Watch The Girl Who Dared For Free

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I've seen the public domain film, "Topper Returns", many times and have pretty much memorized all of the plot twists and dialog in that creepy last chapter of that short-lived screwball ghostly comedy series. Immediately upon beginning to watch this Republic mystery comedy, released just a few years later, I began to notice the similarities. A car breaks down on the way to a spooky mansion where mayhem is about to occur, the heroine (here Lorna Gray) deals with the wise-cracking mechanic (Peter Cookson) with whom romance is about to blossom, and once they get there, they find out that they actually were not invited, but other guests have shown up out of the blue as well. Several people are murdered, and the search for uranium on the distant property (disconnected from the mainland and only accessible by a Key Largo bridge like causeway) leads to further mystery. Like Eddie "Rochester" Anderson in "Topper Returns", there is a scaredy cat black servant (here Willie Best), and like the outcome of "Topper Returns", there is a clever way of trapping the killer. There are also secret panels and surprising clues and even twin sisters (Veda Ann Borg) who obviously hate each other. This is a surprisingly entertaining, if completely unoriginal, who-done-it, grasping the viewer in and not letting go until the final comes just an hour later. The spark between Gray and Cookson makes it all the more entertaining, and Borg gets to display two sides to her usual brash personality to make for an interesting characterization. In spite of the humiliating type of role Best plays, he is very funny, which speaks highly of his talents as a comic, even if it is a shame that he had to endure the types of parts he was cast in during his long career.

THE GIRL WHO DARED – 1944Quite watchable dark house mystery put out by Republic Pictures. A group of folks arrive at a country mansion for a party. The problem here is that the invitations were not sent by the home owner. The main leads are played by Lorna Gray, (Adrian Booth) Peter Cookson, Grant Withers, Veda Ann Borg, (playing twins) Kirk Alyn, John Hamilton and Willie Best. Bodies start to pile up and the people are of course all blaming each other. Arriving on the scene is Investigator Cookson. He is pursuing a big city Doctor who absconded with $60,000 worth of radium. He suspects that one of the guests is in league with said Doctor. The story is old hat and supplies nothing really new. But the pace is brisk and the actors seem to relish their parts. Somewhat wasted is Willie Best doing the frightened servant bit he had done in more than one film. Anyways, there is the mandatory scene where all are gathered in a room while the Detective, Cookson flushes out the killer. If you have an hour to kill, this quickie should fill the bill nicely.

Girl Who Dared, The (1944)** 1/2 (out of 4) Decent "B" flick from Republic has a group of people invited to a party at a creepy house where legend has it a ghost appears once a year. It turns out this group doesn't know who invited them and sure enough it doesn't take long before one by one they start dropping dead. The "old dark house" genre was more than fifteen-years-old by the time this one here was released to theaters so needless to say there's really nothing new or original here. The more of these films I watch the more I realize that they were all for the most part cheaply made and I'm really not sure what the point of so many of them were unless they simply made a lot of money on small budgets. This one here certainly isn't a masterpiece but at just 52-minutes the thing is short enough to be fairly entertaining. I think the best thing the film has going for it is the nice cast, which includes Peter Cookson as a mysterious mechanic, Lorna Gray as the main female, Willie Best as the nervous servant and Grant Withers as one of the many possible murderers. Each person turns in a fine performance with Best once again doing that scary-cat act like no other. The story itself isn't all that bad and I actually enjoyed the backstory dealing with a pirate ship that crashed a hundred years earlier and this is where the ghost comes from. We also have a subplot dealing with radiation and the impact it might have on the person who comes in contact with it. There's some fairly good atmosphere but there's no question that they weren't meaning for this to be anything other than cheap entertainment. Fans of the genre who must see everything will certainly want to check it out but others will probably be squirming in their seats. This certainly isn't the type of movie for everyone but fans of the genre should find it entertaining.

No great acting or production values here. Just a simple "B" mystery that lasts about 52 minutes. I, personally, enjoy this genre but I am under no illusions as to the craftsmanship of the production. Still, one can always count on certain things happening in this type of movie. Willie Best plays the servant so you know there will be some scenes with a scared, shivering, character. There's always a couple of red herrings as the identity of a triple murderer is ferreted out. And, lastly, the murderer is trapped by a trick device in the room where the entire set of suspects are present.