The Girl Who Knew Too Much (USA, 1969) 97 min color DIR: Francis D. Lyon. PROD: Earle Lyon. SCR: Charles A. Wallace. MUSIC: Joe Greene. DOP: Alan Sensvald. CAST: Adam West (Johnny Cain), Nancy Kwan (Revel Drue), Robert Alda (Kenneth Allandice), Nehemiah Persoff (Lt. Crawford), David Brian (Had Dixon), Buddy Greco (Lucky Jones), Patricia Smith (Tricia Grinaldi), Chick Chandler, Biff Elliott. (United Pictures Corporation)
I’ve long been fascinated with the low-budget quickies released in the late 1960s under the various umbrellas of United Pictures Corporation. On the surface, they were generic in their art direction, flatly photographed, and largely existed to employ a lot of veteran character actors (many familiar faces, if not household names), to turn around a quick buck. These undemanding films (including Destination Inner Space, Cyborg 2087, Dimension 5, and The Destructors) quickly found homes as 4AM filler on the late late show, which is where many diehard film nuts (myself included) first discovered them. (Indeed, the once-great City TV’s “Late Great Movies” played several of these in subterranean hours during the 1980s.)
As a whole, these movies are fascinating contradictions. Anachronisms in the era of their original releases, their old-fashioned feel (helped in no small part by the veterans before and behind the camera) belonged to an earlier tradition. It has been said by others that these films recalled the episodic, action-oriented, serial-like formula of Republic Pictures- no coincidence, as executive producer Harold Goldman was also on the board of NTA, which was distributing Republic’s catalogue at the time. Their screenplays often had ideas and ambitions exceeding their budgets and workmanlike presentations, but their everyday attributes were however assets. The generic lounges, restaurants, city streets, offices, gas stations and supermarkets which cast an air of familiarity for the viewer, also become unsettling, as the fantastic plots of these tinny scenarios would plausibly occur even in the most drab, commonplace settings of everyday life.
Sadly, only Panic in the City (featured on many cheap labels in the format’s early years) has ever been legitimately released to DVD, until now. Long unseen and unavailable (it was once even featured on Wikipedia’s “lost films” list), The Girl Who Knew Too Much has just been issued, courtesy of Olive Films’ mandate to (it seems) release into the world every single Paramount or Republic title hidden by Man. Viewing it offers the minute revelation that this film is perhaps the most “modern” of the United-Commonwealth clan, not just because it is one of their final efforts, but also in that it is the rare entry not to feel like it could have been made ten or fifteen years previously. This picture forgoes the usual 1950s Cold War groupthink for a 1960s James Bond vibe, with a groovy jazz score by Joe Greene, and that our hero is first seen with a woman’s legs wrapped around him.
World-weary adventurer-turned-club owner Johnny Cain (Adam West) is interrupted mid-coitus with the news that a truck has come smashing through the front wall of his lounge, killing mobster Grinaldi. It is soon learned that this incident wasn’t an accident, and Cain is then given 72 hours by the syndicate to uncover those responsible for his death, or else a contract will be issued for him! At the same time he is recruited by the FBI for the same purpose. Working for both sides of the law proves to be a confusing caper for Cain and the viewers. But then again, the formula which this film borrows had never concerned itself with such silly things as logic or plot, so the story zips around about as much as our hero does in his groovy Corvette Convertible.
The film is however amusing for bringing the Casablanca plot to the space age, as it features a club owner who is called upon to use skills from his previous life, much at the behest of an old flame (played here by the always welcome Nancy Kwan, looking delightful in a mini-skirt). The women deliver the strongest performances, especially Patricia Smith in her small role role as Grinaldi’s widow. Also interesting is the casting of jazz singer Buddy Greco as singer Lucky Jones. (The film features three scenes of Greco’s crooning: more as filler than anything, but welcome for people who dig this stuff.) Adam West delivers every line with an exasperated tone resembling someone who is answering to a person that has run out of favours: it kind of befits the Cain character, but one feels the actor’s approach is out of contempt for the material.
Truthfully, The Girl Who Knew Too Much is not a bad film at all- it is another pleasant, but one of the more forgettable, of the United-Commonwealth canon. It is nice to see the film back in circulation after being out of the public eye for decades, but nothing of the holy grail like Ambersons’ thirty-two minutes.
UPDATE! Since this review was written, more titles from the United catalogue have been issued to DVD and Blu-Ray. Much to my delight, Olive also released Bamboo Saucer and Kino Lorber has issued Tiger by the Tail, Dimension 5 and Cyborg 2087. All of these will be reviewed here eventually
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.