The team of Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland may not have taken the box office by storm like Hope and Crosby, Abbott and Costello, or even Wheeler and Woolsey, but in their string of Monogram comedies, they make a unique pair. Darro, the Ralph Macchio of his day, aged about a year in the period of a decade, and while not like Leo Gorcey of the Bowery Boys series (whom his early film roles obviously inspired), he is indeed sincere, charming and funny, even if he is pretty much a one-note actor. Moreland, the wide-eyed "sidekick", is the stereotypically cowardly black man (named Jefferson, after the president no less, another stereotypical detail for similar black characters of the time), but underneath the wide eyes and protests of fear is actually a closet brave man. When push comes to shove, he always stands tall, even if his brains seem to be telling his feet to run. Try not to roll your eyes as you laugh when he responds to a skeleton utilized in one comic scene with "If he's gonna associate with me, hes gotta put on some skin!".
"On the Spot" has the two opposites trying to solve the murder of several gangsters killed right in front of Darro at the pharmacy he works at. Before long, this "Magic Town" has been overtaken by big city reporters, and one in particular (Mary Korman) is determined to get the story. Wrapped up in only an hour, there's plenty of cheap laughs to keep the audience glued, and Darro allows Moreland to take the bulk of them, as if knowing that their pairing enhanced his blundering character and made him seem better.
"On the Spot" has the two opposites trying to solve the murder of several gangsters killed right in front of Darro at the pharmacy he works at. Before long, this "Magic Town" has been overtaken by big city reporters, and one in particular (Mary Korman) is determined to get the story. Wrapped up in only an hour, there's plenty of cheap laughs to keep the audience glued, and Darro allows Moreland to take the bulk of them, as if knowing that their pairing enhanced his blundering character and made him seem better.