The Girl from Monterey

Club singer Armida is surprised to learn little brother Anthony Caruso is now a boxer with a contract with Edgar Kennedy. She heads east with them to train him. She also gets a job singing in a night club and begins a romance with boxer Terry Frost. When Frost becomes champion of his division, the boxing commission decrees he must fight the number one contender, Caruso. She doesn't care for this. But how will she react when she discovers that Frost's manager, Jack Larue, has set Caruso's girlfriend, Veda Ann Borg, to make sure Caruso is out of shape and lose the match?

Armida puts a lot of energy into her role, and sings the distinctly poor songs she is given well. However, second-billed Kennedy is utterly wasted; an opportunity to let him do his slow burn is ignored. Neither does director Wallace Fox give him a chance to let his very real acting come out. Neither does he let cameraman Marcel Le Picard shoot the fight an an interesting manner.i

Fox was the brother of the far more interesting director, Edwin Carewe. I regret to say he never directed a movie that impressed me. He spent his career directing B westerns and similar fare for Poverty Row companies -- this was for PRC. He directed 88 movies the big screen before spending the last few years of his career on TV oaters. He died in 1958 at the age of 63.