Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Before They Were Critics: David Elliott

Not many people know this, but long before joining The Reader as staff film critic, a youthful David Elliott worked as a Senior Scientist at Boggs Biologics. So successful was he, Monogram Studios produced a two-reeler honoring his work in chemical warfare.

Elliott purportedly has six prints of the hard-to-see patriotic war documentary, What to Do in Case of a Gas Attack -- along with a copy of Jerry Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried, and the missing reels of The Magnificent Ambersons -- resting comfortably inside Louis Vuitton bags at a climate controlled slat flat in Jamul.

Robert Lowery ignites the screen as "David Elliott."

Check this out -- our town's leading cinematic scribe received third billing right behind the female ingenue and Charlie Chan!

I'm just pulling your lariat, but you knew it all along. Hollywood would no sooner make a biopic about David Elliott than they would Patton. Forget about that chromo, Elliott! This is another shameless attempt to extol the virtue of America's most polarizing comedy team, The Three Stooges. These captures were lifted from the fairly obscure Charlie Chan programmer, Murder Over New York (1940), a film that first came to my attention while scanning the dial one Sunday afternoon.

Chicago's WGN-TV dispensed Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan programmers every Sunday afternoon. I was a kid in the pre-cable era with no driver's license, and mounds of snow outside my window. It was either low grade cinema to pass the hours or the NFL. The choice was obvious.

For decades, Holmes/Chan vehicles were strictly off limits, until that fateful Sunday I happened to lift my gaze at just the right moment to spot Shemp, once again on WGN.

This was eight years before Shemp replaced Curly on the Columbia shorts, and decades before racial profiling became the rage. Inspector Donald Macbride ("Jumping Butterballs!" from The Marx Bros. Room Service) assigns his squad-roll to "round up every Hindu in New York." Enter fake fakir Samuel Horowitz as a street person!

Donald Macbride and Shemp Howard.

A sponge and a pail of water (this must have been filmed on Saturday night) and Ouila! From Sādhu to Shemp in seconds!

I saved you 65 minutes. Short of revealing the killer (John Sutton), everything you need to know about Murder Over New York is contained in this post.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

NORTH COUNTY’S BEST PERSONAL TRAINER: NICOLE HANSULT HELPING YOU FEEL STRONG, CONFIDENT, AND VIBRANT AT ANY AGE

Next Article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?

Not many people know this, but long before joining The Reader as staff film critic, a youthful David Elliott worked as a Senior Scientist at Boggs Biologics. So successful was he, Monogram Studios produced a two-reeler honoring his work in chemical warfare.

Elliott purportedly has six prints of the hard-to-see patriotic war documentary, What to Do in Case of a Gas Attack -- along with a copy of Jerry Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried, and the missing reels of The Magnificent Ambersons -- resting comfortably inside Louis Vuitton bags at a climate controlled slat flat in Jamul.

Robert Lowery ignites the screen as "David Elliott."

Check this out -- our town's leading cinematic scribe received third billing right behind the female ingenue and Charlie Chan!

I'm just pulling your lariat, but you knew it all along. Hollywood would no sooner make a biopic about David Elliott than they would Patton. Forget about that chromo, Elliott! This is another shameless attempt to extol the virtue of America's most polarizing comedy team, The Three Stooges. These captures were lifted from the fairly obscure Charlie Chan programmer, Murder Over New York (1940), a film that first came to my attention while scanning the dial one Sunday afternoon.

Chicago's WGN-TV dispensed Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan programmers every Sunday afternoon. I was a kid in the pre-cable era with no driver's license, and mounds of snow outside my window. It was either low grade cinema to pass the hours or the NFL. The choice was obvious.

For decades, Holmes/Chan vehicles were strictly off limits, until that fateful Sunday I happened to lift my gaze at just the right moment to spot Shemp, once again on WGN.

This was eight years before Shemp replaced Curly on the Columbia shorts, and decades before racial profiling became the rage. Inspector Donald Macbride ("Jumping Butterballs!" from The Marx Bros. Room Service) assigns his squad-roll to "round up every Hindu in New York." Enter fake fakir Samuel Horowitz as a street person!

Donald Macbride and Shemp Howard.

A sponge and a pail of water (this must have been filmed on Saturday night) and Ouila! From Sādhu to Shemp in seconds!

I saved you 65 minutes. Short of revealing the killer (John Sutton), everything you need to know about Murder Over New York is contained in this post.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

David Elliott remembers Roger Ebert

Next Article

Truckin'

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader