Republic Pictures gave the movie-going public The Inner Circle back in 1946. It's a lightweight mystery about a gossip columnist who was shot to death and private detective Warren Douglas is near framed and unframed for the deed. Truth be told not too many people liked the columnist who had a sideline in blackmail.Doing the framing on Douglas is Adele Mara who gets hired as Douglas's secretary, frames him and the alibis Douglas all in a day. She's beautiful and quite an operator and has a sister in Martha Montgomery who was a victim of the columnist's blackmail.The columnist operated out of Ricardo Cortez's nightclub where he has the sultry Virginia Christine as his regular singer. There are also a pair of household help the victim had, maid Dorothy Adams who was also Gene Tierney's maid in Laura and gardener Will Wright. Both of them are looking to pocket what they can from an employer neither was crazy about.Trying to figure it all out is homicide detective William Frawley and from the beginning the guilty party was rather obvious. What took everyone so long?Not the best murder mystery out there.

...On Michael Keaton in the 80's noir spoof Johnny Dangerously???? The inner circle even had a bit of tongue-in-cheek itself, though in much more of a 1940's innocence.William Frawley's in top form andAdele Mara really shines in a part that seems tailor made for herThe cinematography is surprisingly top-notch, though you wouldn't notice if you turned it off after the first 15 minutes. It gets a bit more impressive as it goes along.Though not finest quality direction, it does move well with some snappy dialogue and interesting staging.Don't expect academy award performances, but it's still worth a watch, just for a few chuckles and to see it's influence on much later noir spoofs.

Johnny Strange of Action Incorporated is interrupted by a beautiful woman while placing an ad for a secretary. She hangs up on the newspaper and takes the job. When a mysterious call comes in not long after Johnny finds himself knocked out and framed for the murder of a sleazy radio show announcer (ala Walter Winchell). Johnny must now try to solve the case before he ends up behind bars for the murder.This is a fast moving mystery thriller with a smart ass attitude and a never ending stream of one liners. Running around 55 minutes this movie starts from the first frame and zips right on by to the last. To be certain the film shows signs of a reduced budget, there are only so many sets, but the film over comes the limitations by being very witty. The cast which includes William Frawley as a cop, Ricardo Cortez as suspect William Douglas as Johnny and first (?) billed Adele Mara as the secretary is first rate. The rest of the cast is filled out with many familiar faces and they all come together to make what could have and should have been a less than sterling little mystery into something that is actually quite enjoyable.Definitely worth a bowl of popcorn and a soda (especially on a multi feature evening on a rainy night)

This is a romantic, comic mystery. Warner Brothers turned out a lot of these in the thirties and early forties. Jane Wyman was often the girl.Here, we have several girls. We have the secretary who appears out of nowhere. She works for a private investigator, Johnny Strange. (Was there another noun that could be added to Johnny to make a name for a movie character in that decade?) Then there's the mysterious veiled woman who calls for his services. Then there's Virginia Christine (Mrs. Olson of the coffee commercials a few decades later.) She sings in a club. Then there's ... OK: No more about the plot.That excellent and durable actor Ricardo Cortez somehow found himself at Republic. He turns in a variation on his usual cynical, suave performance. It's not his worst, either. But he is fourth-billed, below William Frawley, who plays a cop. And Adele Mara gets top billing.It's fun to watch. It could very easily have been better but it isn't terrible.