Murder on the Campus

A student is killed at the top of a tower on a college campus. No one saw anyone come down from the tower and there was no place for the killer to hide. Charles Starrett plays Bill Bartlett a reporter who just happened to be on the scene of the crime. He's interested in a girl who becomes one of the suspects in the murder.She is working her way through college as a singer in a night club run by a gambler known as Blackie. As more deaths occur the reasons for the murder become less clear, especially as we learn about some of the suspects.

This is one of those movies thats just okay and under normal circumstances you'd turn off the TV and go to bed but because things manage to be just interesting enough you find you're staying up well past your bed time. Don't get me wrong its a good movie, but its nothing special, but once the first body is found and you realize short of flying no one could have killed him you end up pretty much hooked. I sat there trying to go to bed, yawning, and unwilling to turn off the DVD because I had to see how it was done and why (I knew who the killer was the instant the actor/actress appeared on screen). Don't watch this too late or you'll end up up 70 minutes past your bedtime.

Worth a rental, an hour of your time and a bag of popcorn. You won't remember it but you will enjoy it.

Charles Starrett is a reporter trying to figure out how a guy could be shot in a bell tower while no one is around. He ends up investigating another murder and an apparent suicide. Shirley Grey plays his romantic interest. Edward Van Sloan plays a criminologist; after all, he has plenty of experience killing vampires. As usual, the cops, led by J. Farrell MacDonald, are imbeciles, and Starrett has to solve the mystery for them. The ending is somewhat clever, although by then, I had figured out who the killer was - but not the method. As a bit of trivia, I had never seen Grey before, only to discover she was born not too far from where I live. MacDonald looks and sounds like William Frawley.

I'm convinced that serious moviewatchers need to perform regular, frequent cinematic calisthenics. And that these must include some wading through old, forgotten 30's era mysteries. These unsung projects collectively are the foundation of many of the storytelling conventions we use today.

Mysteries from this era are true detective stories that "play fair" in allowing you to outguess the writer. It is participative viewing of the kind that persists in other forms in movie stories. Here it is pure. This example is a good one for your daily toneup.

It features a narrator which is literally a reporter, a typical trick. It also has an impossible murder, impossible as it turns out in several ways. There are the comedic cops as well as a co-detective doctor. (Doctors in that era were considered men of science.)

You'll have a hard time not guessing the murderer, but how early do you think you can?

Incidentally, this is set on a college campus. You'll not find it easy to relate to these students.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I guess college isn't quite the way it was in my day. Young men and women living in extravagant suites, in the lap of luxury. They also looked a bit old for college students. This is a bit soporific. It involves a woman who works at a nightclub who is studying for her law degree. Once again, people are kept in the dark about the realities of things. I've seen so many movies where the characters keep things a secret, even when they don't have to. A man has been murdered in a bell tower and there is an investigation. I can see no reason whey the principles in the movie are even suspects, but they are. The detectives and a reporter continually coming in contact as the body count rises. I'm still not sure of the motives and the cover-up. Reputation? Fear? Love? Not sure. It also ends a bit suddenly. I suppose the young woman is going to marry the hunk and give up that nonsense about having a career. It's the thirties; it's the depression. Oh, well.

Poor casting sinks this vintage murder mystery that generates a modicum of suspense but generally lacks anything worth one's attention.

Charles Starrett makes for a bland leading man, playing a reporter who just happens to be located at the right place to nearly witness a murder of a student up atop a bell tower. He and the cops find the corpse but can't figure out how the unknown killer escaped with no one seeing him. Starrett is so bland I figured he must be the killer himself, but that was wishful thinking on my part.

Talky and dull, the whodunit plods along with wooden performances by the no-name cast. As a coed who moonlights at night singing in a nightclub, Shirley Grey is too old for the role and makes zero impression. Dialogue patter between Starrett and the dogged cop on the case (J. Farrell MacDonald) is uncreative on the order of saying things like "Go jump in the lake".

Movie doesn't pick up steam until the finale, when the murderer explains exactly how and why he did it and there's a bit of excitement, way too late to make up for the sleep-inducing earlier footage.