Leon Errol Series: ONE WILD NIGHT (1951)

ONE WILD NIGHT (1951 RKO Pictures Short) Starring Leon Errol as Leon, Dorothy Granger as Mrs. Dorothy Errol, Jack Kirkwood as Jack, Perry Sheehan as Peggy, Karen Randle as Gloria, Judith Allen as Harriet.  Written and Directed by Hal Yates.

The introduction to our Leon Errol Salute series is at this link.

Mrs. Errol wakes up after midnight on Friday morning to find that Leon hasn't come home yet.  Her husband finally staggers home after 3 AM, wearing two stockings, spilling poker chips and slurring his words.  Confronting her husband about this weekly ritual hasn't done any good in the past oh, ninety two reelers, so Dorothy tries another tack: she decides to dress up and go out on her own the following week.  Come next Thursday, Leon can go his way, and she'll go hers.

A week passes, and Leon suddenly isn't so thrilled with this 'agreement' once he hears that the Mrs. isn't committed to limiting herself to female company for the evening.  He even offers to pass up his night at the club and take Mrs. Errol out!  To no avail---Mrs. Errol leaves, upsetting Leon so much that he decides to stay home, passing up the Insulation Officers' Stag Party!  Best friend Jack 'isn't fooled' by Leon's insistence that he "isn't up to" going out, and brings the party to Leon--with Judith and Karen coming along to the Errol home to cheer the boys up.  It works, as Leon gets into the spirit of things.  And of course, the foursome is still partying strong when Mrs. Errol returns.

One has to marvel at Hal Yates' ability to mine so many variations on the theme of Leon's carousing.  One Wild Night allows the forever foiling Dorothy Granger the opportunity to be enticing for once, as the dresses to the nines for her evening out.  She milks the opportunity to make the Mr. jealous, seductively showing him her ankle bracelet (and the shapely calf above it) before brushing him off for their "no questions asked" evening.  Of course, it's all a bluff--Dorothy Errol spends the evening playing cards with her friend Harriet--but its a welcome change to see the tables turned on Leon for once.  Too upset to go to the men's club?  Now that's what I call a twist.

While that new wrinkle adds a bit of intrigue, the best laugh comes from the most familiar source: inebriated Leon Errol.  Opening the proceedings, he stumbles home in the wee wee hours, first staggering out of Jack's car, then wobbling up the steps to the building.  From there Leon loses direction in the hallway twice, occasionally holds on to the wall for dear life and finally rips his pants before slurring spoonerisms under Mrs. Errol's questioning.   For my money, Leon Errol had the finest drunk act in the history of show business, and it's quite a marvel to behold after being honed for nearly a half century by 1951.  Never gets old, trust me.

At Harriet's urging, Dorothy tries her hand at acting tipsy upon her return to the apartment, but finally drops the ball near the goal line once she smells liquor on Leon's breath.  After seventeen minutes of taking the high road, and even feeling guilty about leaving her poor worried husband behind, the Mrs. loses her temper with the Mister anyway.  When Leon overplays his hand, Jack's ill-timed return to the apartment reveals what the evening was really like.  See, Leon?  Stay home on Thursday night like a good boy, and you still end up with an angry wife smashing a bottle smashed over your head.  Might as well gamble, drink, dance and ogle to your heart's content at the stag parties--or at least, quit while your ahead when the wife is offering to let you go out every Thursday with no questions asked.

Jack Kirkwood, Leon's wingman 

A longtime fixture on radio, Jack Kirkwood made a belated start in feature films at age 53 in 1947.  The Irish comedian was most familiar to filmland as Wally Brown's wingman in a series of RKO shorts that started up in 1949 (the year after Edgar Kennedy's death ended that long running series) but two-reelers were on the way out at the troubled studio and the series lasted only two years.  Errol's death was pretty much the end of the department.

The opportunity to see a second unsung comedy great is an added attraction, and Kirkwood does a fine job as the devil on Leon's shoulder here: driving Errol to and fro' every week, bringing two very attractive young ladies over, going to the liquor store to add bourbon to beautiful Peggy's concoction.  And just when it looks like Leon is in the clear, Jack blows his cover and sets off Dorothy Errol's long-awaited explosion.  Talk about a pied piper....  Kirkwood and Errol also worked together in Humphrey Takes a Chance (1950), Errol's final entry in the JOE PALOOKA series.

Perry Sheehan

Beautiful blonde Perry Sheehan was most notable for her striking resemblence to Betty Grable.  After three years as a Powers model, One Wild Night was Sheehan's Hollywood debut, and she had the showcase role here, leading Leon off the straight and narrow.  It's a lively debut: she dances a spirited jitterbug with our star and comes up with spirit concoctions that have to be overproof.

Sheehan worked only sporadically after her 1956 marriage to Dunes casino owner J. Carlton Adair, and passed away in March 2017 at age 95.  As Jack's "date", Karen Randle had to play second fiddle to the much publicized newcomer, though she does get to harmonize (badly) with Kirkwood while providing the backing music for the rug cutting stars.   The stunning native of Lone Wolf, Oklahoma had her most notable role in HURRICANE ISLAND the same year, but her career was nevertheless winding down.  Randle's final film was only a year away. 

Karen Randle, Granger and Errol

Pretty Judith Allen was also near the end of her career.  A De Mille discovery who had her greatest success in the 1930's, Allen had her last credited film appearance in One Wild Night as Granger's confidant.   Some very familiar but solidly executed laughs in the first half, with Errol's conscience once again fading away in the presence of a pretty blonde and Dorothy Granger getting to break out of wet blanket territory.  While Jack Kirkwood isn't utilized quite as well as he could be, One Wild Night is still an agreeable entry in a reliably amusing series.  (*** out of four)

Television Review: CRAZY LIKE A FOX: "Turn of the Century Fox" (1985)

CRAZY LIKE A FOX: "Turn of the Century Fox" (CBS-TV/Sony 1985) Original Air Date: January 6, 1985.  Starring Jack Warden as Harry Fox, John Rubenstein as Harrison Fox, Penny Peyser as Gail Fox, Robby Kiger as Josh Fox.  Guest Stars: Rue McClanahan as Angie Chambers, Charles Aidman as Randolph Lehrman, DeAnna Robbins as Miss Watley, Kenneth Tigar as Dr. Benoli.  Written by Thomas A. Chehak.  Directed by Paul Krasny. 

Introduction to the 1984-86 CBS series CRAZY LIKE A FOX is at this link.


Co-created by two sitcom vets (John Basham, Roger Shulman) and two action specialists (Frank Cardea and George Schenck), CRAZY LIKE A FOX was conceived as a blend of the two when it appeared that the traditional sitcom was slowly fading away (that is, until Bill Cosby proved that theory false just months before FOX finally hit the air in midseason).  

The show's second installment Turn of the Century Fox showed this concept hitting its stride quickly.  Detective Harry Fox is invited to the reading of old friend Tony Chambers' will, of which son Harrison is the executor.  After seeing real estate, automobiles and Giants season tickets bequeathed elsewhere, Harry is disappointed to find that he's inherited a sealed cigar box.  However, Harry's dismay turns to intrigue when wealthy Randolph Lehrman offers him $1600 for the box--with the stipulation that the contents (which Chambers said revealed "the secret to my success") must remain sealed. 

Two years before SLEDGE HAMMER! and four before THE NAKED GUN, Harry Fox stakes an immediate claim to the title of Worst Driving Detective.  Fox's battered 1975 Coupe de Ville sputters to the Chambers home, almost losing a mirror on the driver's side before the opening credits are over.  Later, a ramming contest with a pursuer ends up with a few more dings in both vehicles and one destroyed Speedy Mat...too bad, the film processor offered one hour nitrate-to-VHS service.

And poor put-upon Harrison ends up with crashing a restaurant's patio dining, getting food spilled on him (likely ruining two nice suits) and, of course, having Harry bum a ride to the Chambers estate.  Rubenstein immediately makes a wonderful straight man for Warden, and surmises why Harry Fox retains such lovability no matter how many times he destroys a vehicle or puts a cigar out on a stucco wall: when Harry ponders why Mr. Chambers gifted him with a secret that he even kept from the Mrs., Harrison knows.  "Because he trusted you to do the right thing."  Even if it meant passing up ever-increasing offers before solving the mystery.

Like lead-in MURDER, SHE WROTE, CRAZY LIKE A FOX always provided guest casts stocked with familiar faces.  The biggest name in Turn of the Century Fox is Rue McClanahan, months away from starting her signature role as Blanche on THE GOLDEN GIRLS.  As the widow of a similarly disheveled detective who was one of Harry's closest friends, she's no stranger to the senior Fox's free spirited ways or the exasperation that is often part of the bargain.  She thankfully takes the wheel from Harry during the third and final chase sequence, proving that Chambers was apparently quite an effective trailer--with her help.

The rest of Mr. Fox's inheritance?  A lone cigar in the box, and some obviously creased baseball cards of the 1942 Washington Senators (62-89, 7th place in the A.L.), likely not too valuable unless one of them was Early Wynn's.  (Grandson Josh informs us that Harry's own collection from the 1930's includes a DiMaggio.)  The comedy always outshined the mystery on this series, which isn't an indictment of the not-bad plotting.  While Turn of the Century Fox offers fewer of the oddballs who always seemed to owe Harry a much-needed favor, there's plenty of laughs to be had in Fox's Clouseau-like ability to create chaos effortlessly and Jack Warden's flawlessly timed one-liners. (*** out of four)

CRAZY LIKE A FOX airs Monday through Thursday at 9 AM Central time on getTV.