Their Big Moment

When her sister becomes involved with shady psychic Dr. Portman, Eve Farrington enlists the help of rag-tag magician the Great LaSalle (Gaxton) to debunk Portman, but his assistant Tillie (who becomes Madame Marvel) actually has psychic abilities she's never been aware of and together with some detective skills of LaSalle, the murder of Eve's brother-in-law is solved. ZaSu Pitts steals the show in this average offering.

An interesting thirties film with the better character actors of that decade. As usual Ralph Morgan plays the heavy, while Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville give the laughs to a light motion picture.

Actually the plot concept was better developed in, THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, 1948, in a more involved story written by Cornell Woolrich.

Grief-stricken Fay Harley (Julie Haydon) is comforted and controlled by fake spiritualist Dr. Portman (Ralph Morgan) after the death of her husband. Her sister Eve Farrington (Kay Johnson) is desperate to get her away from the charlatan. Eve's husband has an idea, vaudevillian magician The Great La Salle (William Gaxton). Bill Ambrose (Slim Summerville) and Tillie Whim (Zasu Pitts) are his two assistants.

This could be a fun scammer vs scammer idea. That part has some good aspects, but I would need for some better tricks and counter-tricks and debunking of the tricks. It seems rather rudimentary, but it goes well. This turns into more a murder mystery. By going this way, the movie opens itself up for some questioning. All in all, this has some interesting aspects.

Julie Haydon's husband died in a plane crash. She has since come under the domination of fake spiritualist Ralph Morgan. Her sister Kay Johnson and brother-in-law Bruce Cabot hire stage magician William Gaxton and his company of Slim Summerville and Zasu Pitts to destroy morgan's authority. It does not go as planned.

Gaxton tries to play it big and stagy, yet doesn't really succeed. His is odd, because he was a stage performer who had a big Broadway career, often starring with Victor Moore. That explains his infrequent movie appearances. Here, however, I was subject to the thought that this was a role intended for Edmund Lowe..... who was working for Fox.

Which leaves us with Summerville and Miss Pitts. Enjoying them is, I understand, a matter of individual taste. Happily, I enjoy them a great deal.

For a film that deals with an interesting subject like fake mediums, this '34 mystery/comedy fails to hit the mark. It's not particularly impressive as a mystery and the comedy is on the weak side.

It's a B-film programmer with ZASU PITTS and SLIM SUMMERVILLE providing the comic relief while others carry the straight plot line. Pitts and Summerville play WILLIAM GAXTON's assistants in a magic act where he bills himself as The Great La Salle. BRUCE CABOT hires them to take part in a fake seance at a wealthy woman's home where a young woman has been receiving messages from a dead husband. RALPH MORGAN is suspected of being a swindler trying to deceive the woman at her swanky home on Long Island.

Unfortunately, ZASU PITTS is saddled with a ditzy role beyond belief. And to make matters worse, nobody else in the cast has lines that are any smoother or wittier.

"Not a very friendly fellow," says Gaxton.

"About as friendly as a rattlesnake," says Summerville.

That gives you an idea of the wit and sophistication. The suspense, of course, lies in finding out how the fake seance will go and who the real culprits are in the household. Not hard to guess the predictable outcome.

Summing up: A clumsy mystery/comedy hardly worth bothering about.