Here Comes Trouble (1948) Poster

(1948)

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4/10
Low budget Roach programmer
Bucs196016 June 2007
Here is the King of Comedy, Hal Roach, on the downslide. This is a very low budget film, a continuation of the series starring William Tracy and Joe Sawyer which was usually the bottom of the double feature at the local theater.

I first saw Tracy as Misto Bottome in "Brother Rat" and thought he was wonderful. He had the look of a mischievous child and oh, that voice!!! He continued to look much younger than he actually was but in this film he is beginning to show his age.

The plot, what there is, revolves around the efforts of a reporter to prove himself to his publisher who is the father of his girlfriend. The finale is a mess......it is the worst type of slapstick with everybody running on and off a stage, falling down, being boffed on the head and generally causing mayhem. It was dated even in 1948. Roach made a career from this type of humor but the times had changed and audiences were not buying it.

Don't get me wrong......I like both Tracy and the excellent Joe Sawyer but this wasn't up to their comedic talents. It's not a total loss but comes pretty close.
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4/10
The Comedy Is Criminal
wes-connors2 July 2010
Fresh from World War II service, doughy William Tracy (as Dorian "Dodo" Doubleday) returns to his newspaper job at "The Tribune" where he is promoted from copy boy to police reporter. Publisher Emory Parnell (as Winfield "Windy" Blake) knows Mr. Tracy isn't qualified for the dangerous position, but hopes the area's powerful mob will run him out of town, like they did the last reporter. Mr. Parnell figures this will force pretty daughter Beverly Lloyd (as Penny Blake) end her relationship with Tracy. But, with bumbling Sergeant pal Joe Sawyer (as Ames) helping, Tracy decides to tough it out.

"Here Comes Trouble" starts off with some funny bits involving Tracy, gets tedious along the way, and ends with a little excitement. Making a haphazard blackmail plot more fun than it's worth is watching leggy burlesque showgirl Joan Woodbury (as "Bubbles" La Rue). Ms. Lloyd is likewise beautiful to behold; on the evidence presented herein, she should have had a more substantial career. Former star Betty Compson is also around, in matronly role. This seems to have been an attempt at a different situation comedy for Tracy, with partner Sawyer getting the short end of the shtick. They returned to familiar territory.

**** Here Comes Trouble (3/15/48) Fred Guiol ~ William Tracy, Joe Sawyer, Beverly Lloyd, Joan Woodbury
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5/10
another ames & doubleday chapter
ksf-219 March 2019
Stars Joe Sawyer and William Tracy, again, as two guys just out of the service. And Betty Compson, although MUCH later than her starring role in "Street Girl" from 1929. Compson had started as a touring violinist, and easily moved into hollywood films, and formed her own production company. By 1948, she was a bit on in years. She had made over 200 films, but THIS film was the last one she would make! Co-stars Emory Parnell and Joan Woodbury ( ??) This one is kind of silly and over the top. One is a reporter, and the other is a cop on the beat. No magic among the actors. just feels like forced laughter. it's okay. thankfully, this one is only 55 minutes. and they would make two more films together after this. meh. not my favorite. Tracy died quite young at 49, but no-one seems to know the cause. Directed by Fred Guiol, who worked on some biggies (Giant, Gunga Din).
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3/10
Fascinating In Its Ineptitude
Handlinghandel3 January 2007
This appears to be a very, very low-budget production. It is a comic treatment of crime. It is a comic treatment of ex-GIs who have returned from WWII. The acting is generally not only slapstick but also slapdash.

A GI returns to his job on a newspaper. He is in love with the editor's daughter. She wants him to get a better job. Light bulb goes off: Dad needs a new crime reporter, because it is so dangerous. Gives it to ex-GI. Ex-GI encounters friend from the war who has been booted up to a job in the police. The laughs proceed on this premise.

Joan Woodbury is actually very entertaining as a burlesque star called Bubbles LaRue. She wears shoes with ankle straps that reminded me of the first girlie magazine I ever saw. I couldn't figure it out, because it had photos from the 1940s -- ankle straps and all -- and I was a child in the sixties.

Though the movie is not very good, it is fun to see. One really tires of the same old things when it comes to vintage movies. My cap is off to whoever unearthed this.
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7/10
Sergeants Come Home
bkoganbing19 May 2008
In the final series of Ames and Doubleday, the two of them are now civilians, Doubleday working as a reporter for newspaper publisher Emory Parnell and Ames now on the police force. Joe Sawyer and William Tracy continue their series of misadventures. Despite them being in the army as well as Abbott&Costello the Allies actually won the war.

Hal Roach being the producer with great insight into comedy decided to team William Tracy and Joe Sawyer as a team and sadly they seem to have been forgotten. This is only the second of their films I've seen and I'd certainly like to have seen more.

They seem to have the best elements of Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello. Tracy as Dodo Doubleday is the innocent who just seems to go through life and he seems to stumble into heroism. Sawyer as Ames is a wiseguy know it all who slaps Tracy around like Abbott used to do to Costello, but like Ollie Hardy always is mired in the fertilizer of his own making.

Parnell, Tracy's prospective father-in-law is looking to expose the gangsters that run his town. But the mob boss is on to him, but he's got a better idea for shutting Parnell's expose down. Use burlesque queen Joan Woodbury for a little blackmail.

The problem is that Woodbury's ready to doublecross the mob. For some considerable cash she'll let Parnell have her diary which gives some mob names and places as well as their little good times.

The whole film ends in an absolutely mad chase sequence in the burlesque house after Woodbury's been murdered. And the audience is oblivious to it all, thinking it's all part of the entertainment.

In the tradition of Laurel, Costello, with a bit of Inspector Clousseau tossed in, Tracy as usual comes up a winner.

Here Comes Trouble is a fast paced comedy with an absolutely hysterical finale. It hasn't even got the touches that Universal gave Abbott and Costello, but it has just as many laughs.
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Madcap, Non-stop
dougdoepke10 June 2019
Unabashed madcap with Tracy playing a character named Dodo, which about says it all. Biggest surprise, for me at least, was tough guy Joe Sawyer doing comedic hijinks, and well too. Seems Dodo's gotten promoted to police reporter by newspaper boss Blake because it's literally a dead-end job, which means the inept Dodo won't be around to marry Blake's daughter Penny (Lloyd). But things quickly complicate ending in a madcap spree on a stage show that's funny but over-extended. Anyway, for guys there's plenty of eye candy, especially Woodbury as a stripper, and drop-dead gorgeous Lloyd looking a lot like Jane Russell's sister. (Too bad Lloyd dropped her brief career soon after this; I wish IMDB knew why.) All in all, the sub-hour's a lot of silly knock-about, but good for some laughs as everyone gets in on the goofy act.

(In passing-- Watch for bony-face Charles Middleton best known as Ming The Merciless as a non-speaking reporter in one of the crowd scenes.)
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5/10
Sat On The Shelf For Two Years
boblipton21 March 2024
In the sixth of eight Dodo Doubleday streamliners, William Tracy is released from the army and goes back to his job on Emory Parnell's newspaper. Parnell has been trying to clean up organized crime, and the gangsters have run off four crime reporters in the last sixth months. His daughter, Penny Blake, is im love with Tracy, and lobbies for a promotion for him. So he gets promoted from copy boy to crime reporter. Maybe, Parnell reasons, he'll be killed.

It's pretty mild comedy, even if we get Joan Woodbury as a dancer in a burlesque house, and the other interesting performers that Hal Roach could get after a third of a century in Hollywood. Joe Sawyer is back as Tracy's ex-sergeant and now cop on the beat; Betty Compson has her last film role as Parnell's wife. But the small roles and uncredited bits are taken by newer names; Roach's old comics were dead or retired.

Turner Classic Movies has taken to running this in its original Cinecolor hues, and frankly, they don't help. There's a monotony to the color design of the movie, and I never saw so many men wearing orange ties!
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7/10
A nice post-war version of the William Tracy series
planktonrules8 April 2007
William Tracy played Sergeant Doubleday in a cute series of films made during both WWII and the Korean War. I especially liked TANKS A MILLION, though they were all very good for B-pictures with very modest budgets. In this case, though, the war is over and Doubleday and his annoying friend, Sergeant Ames have found domestic jobs--Doubleday as a crime reporter and Ames as a cop. The only reason Doubleday got the job is that his future father-in-law hates him and wants to either see him get beaten up or chased away by local mobsters. Ames is, quite frankly, an idiot and makes a real mess of it as a cop. Both men work together at times to try to uncover who the mob leaders are, but almost get themselves killed in the process. There is a lot of slapstick, but apart from the overlong ending, it is handled expertly and the film is quite engaging. In fact, if the end hadn't just degenerated into a way too long fight sequence, the film could have easily earned a score of 8. Likable characters, good writing and a breezy script make this a fun little film that is well worth seeing.
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7/10
It's a Shame These Have Been Forgotten
communicator-12 January 2007
This film is actually one of the "Sgt. Doubleday" series that was popular in the 1940's. In this one, both Doubleday and Ames are civilians. Tracy is a reporter, and Sawyer is a police officer. They are more of a team in this film than they were in the Army comedies, even though their characters are the same.

This was one of the "Hal Roach Streamliner" comedies, and at a shorter than full length running time, it moves quickly from one situation to another. Fast paced and fun, these films deserve to be seen again. William Tracy was a very funny comedian, and Joe Sawyer was a perfect comical nemesis.
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10/10
I Want to See More
nabor73 January 2007
I just happened to be off and alone at home when I found this on Turner Classic Movies. It is the first time I've seen the characters of Ames and Doubleday and now I want more. Seeing that it was a Hal Roach Production meant that I was in for a good comedic movie and I wasn't disappointed. We will never see comedies such as this again and now I am searching for more of the Ames and Doubleday movies. We get so caught up in modern movies that are called comedies, but rely on foul language and noisy bodily functions for the laughs rather than on the actors ability to make us laugh. This is a really refreshing movies to relax and enjoy and the fact that it is almost 59 years old, only shows the timelessness of real comedy.
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8/10
Where have you gone Bill Tracy?
sol-kay13 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
**SPOILERS** Hilarious burlesque comedy romp with relatively unknown actor Bill Tracy, this being his first and last movie role, as returning war hero Dorian "Dodo" Doubleday who does everything wrong to make things right as he puts an end to mob control of a major East Coast metropolis. It's not that Dodo wanted to be a hero he just accidentally stepped into the role like he did in the war in the Pacific and the rest, like WWII, was history.

Coming back to the states Dodo is assigned by Tribune publisher & editor Wnfield "Windy" Blake to be the papers new police/crime reporter. Windy hoping the mob would break the pain in his butt Dodo's head and keep him out of marrying his daughter Penny who's just crazy about the baby-faced and bumbling war hero. Dodo instead gets involved, by being accidentally locked in the bathroom, with his boss', Windy Blake, ex-lover a stripper named Bubbles LaRue. Whom he had and hot and wild affair with back at the summer of 1944 at the Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago.

Bubbles was hired by Mr. Big, the faceless city mob boss, to blackmail Windy in order to stop him from trying to put him and his boys out of business. But Bubbles has other ideas in her trying to play both sides, Mr. Big & Windy Blake, down the middle and have her diary, which exposed Mr. Big and Windy's affair with her, sold to Windy for $10.000.00. Bubbles plans to make it look like she was mugged and knocked by an unknown assailant, Dodo, so Mr.Big won't get suspicious. It turns out that Dodo just doesn't have it in him, he's just too nice of a guy, to conk out Bubbles. Mr. Big doing the job himself shows up in Bubbles dressing room and dressed up as the burlesques shows Bagzee the Clown not only knocks her out but smashes Bubbles' head in killing her.

With the police showing up at the murder scene together with the rest of the cast a free for all breaks out between everyone there with nobody knowing, except the hoodlums and their boss the Bagzee the Clown wannabe, what exactly is going on. All hell breaks loose on the stage as the audience watches claps and enjoys the show not knowing that what's going on is for real not a burlesque comedy shtick.

Non-stop comedy slap-stick action with an almost flawless last fifteen minute ending sequence will have you rolling in the aisles and gasping for air. Dodo Doubleday, together with the rest of the cast, puts on one of the best side-splitting comedy shticks ever put together on film. The movie "Here Comes Trouble" is less then an hour in length but it makes every minute, or even second, in it count.
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Weak
Michael_Elliott24 May 2008
Here Comes Trouble (1948)

** (out of 4)

Another in the Hal Roach series featuring Doubleday (William Tracy) and Ames (Joe Sawyer). This time out the two are out of the Army and Doubleday, thanks to his soon to be father in law, is working as a reporter and he tries to crack a big case against a gangster. Ames, working as a policeman, gets in and tries to help but of course chaos follows. I believe this is the fifth film I've seen with the duo and there's no doubt that this one here is the weakest. The previous films were always going for laughs but this one here really seems a tad bit lazy because it seems not much of an effort was given in the screenplay to try and get any laughs. For the most part you get a lot of dialogue and none of its funny. Not because the material bad but because the material doesn't even go for laughs. Tracy is his usual self here but Sawyer seems really bored because his comic flair is never seen, although, to his credit, the screenplay doesn't offer him too much. Another problem is that most of the film's in the series ran from 40-45 minutes but this one here clocks in at 55-minutes and it really feels like 55-hours.
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