TCM feels compelled to delve into the Monogram library. Most of the time, it isn't worth it. This is one of those times.
"What a Man!" from 1944 concerns a nerd, Henry Burrows (Johnny Downs) who has an office job. One day a woman, Joan (Wanda McKay) hides in his apartment with a suitcase, and is found by Henry when he arrives home. She claims to be ill, so Henry leaves to get a doctor. While he's gone, a gangster is killed on his doorstep, and Johnny becomes a person of interest to the police. The gangster's girlfriend, Constance, has escaped. Henry thinks that Joan is Constance.
Whoever Joan is, she takes up residence in his house while she's recovering and encourages him to be more assertive at his job. He is and becomes a manager. Meanwhile, everyone thinks they're married. Then one day she disappears.
I thought Johnny Downs was kind of cute, in a young Henry Fonda-ish sort of way, and Wanda McKay very pretty. They acquitted themselves as well as they could in a cheap production that probably was done in a couple of days.
Short, and fairly routine.
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