''Nine Lives Are Not Enough'' is a 1941

Comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by A. Edward Sutherland and written by Fred Niblo Jr. The film stars

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

, Joan Perry, and James Gleason, with

Howard Da Silva Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt, May 4, 1909 – February 16, 1986) was an American actor, director and musical performer on stage, film, television and radio. He was cast in dozens of productions on the New York stage, appeared in mo ...

, Faye Emerson and

Edward Brophy Edward Santree Brophy (February 27, 1895 – May 27, 1960) was an American character actor and comedian, as well as an assistant director and second unit director during the 1920s. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he frequently ...

. The film was released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

on September 20, 1941.

Plot

A reporter tries to solve a series of boardinghouse murders. The dramatic main plot murder action is intermixed with

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

and

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

comedic elements.

Cast

as Matt Sawyer * Joan Perry as Jane Abbott * James Gleason as Sgt. Sam Daniels *

as J.B. Murray, City Editor * Faye Emerson as Rose Chadwick *

as Officer Slattery *

Peter Whitney Peter Whitney (born Peter King Engle; May 24, 1916 – March 30, 1972) was an American actor in film and television. Tall and heavyset, he played brutish villains in many Hollywood films in the 1940s and 1950s. Early years Whitney was born ...

as Roy * Charles Drake as 'Snappy' Lucas * Vera Lewis as Mrs. Slocum * Ben Welden as Moxie Karper *

Howard C. Hickman Howard Charles Hickman (February 9, 1880 – December 31, 1949) was an American actor, director and writer. He was an accomplished stage leading man, who entered films through the auspices of producer Thomas H. Ince. Career In 1900, Hickman d ...

as Colonel Andrews *

Cliff Clark Cliff Clark (June 10, 1889 – February 8, 1953) was an American actor. He entered the film business in 1937 after a substantial stage career and appeared in over 200 Hollywood films. In the last years of his life, he also played in a numb ...

as Lieutenant Buckley * Tom Stevenson as Charles * Paul Phillips as Hot-Foot * Joseph Crehan as Yates * John Maxwell as Gillis

References

External links

* * * * 1941 films Warner Bros. films 1941 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films American black-and-white films Films directed by A. Edward Sutherland Films scored by William Lava American novels adapted into films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{1940s-drama-film-stub