Very well executed

Simply A Masterpiece

Powerful

Blistering performances.

Noel Coward may have sung of the self-possession of an Englishman in New York, but Robert Armstrong is an American in London in this movie. Lost in a Pea-Souper, he wanders into a home to ask directions back to his hotel only to discover a corpse resting in an armchair.This quickie is more interesting for its details than its overall effect. The fun of seeing Roland Young playing a soft-hearted Cockney burglar is offset a bit by Helen Mack's unsteady posh accent; the nice plot conceit of starting the movie out by having the whole thing appear to be a P.G. Wodehouse London populated by idiotic young Drones, only to finally reveal the John-Buchan machinations beneath is lessened by the limited number of jokes (mostly a fascination with English Trifles) and the inexplicable inability of people to overcome a copper armed with a whistle.Still, what there is, is good, is mostly well performed and moves at a good clip. If the bits don't hang together perfectly, many of the bits are a lot of fun.

People who ran the B picture and poverty row studios long realized that fog could mask a low budget on a film. And when you set a film in London it's a requirement.Newly arrived American Robert Armstrong is itching for a bit of night life so he goes out on a foggy night in London town and hears some screams coming from a house. Finding the door open he walks in and finds a dead body. But when he summons the police they find no dead body and people thinking Armstrong is a bit balmy.But he does make a friend in Helen Mack who decides the American stranger is one she can trust. Of course the whole thing is resolved by the end.The whole thing is shot from Armstrong's point of view as he meets a lot of varying characters and tries to figure out who he can trust. Turns out he can't trust too many.Although the leads are fine and would work together in Son Of Kong, the film is stolen by Roland Young who with cockney accent plays his own lower class version of the amateur cracksman replete with some really droll dialog.Fans of Roland Young should not miss this one.

Blind Adventure (1933) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Director Schoedsack and star Robert Armstrong made this film right after KING KONG and right before THE SON OF KONG so needless to say it's understandable why it's been forgotten over the years. In the film Armstrong plays an American visiting London for the first time and he accidentally walks into a house and finds a dead body. Before long he, a woman (Helen Mack) and a burglars (Roland Young) are involved with a gang of criminals trying to blackmail an important figure. This certainly isn't in the same league as other Schoedsack titles but it's a decent little mystery that will appeal to those who enjoy this type of low-budget thriller, which RKO was an expert at back in the day. For the most part the story is a rather interesting one even though the screenplay never gets too deep into any sort of details. We're pretty much introduced to our characters, the conspiracy and then we see it play out with a few twists and turns but for the most part everything is played straight and quick. At just 63-minutes there's really not too many details about anything but this isn't a bad thing because I'm sure had they added more time then the thing would have started to drag. Armstong is pretty good in his part as the story gives him plenty of attempts at playing the strong, tough guy but it also has fun with his comic timing. This is easy to spot during a scene where he's trying to get out of a party so that he can get a bit of information to the Secret Service. The story really doesn't do Mack much justice but she's certainly easy on the eyes and mixes well with Armstrong. Young doesn't get much to do either but he's fine in the role as is a young Ralph Bellamy. There's some running gags about Americans in London and we even get some nice atmosphere thanks to what appears to be the best fog machine in Hollywood history. The amount of fog that is constantly going is rather fun and makes for a few interesting scenes including one on top of a building where our three leads are trying to get down. BLIND ADVENTURE isn't going to make anyone forget that giant ape but if you've got some time to kill you should be entertained.

Never quite imagined Robert Armstrong as the romantic male lead -- he's best as Carl Denham in KING KONG. This is from KONG's director, Ernest Schoesdack, but is not nearly as memorable. Some rather talky scenes seem static and dull. Some of the 'cute' bits have dated very badly. But there's one good plot twist in it. And it's always good to see Ralph Bellamy at work. The cast works hard and makes it passable. So I'd say it's a minor work but worth seeing for the cast. Schoesdack has done better. On a smaller palette, he doesn't quite know what to do. The foggy exteriors of "London" (all a backlot) look pretty good. But the villains are overcome rather tamely.