Expected more

Captivating movie !

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Even though this is a predictable murder mystery with the victim (John T. Murray) seemingly deserving of becoming the victim, there's a lot to enjoy in this "B" programmer where the dialog makes an otherwise predictable storyline more enjoyable. The story is set up with the extremely jealous Murray making it clear to his wife (Dorothy Revier) that he is keeping a close watch on her, being totally aware of her infidelities, while the obviously embittered daughter (Claudia Dell) from his first marriage makes it clear that Revier is the prime suspect. There's also assorted business partners or rivals and Dell's fiancée (whom Murray disapproved of), all questioned by playboy private detective Reginald Denny and his wise-cracking "Girl Friday" (Patricia Farr).It's Farr's character who gets the bulk of the great dialog here, saying such great hard-boiled lines as "He can't work overtime. It interferes with his drinking". When she finds her employer/lover on the phone, she makes her own suspicions known by saying, "I know you didn't go into that booth to fix your girdle!". The wife/lover, daughter/fiancée characters are not sterotypically one-dimensional, giving reasonable motives for each of them as to why they might want to see Murray killed off. Not bad for a bottom of the barrel second feature where the camera moved in obviously very close onto the set to hide how cramped and small it really was.

Dorothy Revier never seemed to play anything other than flappers or (when they were passe) sultry femme fatales. Like co-star Claudia Dell, who in 1932 was supporting Tom Mix and Tony, Dorothy ended up supporting cowboy star Buck Jones (in "The Cowboy and the Kid" (1936)) but, also, like Claudia she was fun to have around.Albert Sayre, an antique dealer has a "trophy" wife, Julia (Dorothy Revier) who he insists on belittling at every opportunity. He suspects her of having an affair with Dr. Boyer (the unappealing Jameson Thomas) and is having her followed. Oliver Keats (debonair Reginald Denny) is a jaded detective, who is called in by Julia to investigate some shady characters she has noticed hanging around the house. Strangely enough she loves her husband and is worried about him - but when they arrive at the house they find he has been murdered.Alice (beautiful Claudia Dell) bursts in - she is convinced Julia is guilty - those in the audience familiar with Revier and her roles, probably thought she was too!!! Alice is married to Arthur Pennyward, Sayre's assistant and Sayre was her father. Sayre wasn't all he seemed - he also had a sideline in faking antiques and villainous looking Dyker (Jack Adair) is charged with his murder. Alice still isn't convinced that Julia is innocent and insists the will be read immediately. She is astounded when she realises that she is a joint inheritor with Julia. (She had had a fight with her father that day about her marriage and she thought she was disinherited.) That means she is also under suspicion.Everyone acts guilty, there are plenty of red herrings - when Julia and Boyer are having supper they phone Sayre but get no response - he is already dead!!! but it looks suspicious for them and it isn't explained. Patricia Farr - "courtesy of Fox Films" - plays Keat's sassy secretary who is kept busy dishing out quips and wisecracks.

Universal was the only major Hollywood studio to have regular dealings with Poverty Row, so it comes as something of a surprise to see a 20th Century-Fox package wrapped up in the mantle of Chesterfield producer, George R. Batcheller. Admittedly, by Mr Batcheller's extremely sparse expenditure norms, the budget for this one is somewhat superior, but nonetheless the witty script by Fox's ace writing team of Robert Ellis and Helen Logan is not all that well served by plodding Reginald Denny (at least he plays the role straight) as the egomaniac detective and most of the second-string support players. Thomas, Bush, Murray and Kelly are especially dull in key roles, but fortunately the girls are okay. In fact, Patricia Farr (part of the Fox package) is quite winning as the put-upon secretary (even though she is forced to wear the same drab outfit throughout the entire movie). As for the solution of the mystery, this is a bit of a let-down, although it will come as no surprise to most fans. The real killer is Charles Lamont's scrupulously unexciting direction.

Reginald Denny stars a a detective who gets involved with the murder of an antique dealer.For the most part this is a by the book murder mystery with several interesting twists in it. The plot basically is that a wealthy antique dealer is suspicious that his wife is having an affair. People are watching the house and the husband appears to be involved in crooked dealings. The wife while out with her lover notices an old friend and semi famous detective at the bar. The lover leaves and the wife talks to the detective whom she talks into taking her home. Once there they find the husband dead and a very twisty, and not entirely fair, murder investigation is set in motion.Denny is as always a joy to behold and his interplay with his girl Friday is funny, if not rather cruel. Frankly if it wasn't clear they loved each other it would be abusive.A friend watched most of this with me and sat there in disbelief at the creakiness of it and of the bad acting. But this is an independent programmer that was made fast and cheap so that fact it is of any quality is usually a plus. Its not as bad as she made it out to be, and I don't think she hated it, she just enjoyed the camp value of it all.I liked it, but I didn't love it. Its a movie that sort of is unexceptional in anyway, and so just sort of is. Its a pleasant time killer and nothing more. In answer to Lucy's question, yes at some point I will watch this again, if only to see what I missed plot wise since the clues appear to all be there even if not clearly....