The Rogues Tavern

The Rogues' Tavern (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another film in the long line of "old dark house" or "murder-mysteries" as Jimmy (Wallace Ford) and his fiancé Marjorie (Barbara Pepper) show up at an old hotel to get married but there's no Justice of the Peace. Instead they find a dead body and a bunch of suspects and soon the threat of more deaths is hanging over everyone so Jimmy must try to solve the case.

THE ROGUES' TAVERN isn't the greatest movie ever made but it's certainly interesting enough to keep you entertained throughout its 69 minute running time. If you're familiar with these types of films then you already know that it seems there were at least a hundred of them released throughout the 1930s. Everything from killer gorillas to killer madmen to wack job women were suspects and each one always featured various objects that kept them all familiar. It could be trapped doors, the whole thunder spells and usually there was a man and woman team solving them.

This film at least has a pretty good cast including Ford. He worked in a various of film genres but he makes for a good lead her as he's quite charming and manages to hold your attention. Pepper, Joan Woodbury and Clara Kimball Young are also good in their roles. The direction here isn't anything overly special but at the film moves at a nice pace and there aren't any major issues. The ending is quite nice, although I must admit that the shot of the possible victims faces before and after the killer is identified was quite funny.

A hard to find movie that was originally distributed by Puritan Pictures. This is a borderline Old Dark House movie. It takes place at the Red Rock Tavern, which is an old dark hotel; there's a thunderstorm & three murders, & the lights do go out, but no secret passageways. Nice humorous touches, especially in the interchanges between Wallace Ford's character & his fiancee, played by Barbara Pepper (who has her Mae West expressions down pat). Joan Woodbury plays a strange character with many premonitions; the director seems fascinated by Joan, & the camera often isolates her in unusual closeups that lose sight of the rest of the cast & the backdrops. A watchable film, especially for Old Dark House fans, but not a great one by any means. I rate it 4/10.

The Rogues Tavern starts out promisingly: an opening scene features a nearly silent, deliberately-paced panning shot of the hotel commons area and its various guests, all sitting quietly. The camera pauses on each face or silent group, finally closing in on Joan Woodbury reading cards and delivering a fortune to a fellow guest—a reading that ends suddenly when she turns up the ace of spades, the card of death! It's a wonderfully atmospheric setup that promises a spooky tale of hidden motives and secretive characters, possibly with a touch of the supernatural mixed in.

Alas, along come Wallace Ford and Barbara Pepper as a pair of runaway department store detectives who have apparently eloped with no better plan than to run off into the night hoping vaguely to find a justice of the peace and a hotel room (or, as Ford's character notes, if the justice doesn't show up, then they'll need two rooms).

The rest of the show isn't bad; it just doesn't move fast enough or create enough suspense to keep me from noticing that...well, for example, that Joan Woodbury is wasted for the rest of the movie. Instead of developing her character as a sort of mystic (real or phony), she is given nothing to do but just wring her hands a lot and say thing like, "We're all doomed!" Or from noticing that Wallace Ford is too confident by half in his detecting skills, and heroine Barbara Pepper is too polite to him by more than half. (Why doesn't she smack him when she's got an important clue and he tells her to leave him alone and won't listen?)

Still, there is some atmosphere to be enjoyed here. And it's not every mystery criminal who frames a friendly dog for murder. The murderer also gets in some fun evil cackles in the climactic scene when preparing to finish off the remaining guests in one fell swoop. Yes—fans of evil cackles should not miss this one.

"A collection of travelers has gathered at the 'Red Rock Tavern', an old hotel, during a thunderstorm. All arriving for different reasons, the group is suddenly drawn together by the murder of one of the guests. Two store detectives staying at the hotel try to solve the case as other bodies turn up and the terror increases with each passing moment," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

An eclectic cast makes this "old dark house" variation fairly entertaining, albeit structurally flawed. The leading man and woman are "store detectives" Wallace Ford (as Jimmy Kelly) and Barbara Pepper (as Marjorie Burns). But, the real treat is seeing former silent film superstar Clara Kimball Young (as Mrs. Jamison), in one of her more meaty later year roles. The matronly Ms. Young was one of the biggest stars in films during 1913-1919, and she still has her way with the camera.

***** The Rogues Tavern (1936) Robert F. Hill ~ Wallace Ford, Barbara Pepper, Clara Kimball Young

Wallace Ford and Barbara Pepper are a pair of eloping store detectives and Ford is most proud of the fact that he does have the title of detective. When they check into an out of season inn waiting for a justice of the peace to arrive three murders occur among the guests and Ford decides to investigate. The rest take it on face value that he's law enforcement.

This is not too bad a film for a poverty row product. The cheapness of the sets even adds some value to the atmosphere the director wanted to create.

As it turns out Ford and Pepper are the outsiders in more ways than one. All the guests have been summoned to this place the way Agatha Christie summoned her victims in Ten Little Indians.

I can't reveal the murderer by praising the cast member's performance by name, but I will say the scene where all is revealed is one for the books. What a piece of scenery chewing.

Cheap though Rogues Tavern is I think you'll enjoy it.