Strange People

The Universal set from James Whale's "The Old Dark House" (1932) was utilized for this low budget feature from Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation (which lasted from 1925 to 1936), one of many independent outfits of that era that shot their films on rented sets at the major studios. Among the other indie companies was Majestic Pictures, who used the same Universal set for their 1933 feature "The Vampire Bat," starring Lionel Atwill and Melvyn Douglas, while Universal itself toplined Atwill in another film shot on the same set, "Secret of the Blue Room," later that same year. "Strange People" therefore has a more polished look than a typical Chesterfield cheapie, but with a cast of mostly no names, apart from a young Walter Brennan, who appeared at Universal that year in "The Invisible Man," as a man whose bicycle was stolen. Hale Hamilton stars as a lawyer who arranges the gathering of all 12 members of a jury who convicted an innocent man to the gallows. He tries to demonstrate how a person can be convicted on circumstantial evidence and uses his partner, posing as the butler, to help him. The butler is apparently shot and killed by a young woman who claims to be his frightened ex-wife, but it's all just a put-on, until the man is discovered to actually be dead. Among the rest of the cast is the aforementioned Walter Brennan, as one of the 12 jurors, summoned to repair a radio; Jack Pennick, a member of John Ford's stock company, as a plumber; Jerry Mandy supplies decent comic relief as a barber; Lew Kelly as an insurance agent, whom I remember in Lugosi's "Bowery at Midnight" (1942), playing the doctor who restores life to the dead; Michael Visaroff, the innkeeper from Lugosi's "Dracula" (1931), playing the suspicious caretaker skulking about. There are numerous twists and turns that make this one of the more intriguing forgotten thrillers from the 1930's, one that deserves a second look. In the James Whale feature, these wonderful sets were shadowed in darkness, but the other films show them off to great advantage. Director Richard Thorpe would make one notable contribution to Universal's Laemmle era, 1934's "Secret of the Château," which despite its lurid publicity, is a rather drab murder mystery toplining Claire Dodd.

"Strange People" is a very old fashioned and stupid film...one where the script abounds with cliches, improbabilities and silliness. I cannot emphasize enough just how bad this film is!

One by one, folks start arriving at a house. Using a variety of pretext, they all were led to this place. Soon they realize that each was on a jury about a year ago...a jury in which they voted guilty...and as a result, a man is soon to be executed. Soon, however, someone seems to die and the folks all learn a lesson about circumstantial evidence and they all have a good laugh. But the laugh's on them, as the man really is dead and soon all sorts of strange happenings occur.

The dialog is very, very stilted. The action in the film is improbable to the point of being ridiculous and you can see why tiny Chesterfield Productions never became a big player in Hollywood! Uggh!!

A dozen people arrive one by one at an old dark house in the rain for a variety of purposes, where they are let in by a butler who has just knocked out another butler. The twelve think they they recognize each other. They had all been on the jury in a murder trial, and had found the defendant guilty. A door opens to the rain, it is closed, and they find the butler lying on the ground. In walks Hale Hamilton, who demands to know whaat they are doing there.

It's an interesting set-up for a murder mystery, and given a script that permitted some grace notes - like having the people be more than two-sentence descriptions - director Richard Thorpe might have made something of it. He was a whiz at getting a good movie out of a short budget and mediocre actors. He certainly makes a stab at it, giving cinematographer M. A. Anderson some nice Dutch angles and lets him move the camera to keep a scene going. However, the mystery angle keeps popping up with new situations, people don't say the obvious thing to clear themselves, and the final clue isn't revealed until five minutes before the end, making this less than a fair mystery.

Even so, it's pleasant to see some old and new performers, like D. W. Griffith regular Wilfred Lucas in a late credited role and Walter Brennan in an early credited one. Too bad the print I saw had a soundtrack filled with hiss.

Twelve disparate people are invited to an old mansion on a rainy, windswept night. The guests discover that they were all members of a jury that sentenced an innocent man to the electric chair. At the stroke of midnight, one of them is found murdered.

The remaining jurors come to the horrific realization that the man they sent to the gallows is back from the dead. The resurrected killer will not rest until they join him in the hereafter.

Windswept rain, an isolated mansion, old biddies screaming at the slightest thing, people summoned to its place and murder taken place - a familiar idea given a "smart idea" injection boost by having the people be members of a jury service, brought there so they can sign a petition to stop the hanging of an innocent man they had convicted. After a shaky start, things pick up with a fake murder, which turns out to be real. Quite convoluted but fun, however the cast members all lookalike and it's hard to differentiate who's who, and also much of a sharper execution was needed. However, it's still watchable and fun.

...with the exception of Walter Brennan as a radio repairman who is almost bottom billed.

Twelve people are summoned to a large estate at the same time on the same stormy night - all promised either a job or a sale of some sort. When they all arrive they realize that they were on the same jury during a murder trial several months before, and that they are in the murdered man's house! At first they think that a friend of the man that they convicted has brought them there for some kind of revenge, but then the lights go out and a shot rings out. When the lights come on a man - not a member of the jury - is dead on the floor. The gun is on the floor too. The person who summoned them all there, attorney J.E.Burton, says that the gun has no prints on it and must have been fired by somebody who wore gloves. Since Helen Mason, one of the jurors, was the only one wearing gloves, Burton asks the former jurors if they believe that she did it, and they all say yes. He then reveals that the entire thing was an act to show them that his friend awaiting the gallows was convicted by them on circumstantial evidence and is also innocent. He has summoned them all there to sign a petition to delay his friend's execution so he can have time to find the real killers. The jurors seem agreeable to this idea, but then it is discovered that the man on the floor really is dead! This is the beginning of a very interesting mystery. We have one set of cops arrive to investigate the murder, then another pair, but one of the pair are not cops! There are secret passage ways, gangsters, a body that has been dug up and put in the garage that for some reason nobody seems to find strange, and what seems like endless chases around the estate. And then there is the caretaker who inherited the estate when the man was murdered, but was cleared of any suspicion. The thing is, the caretaker has not really changed his lifestyle. He still just does all of the chores himself and acts like he is still laboring for his long dead master.

Almost none of this involves the original twelve jurors who just stand around, unable to leave because officially they are all suspects in at least one murder. You see, there is another murder later on. There are several humorous scenes interspersed with the drama such as a man knocking on the door in the middle of all of this saying his car has broken down. The person who answers the door says "You don't want to come in here we have an epidemic of murders going on". The man agrees that he'd rather fix his own car and goes back out into the storm.

So why aren't I giving this 7 or 8 stars? Because the cast is so completely anonymous and physically nondescript that it is very hard to tell one cast member from another, especially in the second half when everybody involved in the action is a tall man of medium build between 35-45. I had to rewind several times to figure out who was who! You could practically cast John Darrow as John Darrow, because it's not like we're dealing with Cary Grant here! I'd recommend this, but not when you are tired and cannot give it all of your attention.