STRANGE INTERLUDE (1932)

In a small university town in New England after World War I, Nina Leeds (Norma Shearer) is still grieving the death of her boyfriend Gordon in the war, with particular distress over the fact that her father discouraged them from marrying before he went overseas out of misplaced jealousy, wanting to keep Nina for himself. She became a nurse for convalescing soldiers in Boston, but gained a reputation for sleeping with them, so she has returned home. Also back in town is Charlie Marsden (Ralph Morgan), a mama's boy who has nursed an unrequited love for Nina for years. Dr. Ned Darrell (Clark Gable), a colleague who also has an unspoken crush on Nina, thinks that she needs to get married and suggests Gordon's boyhood pal Sam (Alexander Kirkland) as the groom. They marry and afterwards, Sam's mother tells Nina the family secret of which Sam is not aware: inherited insanity runs in the family, and she suggests that Nina should, behind Sam's back, find a man to impregnate her instead of Sam. She enlists Ned who fulfills his duty, though the two then realize they're in love. She names her son Gordon (if you didn't know by now, Freud would have a field day with this narrative) who grows up sensing Ned's love for his mother and resenting it. Charlie figures it all out and, somewhat masochistically, remains in Nina's social orbit, suffering silently. Years later, as a college student, Gordon (Robert Young) wins a sailing competition and Sam, proud and excited, drops dead of a stroke. Gordon announces his plan to marry his girlfriend which Nina thinks is too conventional a life plan. By the end, Nina comes to the realization that she and Ned gave up happiness for Sam, Ned leaves so Gordon's resentment of him won't fester, and Nina is left with the sad, passive Charlie as her only companion, someone she assumes has "passed all desire," not knowing that he will pine for her forever.

This dysfunctional family melodrama is based on a somewhat experimental play by Eugene O’Neill—it's famous for its gimmick of having characters stop while delivering dialogue, turn to the audience, and speak asides, baring their real thoughts which are often very different from what they are expressing verbally. For the film, the actors stop speaking and the asides are delivered as voiceovers—the gimmick is explained at the beginning of the film, and Charlie delivers a line about spoken words being "just a mask" for our true selves. It's rather awkward especially when the asides have to be delivered quickly so as not to interrupt the flow of the action. The actors' faces sometimes go into contortions of varying emotions as the aside rambles on, causing some unwanted comical moments. I guess I got used to it but it remains disruptive all through the two-hour film (the play ran almost five hours, sometimes performed with a dinner break). The actors seem a bit at sea, especially Ralph Morgan (Charlie) who has the burden of a larger share of these asides, at least in the beginning. The best acting comes from Gable, and Shearer is good in scenes with Gable, though largely due to the writing we never really see what is so appealing about Nina that she has such a hold on all these men. The characters come off as a seething knot of neurotics and my sympathy for them was worn to a nub by the end. A scene near the end with Nina and Ned bidding farewell to Gordon is just plain laughable. As might be expected with an adaptation of a highly theatrical play (O'Neill wrote the screenplay), quite a bit is told rather than shown which blunts some of the emotional effectiveness of the situations. Still, I recommend this to fans of the era and the stars, which also include May Robson and Maureen O'Sullivan.  And to anyone looking for a novelty. Pictured are Gable and Shearer. [TCM]

THE GHOST THAT WALKS ALONE (1944)

A radio soap opera called The Tender Hour is being performed live with lead actors Sue and Whitney as the romantic couple, and Enid and Cedric as supporting players. But sound effects man Eddie has his mind on his wedding later that day and messes up a couple of sound cues. Macy Turner, the producer and Enid’s husband, fires Eddie but Enid insists on him being re-hired. Macy thinks that Cedric has designs on his wife, leading to some tension. Eddie and Sue leave to be married, then go to a lodge in the woods run by his sister Milly. When Macy discovers that the Tenderfoot Shoe Company has threatened to pull their sponsorship of the show, he insists that the cast and crew, along with Beppo, a writer, head out to the lodge to rehearse all week, horning in on Eddie and Sue’s honeymoon. Milly allows them to stay, even though the lodge is officially closing for the season. Also in the lodge: Tom, a sinister looking handyman, and Cornelia Coates, a nutty old lady with a propensity for sleepwalking reveries in which she thinks she's Lady Guinevere. In the night, Eddie leaves his room to make sure his sound effects trunks are safe; when he returns, someone has switched the room numbers on the doors and Eddie enters Whitney’s room thinking it's his. Instead of Sue, Eddie finds the dead body of Macy in the bed. Roomies Cedric and Beppo help him put the body in a trunk and take it to the basement. Eddie runs into Cornelia walking in her sleep and accompanies her on her reverie; Sue sees them and thinks that Eddie is already being unfaithful to her. The next morning, Eddie discovers that Macy's body is missing. The sheriff is called by Whitney, who never came back to his room the night before, and soon everyone is a suspect in a murder that no one can prove actually happened.

A couple of online writers have compared this B-movie comic mystery to a Scooby-Doo episode with Eddie as Shaggy. I've actually never seen an entire episode of that show, but that seems right. The story is fun but the script is weak and full of plotholes, and it's the acting that carries one through. Arthur Lake (Dagwood in the Blondie movies) has a sweet but scatterbrained thing going on here as Eddie and it works well, though one does wonder how he wound up with a smart and attractive woman like Lynne Roberts (Sue). Because Janis Carter (Enid) is top billed over Roberts, I assumed that Sue was going to be a villain but both she and Carter remain what they seem in the opening. Carter is fine but is not any more important to the plot than Roberts, so I guess the billing was a contractual thing. I was not familiar with the rest of the cast, but they’re mostly fine. Arthur Space (Cedric) and Frank Sully (Beppo) as the roomies are good comic sidekicks and, frankly, have more chemistry together than Lake and Roberts. Matt Willis is creepily thuggish as Tom. I was less impressed with Ida Moore as the nutty Cornelia but that may just be a reaction to her character who seems superfluous and only needed for a final punch line. Among the plotholes: the idea that the entire crew would intrude on a honeymoon to rehearse a 15 minute soap opera episode is silly; it’s never explained why Cornelia is still staying in the lodge; the absence of a couple of the characters for a while is not explained. As most online viewers note, the title is nonsense. Though one character mentions ghosts in passing, there is no ghost, walking or otherwise, and no character suspects one. I got mild enjoyment out of Lake, Space and Sully but otherwise it’s a minor effort from the Columbia B-movie unit. Pictured are Jack Lee (as Macy) and Lake. [YouTube]

THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD (1970 TV-movie)

A 12-year-old girl comes home from school to find the house deserted and a kitchen wrecked from a fight with pints of blood splattered all over. She bravely takes it all in stride and her aunt, who lives next door, takes her in and calls the police. Lt. Dan August and his sidekick Sgt. Wilentz show up and despite all the blood, no sign of the girl's mom, Marian, is found. Marian's traveling salesman husband George says he'd been on the road but that alibi starts to fray as August investigates. Entering middle age but still attractive, Marian turns out to have been sleeping around with, among others, Billy, an aging golden boy lifeguard at a sports club; Paul, the club's president who fired Billy then took his place in the sack; Sal, a high-toned thug; and Ryan, the preacher at an unconventional church. The mayor, under pressure from the press, wants the husband arrested but August isn't convinced until George tries to make a high-speed getaway. Even after this, August keeps investigating. A body washes up in a nearby bay, but it's that of a man. Where is Marian? This movie proved so popular that a TV series, Dan August, was spun off from it, starring Burt Reynolds. But the star of this film, Christopher George, pictured, is very good as August. He's not much different from the average tough-guy TV cop of the era but he's handsome and commanding, tough or sensitive as he needs to be, and shows a rebellious spirit when he's in conflict with the arrogant mayor (Walter Pidgeon). 

The narrative falls into a pattern: August talks to a suspect and doesn't quite get the full truth, but we get a flashback showing how that person was involved with Marian. The cast is full of familiar faces who all give good performances. Janet Leigh is excellent as Marian, an aging and insecure woman who loses herself in meaningless affairs (though it must be said that Leigh still looks great). William Windom is the club boss whose wife knows about his dalliances. Peter Mark Richman is the gangster who has a juicy locker room scene with the cops. Laurence Dane is the sad and confused preacher. Burr DeBenning has the least amount of screen time but delivers in his scenes as the lifeguard who seems to be suffering from the same kind of insecurity over aging that Marian is. Tim O'Connor keeps us guessing as the husband; is he a passive sad sack or a cold-blooded killer? Julie Harris has the thankless role of George's sister. She has so little to do that I was sure she would be involved somehow in the murder but she's a red herring. Little Eve Plumb is fine as the daughter—she was already appearing as Jan in The Brady Bunch when this film aired. Keenan Wynn makes a good sidekick, and Geoffrey Deuel (brother of Pete Duel of Alias Smith and Jones) is cute in a 2-line role as a parking attendant at the sports club. This was enjoyable and I'm sorry that Christopher George never got a shot at a cop show of his own. I've read that George was offered the title role in the series but had to turn it down due to other commitments. Though I've never seen an episode of Dan August, I imagine Burt Reynolds was more laid back and snarky in the part. Lynda Day, whom George would marry a few months after making this movie, has a short bit as a stoned receptionist. [YouTube]

TARZAN’S SECRET TREASURE (1941)

The fifth entry in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan series begins up in Tarzan's secret African escarpment as Tarzan, Jane, and Boy have a family swim with some baby elephants. Boy finds some gold nuggets in the river which leads to a discussion about wealth and civilization, and that night Boy takes a nugget and decides to find civilization. He meets a native boy named Tumbo whose village is currently beset by an epidemic of sickness. When Tumbo's mother dies of fever, the tribe plans to sacrifice Boy hoping to appease the gods and save the village, but an expedition of scientists looking for a lost tribe arrive and are able to save Boy, and when the natives attack the scientists, Tarzan swings in to save them all. Among the scientists: Elliot, the leader; O'Doul, the jolly hard-drinking Irish photographer; Vandermeer, the guide; and Medford, a sneaky, greedy sort of fellow. Tarzan takes them to his escarpment and Medford, who has seen Boy's gold and been told that there is a mountain of gold nearby, plans to grab himself a fortune. As tensions build, Tarzan tells the men to leave, but with O'Doul down with the fever, Elliot asks if they can stay until he's better. Tarzan relents, and when Elliot, who has sided with Tarzan about leaving the gold, also gets the sickness, Medford deliberately breaks the vial with his medicine. Elliot dies, Medford kidnaps Jane and Boy, and manages to strand Tarzan in a mountain chasm. However, Tumbo has secretly followed Tarzan and goes back to get the recovering O'Doul to save him. But now, everyone else is in the hands of the vicious Jaconi tribe. Can Tarzan save the worthy and allow rough justice to take the undeserving?

Though I am a fan of the Tarzan franchise and its offshoots, this is the last one of the Weissmuller films that I can work up any enthusiasm for. He made seven more, leaving the role behind in 1948, but after this one, he became too bored and out of shape to be an effectual Tarzan. Some, like DESERT MYSTERY and NEW YORK ADVENTURE, remained interesting for their unusual settings, but I would counsel new viewers to skip from here to 1949’s TARZAN’S MAGIC FOUNTAIN where the younger, hunkier Lex Barker dons the loincloth. Weissmuller is still a decent Tarzan, and Maureen O’Sullivan, despite her dislike for the role, puts on a brave face and is fine as Jane. The focus of the first fifteen minutes is on the antics and adventures of Boy, nicely played by 10-year-old Johnny Sheffield. The orphaned Tumbo, seemingly introduced as a playmate for Boy, is portrayed by 9-year-old Cordell Hickman. The last shot of the movie includes Tumbo as an adopted member of Tarzan's family (see above right), but he never shows up again in the series. Tom Conway is a bit too obviously villainous as Medford, but I liked Reginald Owen as Elliot and Philip Dorn as Vandermeer, and Barry Fitzgerald is fun as the (stereotyped) Irish drinker O'Doul who calls Weissmuller "Mr. Tarzan" and accuses him of being a temperance worker when he stops O'Doul from drinking. (Cheeta the monkey, who gets a drunk scene, has too much to do for my taste.) There is a fair amount of recycled jungle footage, but the climax, involving crocodile wrestling and an elephant stampede, is exciting. [TCM]

THE RED CIRCLE (1960)

In a prologue, we see the execution of condemned murderer Henry Lightman by guillotine go awry when the drunken executioner leaves a nail in place that stops the blade just short of Lightman's head (he has a black cloth over his face so we can't see what he looks like). He manages to escape and eight years later, he returns as a sinister figure known as the Red Circle who blackmails rich people who are then killed if they don't pay up. He gets his name from the cryptic notes he leaves behind with a red circle as a signature—and in one case, a red burn mark left on a victim's arm from a car cigarette lighter. The caped and masked figure demands that Lady Doringham give him a valuable necklace belonging to her husband; he gives her an imitation one to replace it so the loss won't be detected. When she fails to follow through, he kills her in her car. A famous sculptor contacts Scotland Yard about a threat, but when they arrive at his studio, he is dead, hanging from the ceiling. Yard inspector Parr and his team, Lord Archibald and Sgt. Haggett, are roundly criticized in the press so Parr reluctantly hires famous private detective Derrick Yale to assist. Yale immediately picks up on the fact that the noose around the sculptor's neck was tied with a seaman's knot, which leads them to arrest an itinerant sailor named Selby. He admits the murder but says he was paid to do it by the Red Circle. Later, in his jail cell, he is poisoned while eating soup. Beardmore, a wealthy businessman, is the next target of the Red Circle, and the investigation of his case introduces us to his handsome nephew Jack, a businessman named Froyant who works in the Beardmore building, and his lovely secretary Thalia. At various times, both Jack and Thalia seem suspicious, as does the otherwise bumbling Sgt. Haggett. Thalia winds up getting fired and finds work with a banker named Barbazon; soon, he is pressured by the Red Circle into putting counterfeit bills into circulation. Lots of other characters and situations (including a kidnapped child) clutter up the narrative before the Red Circle is unmasked with the ultimate clue that he, Lightman under a different name, has a permanent red scar around his neck from the guillotine's pillory.

Based on an Edgar Wallace novel titled The Crimson Circle, this is the second 'official' krimi, a German crime film based on the work of Wallace. As I note in my review of the first one, FACE OF THE FROG, this shares with other krimi films an overstuffed plot, a large cast of characters (so lots of people can get killed off), and several red herrings. FROG was good but this one is almost deliriously fun with its huge cast and constant string of murders. At a little over 90 minutes, it starts to feel a bit long, but the end is worth it, as the identity of the killer is a satisfying surprise. There is no shortage of good looking actors here. Renate Ewart is sexy and seductive as Thalia, Klausjurgen Wussow is youthful and appealing as Yale, and even more handsome is Thomas Alder as Jack. Krimi regular Eddi Arent, pictured, is Haggett, doing double duty as mild comic relief and as a suspect. There's no use arguing about plotholes and inconsistencies, though I admit the idea that Yale, a private eye, might be seen as a serious contender for Parr's job, was just ridiculous. My first krimi kick was in 2023, but this might get me started on another one. Sadly, two young cast members died of suicide a few years later: Ewart and Alder. [YouTube, where it’s called The Crimson Circle]

SPACEWAYS (1953) / THE NET (1953)

In 1953, two British B-films were released with very similar plots, both fitting into a very specific genre: spy melodrama disguised as science fiction thriller. SPACEWAYS is set at the Deanfield Experimental Station in England where a group of scientists is working on getting a satellite into permanent orbit around the Earth that could be used as an observatory, though some worry it might also be used to store nuclear weapons. The scientists include Prof. Keppler, the head of the program; American engineer Steve Mitchell, fuel expert Toby Andrews; animal expert Philip Crenshaw who works with the mice they send up in experiments; and mathematician Lisa Frank. At a cocktail party celebrating getting the OK from General Hayes to keep working, Steve's wife Vanessa, tired of living under government restrictions, glowers at her husband and sneaks off to have a kissing session with Philip. Meanwhile, Steve is consoled by Lisa. The next test launch goes badly; the rocket goes into orbit but fails to deploy a satellite, perhaps because of too much weight in the fuel tanks. It's soon discovered that Philip (who may be a spy) and Vanessa have vanished from the heavily guarded compound, and an investigator named Smith comes up with the far-fetched theory that the jealous Steve killed the two and put their bodies in the rocket's fuel tanks. Eventually, Steve, who has taken to canoodling with Lisa, decides to go up into space himself and bring back the orbiting rocket to prove the bodies aren't there. Eva Bartok (Lisa), pictured at left with Duff (Lisa) and Cecle Chevreau (Vanessa) outshine the male lead, the rather drab and stolid Howard Duff (Steve). Other standouts are Alan Wheatley as Smith and Michael Medwin as Toby.

THE NET (American title PROJECT M7) has a very similar plot as a team of scientists work at an experimental station in England, trying to perfect a new (and very futuristic looking) supersonic plane that will fly three times faster than current planes. Michael Heathley, the inventor of the M7, is gung ho on giving it a manned test, but his boss, Prof. Carrington, vetoes him and insists on ground-controlled tests only. At a cocktail party, we meet Lydia, Michael's wife who is getting a little tired of her husband’s single-mindedness; Alex, a doctor and ground control worker who starts a mild flirtation with Lydia; Dr. Dennis Bord, a somewhat suspicious Scotsman; Sam, who handles security; and Brian, Michael's young protege. That night, Carrington dies from a fall off of a dock walkway (which reads as suspicious to us) and Michael pressures the group into okaying a manned flight. He also pressures Brian to be his reluctant but loyal co-pilot. If they get into trouble, they can flip a switch and the ground control station can take over, but during the flight they both lose consciousness due to lack of air pressure, and Brian comes to just in time to flip the switch. The new boss decides to go back to unmanned flights and appoints Brian to become Michael’s superior, a move which doesn't sit well with either of them. In the end, Michael decides to sneak the plane out for a pre-dawn test with Dennis (who may be a spy) as his co-pilot. He regrets his decision. The leads here are all fine, especially James Donald as Michael, Herbert Lom as Alex, Robert Beatty as Sam, and Patric Doonan as Brian. Pictured are Doonan and Muriel Pavlow

These movies were released within a few months of each other; THE NET was first but I saw SPACEWAYS first, and a review of SPACEWAYS at the Scifist site led me to THE NET. It doesn't seem likely that deliberate copying occurred as both were based on preexisting works (THE NET based on a novel, SPACEWAYS on a radio play). But it is odd how the films mirror each other: science research projects, a small group of researchers confined to one base with the possibility of a spy in their midst, an adulterous relationship, a climax which puts our hero in high flying peril. Approached for their sci-fi elements, both would be disappointing—they're basically melodrama thrillers with futuristic aircraft thrown in. But luckily I enjoy these B-movie thrillers on their own so I found both of them interesting and watchable. Both directors do solid if unexceptional work—SPACEWAYS from Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher, THE NET from Anthony Asquith who the year before did the very stagy adaptation of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. I'd give a slight edge to THE NET with its more developed characterizations. slightly better cast (Lom and Doonan are particularly good), cool looking plane, and more thrilling climax. The odd title comes from a reference in the first scene when one character compares confinement to the base to being stuck in a net. [YouTube]

SMART GIRLS DON'T TALK (1948)

One night at the Club Bermuda, a group of men led by Johnny Warjack barge in and rob the casino tables and the patrons. Club boss Marty (Bruce Bennett) lets them escape because getting the cops involved would threaten his illegal gambling endeavor. Instead, he offers to make good all the patron losses, then sends his goons after Warjack who is found dead hours later. A guy named Clark tries to claim a loss of $10,000 but Marty calls his bluff and demands that he pay off his gambling debts within a week. A woman named Linda (Virginia Mayo) tries to make a claim for thousands of dollars of stolen jewelry, but Marty also sees through her, knowing that her gems were paste, and when the club’s valet parkers claim her car is blocks away, Marty drives her home and spends the night. The next morning, it turns out that Linda’s car was used in the hit on Warjack, and Lt. McReady questions her but believes her alibi. Linda's brother Doc (yes, he's actually a doctor) shows up and warns her away from Marty, but he winds up getting equally involved when he falls for Toni, singer at the Club Bermuda. When Marty carries out a hit on Clark, he's wounded and Doc treats him, but when Marty's underlings worry that Doc will rat them out to the police, they kill him. Doc's death convinces Linda to help the cops get Marty. This B-melodrama doesn't quite have the feel of a film noir, though noir themes are present, including the mix of goodness and villainy in Marty, and to some degree, Linda. Bennett makes for a weak leading man; I think he was going for taciturn and a little mysterious but he mostly comes off as wooden. Richard Roeber as the cop who also serves as a mild romantic interest for Mayo is bland and has no chemistry with Mayo. The best performance comes from Virginia Mayo who serves as the conflicted noir central figure. A strong supporting cast includes Robert Hutton as Doc, and Richard Benedict and Tom D'Andrea as two of Marty's thugs. A standard, "The Very Thought of You" is usedThe movie does an interesting turn of mood, with the first half feeling rather light and things getting heavy near the end, but I'd only recommend this for B-movie fans. Pictured are Bennett, Mayo, and Richard Benedict. [TCM]

THE LOST MISSILE (1958)

A narrator tells us that "the world is one minute away from the start of a hydrogen war" because a missile of unknown origin is sighted speeding across the skies of “North Europe.” Despite an attempt by the Russians to bring it down, it continues its flight, five miles up in the air, at 4,000 miles an hour, incinerating everything beneath it. The Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) estimates it will soon fly across northern Canada and wind up over New York City in an hour. At the Havenbrook Atomic Laboratory outside of New York, scientist David Loring heads a group working on Project Job (pronounced like the Biblical name), a rocket that can carry a hydrogen warhead. David is supposed to be getting married to his assistant Joan, with fellow researcher Joe as best man, but Joe's wife is about to have her baby and he has to go be with her. At the same time, Joan calls off the wedding because she thinks David is paying too much attention to his project and not enough to her. But the threat of the missile causes the center to be locked down as they search for a way to neutralize the threat. As New York City is evacuated, Joe manages to get out to make his way to the hospital. David wants the Air Force to use the Job missile to launch a hydrogen warhead at the threat Meanwhile, Canadian jets sent to intercept the missile are destroyed, as is much of Ottawa when the missile flies over the city. In the end, David delivers the warhead to the missile launch site by jeep. A gang of teenage thugs hijack the jeep and one of them opens the container holding the bomb; they all die rather quickly of radiation poisoning, leaving David to risk his life by getting back in the jeep and getting to the missile.

This is not a bad idea for a science fiction B-thriller, but it's executed cheaply and, until the last few minutes, boringly. It plays out much more like a TV show, with limited sets, lots of stock footage (nearly half the movie, it seems), and many scenes of people in rooms, at desks, in hallways, and on phones. Two effective scenes show the missile burning up a dog sled driver in Canada, and a Canadian family who are incinerated while building a snowman. Two interesting themes are touched on but not dealt with, both brought up by Joe: 1) we shouldn’t try to destroy the missile as it may have extraterrestrials on board; 2) it might have been kinder not to warn New York City about its possible fate. Against all odds, the hour-long evacuation of the city seems to go smoothly, something which is sheer fantasy. A young and unrecognizable Robert Loggia (later a busy character actor in Big, Scarface, S.O.B. and The Sopranos) is fine as David, as is Philip Pine as Joe, a character who could have used a bit more fleshing out. Ellen Parker as Joan barely registers beyond her role as the whiny but ultimately supportive love interest. Science fiction fans will wind up disappointed as no explanation is given for the missile's origin—the film feels more like propaganda for government early-warning systems. I chuckled at a short scene in which a bland folk singer has to interrupt a live TV broadcast to deliver the news of the coming apocalypse. The climax with the delinquents stealing the jeep is surprisingly effective but also feels like it came from another movie. Pictured are Pine and Loggia. [YouTube]

THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY (1933)

At the police station, a visitor for Captain Riley is told he's in conference, but we see that he is actually in his office playing cribbage with Lt. Martin and crime beat reporter Dan McKee. But when the highly agitated Dr. Brandt arrives, wanting to be locked up so he won't, he says, commit the perfect murder, Riley pays attention. Brandt, a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis in his practice, says that he has hypnotized a bank official to bring him $100,000 after which Brandt will kill him and chop his body up. He blames his greedy wife for making him desperate for money, and now he has come to his senses, but the banker is to visit tonight with the money, so Riley and Martin agree to come to Brandt's house to stop him. They do but after they leave, the lights go out, someone enters the room, chloroforms Brandt, murders the banker, and steals the money. McKee, the reporter, is first on the scene and discovers a number of suspects: Freda, the wife; Gilbert, her lover who was spying through the windows just before the lights went out; a mysterious young man who was skulking about on the street; and even a maid and butler. Brandt's daughter Doris gets involved even though she was apparently at her sorority house all evening. When the cops return and try to stage a reenactment of the murder, the lights go out again and this time it's Freda who is killed, with a pair of scissors. With all the possible suspects together, the film stops dead while a man announces a one-minute intermission so the audience can try to play detective as the faces of characters and pictures of evidence flash across the screen. The police think that Brandt is the mastermind, but McKee has another idea.

Though the film begins with a couple of stunning one-take tracking shots of people entering the police station, this pre-Code B-mystery becomes fairly stagy, with the bulk of it taking place in Brandt's living room, with an unmotivated detour to the sorority house, but I don't find that a problem as that is fairly traditional for a drawing room mystery. The intermission is fun, though I don't think it's really possible to figure out the killer from the clues given, and the killer's identity is a bit surprising but satisfying. The premise involving hypnosis and Brandt's sudden change of heart is far-fetched but within the realm of suspension of disbelief. The B-level acting is satisfactory. Stuart Erwin (McKee), who typically played comic supporting parts, doesn't exactly shine here—he's a bit low energy and never seems as sharp as the character should be—but he's tolerable. A bit better is the top-billed Jean Hersholt as Brandt. Frances Dee (the daughter) is brought in only as a possible romance for McKee, which is about as far-fetched as the opening premise. The better supporting players include David Landau as Martin, Wynne Gibson as Freda, and Gordon Westcott as Gilbert. The servants (Torben Meyer and Bodil Rosing) have a very amusing bit of comic relief involving sauerbraten and heartburn. Not a must-see but light and amusing. Pictured are Erwin and Landau. [YouTube]

ELEVEN P.M. (1928)

This silent low-budget race film is difficult to review for several reasons. Information about its release and reception is impossible to find. Even reviews of it are few and far between. The film is often called surreal, and because the bulk of the action is a dream, that label feels right, but "surreal" is a label sometimes applied to movies which are results of Poverty Row sloppiness, so any problems with visual or narrative disjunctions can be attributed to deliberate intention. For me, this hour-long movie managed to earn its surreal label until about halfway through when it totally fell apart. I basically stopped taking notes and just sat on my couch with a bewildered look on my face. The frame story makes sense, sort of. A writer named Louis Perry sits at his typewriter one evening, trying to finish a story that his publisher wants by 11:00 p.m. It has something to do with Perry's belief that life, in addition to progressing, can also decline, and that a human soul can take refuge in a lower form of life, like a cat or dog. (At first, I thought Perry was a newspaper reporter, but this seems to be a short story that the editor is waiting for.) Perry is also a part-time boxer and Roy, a promoter, is coming by at 11 to collect him for a midnight fight. Also at 11, his girlfriend June and her mother are stopping by. Perry falls asleep, his dog at his feet, and dreams a story that culminates in animal reincarnation.

Here's as much of that story as I could piece together. In the dream, Roy (the fight promoter) is shot on the street. He goes to Sundaisy, described as a "half-breed street fiddler," gives him a wad of money and asks him to use it to take care of Roy's young son Clyde. The money is stolen from Roy's coat the moment he dies, but somehow Sundaisy manages to raise the boy. Twelve years later, Clyde has become a member of a street gang and Sundaisy marries a woman named June in order to save her from a life of poverty. More years pass. June finds out that her marriage to Sundaisy isn't legal because the minister was a fraud. June runs off with someone but is deserted and lives a "remorseful life in the slums." More years pass. Sundaisy and his daughter Hope are street buskers. She is dating the writer, Louis Perry, but the grown-up Clyde, who owns a nightclub, steals her away to be a dancer. Sundaisy tries to kill Clyde but has a heart attack and dies. Later, Sundaisy returns in the form of a dog and attacks and kills Clyde. Then, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Perry wakes up in his office at 11 p.m. surrounded by all the folks who have come to meet him and were in his dream. He types up his story. The end.

There are many confusing circumstances of narrative. The same woman (Orine Johnson) plays June, her mother, and Hope. Yes, this means that June and her mother, in the frame story, look exactly alike. Over the twenty-some years of the dream story, no one ages a bit except Clyde. Many of the supporting characters look and dress alike, and if they were supposed to be differentiated, they weren't. At one point, I realized that Perry was appearing in his own dream and had no idea how he got there or how long he had been there. I'm not sure all the plot details above are accurate, but as a rough outline, it's accurate enough. This is the only surviving movie from its director and writer, Richard Maurice, who also plays Perry. Shot partly on the streets of Detroit, it's a rough and ready production, with the acting ranging from OK (Maurice as Sundaisy, Sammie Fields as Perry) to abysmal (Orine Johnson whose only expression is a hangdog look, as though she's waiting for someone to direct her). The special effect at the end of Sundaisy as the dog is primitive but it works. Despite all this, the movie, if you accept it as intentional surrealism, does exert a weird hold. The print I saw had an interesting electric guitar score by Rob Gal. It took me a few minutes to warm to it, but generally it's effective, especially in its discordant moments. For adventurous tastes. Pictured top right, Richard Maurice, the film's director, as Sundaisy; at left, Sammie Fields. [Criterion Channel]