The Lady in the Morgue

Regretfully I have to say straight away that I was disappointed in this film. It is the follow-up to 'The Westland Case' in the short-lived Universal Bill Crane detective series. The first film was good so I do admit that I had expectations of this one. And indeed this drew me in at the beginning. But by the time of the early second half of the movie my eyes started to glaze over which is always a bad sign.

A naked woman initially called Alice Ross is found hanged from apparent suicide in the downbeat Darlow Hotel. Colonel Black calls in Bill Crane in on the case but then later he denies that he actually did so. The body is placed in a morgue and a number of interested parties have their own theories who the woman actually was. The body disappears and the morgue keeper is killed by an intruder at the same time.

The identity of the woman keeps changing according to the character who is talking about her. I found it difficult to fathom the relationship these people had to the dead woman at time. The plot became meandering rather than intriguing so the film lost all real mystery for me. By all means try this film because it has a fairly good IMDb rating. And discouraging people from watching B-mysteries from this period is the last thing I want to do but sorry to say I have this one on my DWA (Don't Watch Again) list.

A woman hangs herself at a hotel, and no one can identify her. PI Preston Foster is hired to look into the matter by a wealthy family. Soon the corpses and the mysteries pile up in this nicely tangled CRIME CLUB entry.

It's based on a mystery series by Jonathan Latimer, and it's a good mystery. Even if the screenwriters and director Otis Garrett can't put much snap into the dialogue, and there's an awful large amount of backscreen projection, the good cast keeps things moving along in a confused way throughout. Frank Jenks is Foster's stooge, Patricia Ellis is the leading lady, and the usual fine supporting players show up in this Universal programmer.

Latimer started turning out screenplays the next year, and seems to have peaked in the mid-1940s with nicely confusing noirs like THE BIG CLOCK. He would contribute to the PERRY MASON TV series, and die in 1983 at the age of 76.

The Lady in the Morgue (1938)

** (out of 4)

Detective Crane (Preston Foster) goes to the morgue to see about a woman who committed suicide but as witnesses come in to ID her body it disappears. Crane and Lieutenant Storm (Thomas E. Jackson) try to find out exactly who the woman was, who murdered her and why they needed to steal the body.

This is another entry in Universal's Crime Club series, which was formed because the studio needed to make some low-budget movies that could make them a nice little profit. While this series has pretty much been forgotten today, back when it was released the films managed to catch on with the public and turned all eight into hits. Of course, their ability to make money has nothing to do with their actual quality and this entry in the series is pretty bland.

The film starts off on a good note as we learn that the woman was involved with two rival gang leaders and you'd think with the plot it would lead to a good mystery but sadly it doesn't. The film pretty much falls apart around the thirty minute mark and the rest of the movie goes by extremely slow and you just really don't care what's going on. When the mystery is finally revealed at the end it's good but by then it's just too late. Both Foster and Jackson can't do much with their roles and the supporting ones are rather bland as well.

Preston Foster plays a PI hired to investigate the case of a missing body. It's a fast-paced mystery, though a little too fast. It can be confusing with so many characters, and though the dialogue is snappy and humorous, it lacked clarity. Still it's enjoyable, and a great insight into the era. Plus, it's good to see one of my favourite 1940's b-western star Wild Bill Elliott. I didn't recognise him at first.

1938's "The Lady in the Morgue" was the third Crime Club from Universal, and the second to feature Preston Foster as Detective Bill Crane, with Frank Jenks as his sidekick Doc Williams. An attractive blonde suicide disappears from the morgue, with Crane, on assignment to identify the missing corpse, under suspicion for the murder of the morgue attendant; meanwhile, Chauncey Courtland ('Wild Bill' Elliott) is searching for his missing sister, and two different gangsters are putting the squeeze on Crane, each one hoping his girl isn't the missing blonde. Considering all the subplots going on things wrap up nicely, moving at a fast clip, with witty wisecracks galore, particularly when Crane is told to go down to the morgue: "think they'll take me?" Guaranteed to keep one guessing, and easily the best of the 3 Crane titles (preceded by "The Westland Case," followed by "The Last Warning"). The next Crime Club would be "Danger on the Air."