Murder at Glen Athol

Reuben Marshall plays a detective on vacation in a ritzy suburb writing about his exploits when invited to a party where death visits a couple of the guests. Marshall, his Irish sidekick in tow, discovers who the culprit is in this very interesting little mystery dealing with an above-average mystery plot. The story has several red herrings laced into it and is compelling for its age and era. The acting is nothing spectacular, but everyone concerned does a workmanlike job. There is also a generous dose of humour within the mystery. Some of the characterizations are very one-dimensional, yet, as a whole, the picture is generally well-crafted. I think it is odd that the film does not have a little more noteriety as it is a much better film than many mysteries of the same period.

I almost gave up on this no-budget whodunit in the first 10 minutes. It was dull, flat, blandly staged and indifferently acted. Then Iris Adrian breezed into the room as a flirtatious gold digger who might as well have been wearing a neon sign saying "trouble."

Adrian's scenes were genuinely engaging, and if she'd had more screen time that alone could have made this movie worth watching. But she doesn't have that many scenes, and the dull script and convoluted, shapeless mystery had nothing else to recommend it.

By the way - this movie has two titles "Murder at Glen Athol" and "The Criminal Within" and neither makes much sense. No one ever talks about glen Athol and the criminal within doesn't make any sense in the context of the movie - they were clearly just trying to come up with a title that would intrigue people.

Anyway, in spite of Adrian's performance I can't recommend this movie.

The title is a misleading in that the location is never mentioned.

That said this is the story of a great detective on vacation and attempting to write his memoirs. His sidekick has alerted the neighbors that he is in neighborhood and so they show up to see the great detective in person. In short order he finds himself invited to a party where the dynamics of the people there make the dysfunctional families on soaps seem normal. That night after the party is over two shots are heard in the night, and three people are found dead...

This is a good little thriller that should have been longer than the 67 minutes it runs. Too much time is spent in the beginning being funny, although you do get to know and like the two detectives better then if you were just dropped into the middle of things. And the end is rushed just a tad.

The cast of characters is very interesting if a bit over loaded with names and faces, its too many in too short a time. The mystery is interesting simply because even if you get part of it you won't get it all.

This is the sort of movie thats hard to write about in that its neither fish nor fowl. Certainly its a murder mystery but there is so much else going on in it, comedy, soap opera, romance crime drama that its hard to know whats what and which is which. As I said its too short for its 67 minutes.

This is part of a series of films called The Crime Club, which were nominally based on a best selling mystery novel series and which, as a film series, bounced between two or three studios. My understanding is that this was a good series of films that never varied in quality, either good or bad, other than being very watchable. From this entry its certainly a series I would try to pick up if I could.

If you like good little thrillers, especially ones that try, but not always succeed at being more than run of the mill, then search this out. And even if you don't search it out, but run across it by all means do watch it since you will enjoy it.

In free tubi, it's called murder at glen athol, but in imdb and europe, it's the criminal within. Detective holt, on vacation, attends a party which gets out of control, ending with a couple murders. Muriel, the overly friendly next door neighbor, is caught up in all this. Now it's up to bill to see if he can solve it before the local cops. The gangsters are selling booze to the rich, and trying to make a profit. Who else is involved? The doctor? The police? This one is a pretty complicated plot... the story goes all over the place. The picture and sound quality are pretty bad. It does have subtitles, but because it was voice recognition, it frequently guesses the wrong words. They actually discuss fingerprints, but aren't able to get good prints that will help. And it has kind of an odd rushed ending. Bill miljan had started in the silent films. Was in tons of films, but usually in supporting roles. I recognize many of the titles where he participated, but played mostly background roles. Directed by frank strayer.... he had directed a bunch of the "blondie" films. Based on the novel by norm lippincott.

Before this film gets down to its real purpose as a standard Poverty Row low-budget who-done-it, there are a few scenes superbly acted and stolen by the young Iris Adrian as a mad cap society girl. Iris went on and on for years playing bit parts as a blowzy wise-cracking loud mouth in another 160 films but this film demonstrates what a first-rate actress she was. She might have gone on to a more brilliant career had anyone recognized how gifted she was. Irene Ware, the leading lady here, is very beautiful and very wooden. Just another face, but Iris is something else.