.
The movie is all over the map. Julie gets her job too easily. She suffers because Ray took her to the illegal gambling den, whereas you'd expect it to be Danny. Any tension is broken up by musical numbers that pad out the time. The ending seems like a half-assed attempt to make the whole mess a film noir.
Still, it's fun to watch, if not exactly good. Doris Merrick had a few films, but never made a splash, Robert Lowrey and Eddie Quillan both had long careers in TV and movies as minor players, Quillan working steadily into the 1980s, his biggest role in the TV show Julia. The most recognizable actor to modern audiences is John Hamilton-- Perry White in The Adventures of Superman -- who has a few lines as a judge. Minerva Urecal, who was very busy as a character actress, has a small part as Julie's mother.
Director Christie Cabanne was unfamiliar to me, but he directed over 160 films, starting in the silent days and cranking out up to seven full-length features a year.* I figure he worked fast and brought things in under budget. Most of his films are forgettable and his list has few titles that even the most avid film buff would recognize.
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*He started work as an assistant to D.W. Griffith.
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