I'll have to explain the absence of this top portion eventually.

But it's 2:30 AM and my email suggests that there's lots of misconstruage going on.

Not a review. A look at the graphics, tropes, styles, peculiarities. This one's from the early Forties.

The title may confound, but if you know the films of the era, you’ll know what this was.

A short movie, strictly B, and part of a series. Like the Falcon series, which I’ll start in a few weeks, the titles had a certain ring: The Falcon Takes Over, The Falcon Strikes Twice, The Falcon Flosses Daily, and so on. “Scattergood” must have been familiar to audiences, you suspect. People would think “oh, wonderful, it’s another of those Scattergood pictures!” They must have, because they made six.

The title also suggests that “suspense” is not the long suit here, since Scattergood’s survival is announced right away.

He directed five Scattergood features, and 160 other pictures, from 1912 to 1948, including a slew of Monogram poverty-row numbers (I presume, anyway; I’m not going to click through every flick on his imdb page.)

As for the author:

He called himself the best second-rate author in America. Well, no one else wanted the honor. Forgotten today.

Said Harlan Ellison:

With the exception of one or two people whose names are common coin—Shakespeare, perhaps Faulkner—being well-known and being remembered is a mugg's game. There's no way of knowing whether you're going to wind up being Geoffrey Chaucer or Clarence Budington Kelland.

As for Scattergood:

The book is online, here. You may read the first page to get the flavor. As far as I can tell Scattergood was the owner of the local hardware store, and as such was constantly embroiled in small-town mysteries. During most of the movie he just sits there and says things, occasionally. Like "Courtin' is like votin', son. You have to show up early if you don't want to stand in line."

Why these were popular enough to justify a series is a window into the times. Possibly folks loved the subtle acting:

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Maybe a work blog today. Depends. There's certainly some matchbooks! Click and enjoy, and I'll see you around.