Murder by Invitation

Perennial second-from-the-left-cop-in-the-station-house, George Guhl, has a featured role, would you believe, in Monogram's 1941 tale, Murder by Invitation, which turns out to be a sort of Mrs Longfellow Deeds Meets the Cat and the Canary. With halfway competent direction and a halfway appropriate budget, this may well have turned out as sleeper of the year. The money is there all right, but Phil Rosen's direction is strictly from hunger. The picture's potential is unrealized. Obviously left largely to their own devices, the players do what they can to salvage the film. Although inclined to over-act, I thought Sarah Padden carried off the main role with a fair amount of conviction, although other reviewers disagree. George Guhl was a big letdown, and I was also disappointed that Marian Marsh was simply just another pretty blonde in this outing and no longer the charismatic charmer of Beauty and the Boss.

Talk about screwy films! "Murder By Invitation" almost takes first place! A daffy old lady, Aunt Cassie (a terrible performance by Sarah Padden who seems to be reading her lines off of cue cards) invites her greedy relatives to her country estate for the weekend and murders start to pop up all over the place. A reporter (Wallace Ford) and his secretary (Marian Marsh) arrive at the estate to get the scoop. Minerva Urecal (whom I usually like) overacts here as one of Aunt Cassie's relations. J. Arthur Young is totally offbeat as Trownbridge Montrose (Aunt Cassie's neighbor). Dave O'Brien is good, as usual, though as the estate's chauffeur. Zany dialog is almost unbelievable at times and Ford (although likable) is too old to be pretty Marsh's sweetheart boss. In spite of itself, "Murder By Invitation" is a film that works, although I don't quite know how!

This is a comedy using the murder mystery genre as background. The main characters are a bit stiff - especially considering this was made in 1941 - but it's not a bad hour spent. The story revolves around old aunt Cassie, whose odd 'uh-heh' laugh is closer to caricature than character-defining. The newspaper columnist who serves as the detective in this film, is played by Wallace Ford. He and his secretary (?) and photographer play their stereotypical roles no better than the stereotypes you'd expect. The sheriff - presumably from New York somewhere, as that's where the court case was heard - sounds more like an Okie than an upstate New Yorker, and follows his own stereotype of the hayseed lawman, accent included. Of course, he's a buffoon as well, asking the newspaper columnist for advice at every turn.

So we know the flaws. Still, this was a B movie, intended as filler, and that's how we should judge it. There's nothing about it that made me want to hit the stop button - unlike some stinkers - and for fans of 1930s mysteries, it's an acceptable detour into comedy. Not laugh out loud comedy, but light amusement. It's out of copyright, and I found it on a 5 CD collection Mystery and Murder: 25 Crime Classics at my library. So it was worth every penny I paid for it.

This is a formula piece. It's been done a hundred times. The greed of the relatives causes them to try to get the old lady committed. Their motives are so obvious that any chance they had goes down the tube within minutes. Now they're in over their heads and have to use their resources to survive. Meanwhile, the red herrings start swimming upstream. I should have hated it, but the crazy overacting and general being of the film are rather pleasant in a maniacal sort of way. The conclusion is satisfying and justice is done. The one drawback is that the bad guys are so pathetic and incompetent that they don't pose much of a threat.

"Murder by Invitation" is a B film from 1941 starring Wallace Ford as Bob White, a reporter who covers the trial of an elderly woman (Sara Padden) whose relatives want to have her declared insane so they can have her $3 million. She proves that she's very far from insane in an amusing court scene.

She then invites her family to her estate for the weekend. She wants to observe all of them and decide which family member is most deserving of her money. She wants them to arrive at midnight, which makes some of them nervous. Not long after they settle in, relatives start dying.

Good B with Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh as an attractive couple, and Sara Padden is quite sprightly as the dowager. The end is interesting and fun.