Tall, Dark and Handsome (1941)

The person described in the title is Cesar Romero, who plays a supposedly-tough gangster during Prohibition. He puts on a front as a real hard-nosed type, but really is a softie. His men plant clues at other gangs' crimes to point toward Romero. He has designs at being respectable. He sees a girl (Virginia Gilmore) supervising the children's play area in a department store and falls for her immediately. He pretends to be a family man, whose governess has quit. She doesn't like her job and he hires her. Romero's problem now is that he has to come up with a couple of children by that evening. Romero's .45-auto-toting butler (complete with British accent) is Barnett Parker.

He goes to his night club where Charlotte Greenwood (of old radio show fame) is doing her song and dance routine. He hires her as his housekeeper. Romero's right hand man, Milton Berle, brings in his "son," Stanley Clements, complete with Brooklyn accent. A couple of men of Romero's arch-rival (Sheldon Leonard) show up. Romero "kills" them, which involves incarcerating them in a hidden under-ground jail, where they spend their time playing bridge. Leonard shows up and makes a truce with Romero to divide the city between them. However, Leonard also falls for Gilmore, causing tension between the "partners."

Romero and Gilmore get engaged, but she has second thoughts; but a drunken Berle shows her the jail, and the inmates escape. Leonard discovers that Romero is not really tough, and he dissolves the "partnership." However, the guys he assigns to bump off Romero have a soft spot for him since he gave them a break, and they shoot into the air. Romero plants his ring on a corpse and goes underground. Leonard throws Romero an expensive funeral.





Charlotte Greenwood


Barnett Parker