Powder Town
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| Powder Town | |
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| Directed by | Rowland V. Lee |
| Produced by | Cliff Reid |
| Written by | Vicki Baum Max Brand John Twist David Boehm Grace Norton |
| Starring | Edmond O'Brien Victor McLaglen |
| Music by | Roy Webb |
| Cinematography | Frank Redman |
| Distributed by | RKO |
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Release dates
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Running time
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79 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Powder Town is a 1942 comedy about an eccentric scientist thrust into danger and romance. Max Brand worked on the screenplay and published a novelisation under his own name.
Contents
Plot
Young J. Quincy Pennant is a brilliant but absent minded scientist who has come up with an amazing theory. Unlike skip bombing, Pennant is experimenting with detonating explosives where the shock wave can be sent like a stone skipping over distances without hitting immediate targets, but able to destroy targets at a further distance away, even if they are behind walls. He is sent to a "powder town", a rapidly growing city being built around an arsenal and munitions factory where wartime population growth has brought in criminals, enemy spies and saboteurs.
Accommodations are limited so the munitions factory puts Pennant in a boarding house where he is the only male sharing with five entertainers who work at a local casino run by gangsters. The rambuctious and physically imposing Jeems O'Shea, head of the powder monkeys at the factory, and his sycophant Billy arrive at the house to visit his girlfriend Dolly. Jeems plays rough with the ladies chasing them around the boarding house and playfully molests them. Only half oblivious to the screaming, Pennant gives a nonchalant punch to Jeems which due to angle and motion of the blow and throws Jeems' off balance and tumbling down the stairwell where he is knocked out cold to everyone's amazement.
When Pennant reports to the plant he formally meets Jeems who at first is surprised that Pennant is not a giant. He attempts to intimidate Pennant who is so absent minded he does not understand the threats. Jeems takes this as extreme nonchalant courage; a quality in demand amongst munitions workers. As Pennant refines his skipping shock wave explosives, the head of the plant gives Pennant his own pistol and assigns Jeems to be his bodyguard.
Things come to a head when Jeems takes the naive Pennant for a night on the town. The muddleheaded scientist is oblivious to several assassination and abduction attempts by enemy agents that Jeems' takes as and admire as an epitome of coolness. Taking Pennant to a casino run by gangsters where his boarding house companions work, Pennant is introduced to his first alcoholic drink that sets Pennant off to breaking the bank of the casino and winning the admiration of every woman in sight. The chief of the gangsters have his thugs start a brawl in order to knockout Pennant and take back their money but Jeems goes off like a hand grenade where he demolishes the casino and beats up a dozen gangsters.
During this time the enemy agents are still trying to obtain Pennant's formula and will go all out to get it.
Cast
- Victor McLaglen ... Jeems O'Shea
- Edmond O'Brien ... J. Quincy 'Penji' Pennant
- June Havoc ... Dolly Smythe
- Dorothy Lovett ... Sally Dean
- Eddie Foy Jr. ... Billy Meeker
- Damian O'Flynn ... Oliver Lindsay
- Marten Lamont ... Chick Parker
- Roy Gordon ... Dr. Wayne
- Marion Martin ... Sue
- Mary Gordon ... Mrs. Douglas
- Frances E. Neal ... Carol
- Julie Warren ... Betty
- Jane Woodworth ... Helen
- George Cleveland ... Gus the Janitor
