The Night Club Lady

Author Anthony Abbot (real name Charles Fulton Oursler), no doubt inspired by the success of S. S. Van Dine's Philo Vance, created the fictional detective Thatcher Colt, New York City Police Commissioner, first appearing in 1930's "About the Murder of Geraldine Foster," finishing with a total of 14 stories in all. Novel number 3, 1931's "About the Murder of the Night Club Lady," served as the inspiration for this attempt at a series from Columbia, casting the debonair and dapper Adolphe Menjou as the sophisticated Police Commissioner, adeptly demonstrating his multilingual lip reading abilities, with screen newcomer Ruthelma Stevens as his faithful assistant Miss Kelly. The lady in question is Lola Carewe (Mayo Methot), whose plans to celebrate New Years Eve are upset by harrowing death threats. Determined to go out anyway, it's Thatcher Colt who learns of her plight by reading her lips across the room, gathering a police force around her in her own apartment. Unfortunately, her appointed midnight date with death really happens, right in the middle of her living room, surrounded by Colt's men. It's a genuine puzzler, greatly benefiting from its pre-code frankness, with Skeets Gallagher and Nat Pendleton providing light comedy relief. Mayo Methot is best remembered, not for her ten year Hollywood career that ended by 1940, but by her tempestuous 7 year marriage to Humphrey Bogart, who gave up on her violent drunkenness for happiness with Lauren Bacall (Mayo had already divorced twice before). While this was Mayo Methot's second film, it was the first for virtual unknown Ruthelma Stevens, whose future career was surprisingly undistinguished, only twelve featured roles out of 29 credits, the last in 1951. Her Miss Kelly is quite a sexy, smart, and savvy presence, perhaps closer to Thatcher Colt than Della Street to Perry Mason. Their best scene has him asking her to lie down on the couch, her priceless, quizzical, and slightly shocked look not precluding her following orders, only for him to demonstrate the murder victim's recumbent position, his ear at her bosom ("well, looks like I'm making progress, eh Kelly?"). The excellent supporting cast includes underrated Teru Shimada, who once passed himself off as Mr. Moto in 1938's "Mr. Moto's Last Warning," but may be more familiar to viewers for his ubiquitous presence on television in the 60s, plus his villainous turn as Osato in the James Bond thriller "You Only Live Twice." A direct sequel followed a year later, "The Circus Queen Murder," then a one-shot at PRC in 1942, "The Panther's Claw."

Whilst it's not in the same league as Poirot, it's a reasonably interesting story in the mould of the popular detective mysteries of the time. This is a clever little 'locked room mystery' - an impossible murder where nobody could possibly have done it....but they did. I just can't warm to Adolphe Menjou though.

It's directed well enough, there's always something happening and it's got a lively feel about it - a sense of mystery - a sense of intrigue. It won't have you on the edge of your seat but you've got to find out how the dastardly deed was done. Columbia's top cameraman Ted Tetzaff has great fun playing with his new zoom lens and the overall effect is a lot more imaginative and interesting to look at than your typical B-movie. The scrip by Robert Riskin (he of the Robert Riskin-Frank Capra partnership) is snappy and witty but nothing too special.

The problem with this or rather my problem with this is that I just don't like Adolphe Menjou. In this his character is as one dimensional as nearly every other role I've seen him in. It's probably not all his fault, the character of Thatcher Colt is really rather dull with no interesting characteristics. Neither is he that great a detective since about half a dozen people get murdered whilst under his watch. His drunken sidekick however played by Skeets Gallagher is actually one of the best characters in the whole thing - he's certainly the only likeable one. Usually the drunken sidekick is just an annoying, unfunny irritant but because the rest of the characters are so uninteresting he adds a bit of life to the whole thing thanks to Robert Riskin seeing that something needed to be added to keep everyone awake.

Oh joy. A murder mystery that's actually solved by the detective assigned to the case. I've watched so many murder mysteries solved by non-law enforcement that I was beginning to believe that police were there just to make an arrest once the case was solved (see "The Locked Door" (1929), "The Maltese Falcon" (1931), "M" (1931), "The Death Kiss" (1932), "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1932) "Penguin Pool Murder" (1932), or any Philo Vance movie).

In "The Night Club Lady" (TNCL) a woman by the name of Lola Carewe (Mayo Methot) was afraid for her life. She'd gotten a message that stated that she would be killed at midnight on New Year's Day (or New Year's Eve, depending upon how you look at it). Though she was surrounded by eight police officers she was still killed. The doctor called to the scene, Dr. Lengle (Wilhelm von Brincken) summarily said she died of a heart attack after a brief check with his stethoscope. The lead detective on the case, Commissioner Thatcher Colt (Adolphe Menjou), knew it had to be murder. Commissioner Colt then set about piecing the crime together so that he could find the killer.

I enjoyed TNCL. The characters were intriguing as was the murder, and Alfred Menjou was the meticulous and professional type of inspector I like.

.... is who Thatcher Colt is. Played by the dapper Adolphe Menjou, he reads lips and obsesses over how to execute the perfect head lock in wrestling. Given his physique this seems especially odd. And he pals around with the rather useless Tony (Skeets Gallagher) whose only hobbies seem to be drinking and snide remarks.

But when the film opens, what we see is nightclub owner Lola Carewe (Mayo Methot) in her luxury apartment nervously preparing for an evening out on New Year's Eve as the wind howls menacingly. She has been receiving death threats that say specifically that she will die at the stroke of midnight. And yet she goes to her nightclub at a prominently placed table with balloons popping around her that could easily cover the sound of a gunshot.

This is where Colt comes in. He is seated at a table while his friend Tony partakes in his favorite pastime - drinking. But Colt reads Lola's lips and sees her talking about the death threat. He is talking to her about this when somebody in the crowd fires a shot. This causes Colt to take Lola back to her apartment and call in about eight cops to guard her. As midnight approaches, the eight cops form a circle around Lola, able to block any bullet or weapon somebody might toss or fire. But when the stroke of midnight comes, Lola stands up and shrieks and falls down dead. Did she die of fright? If so, what a clever plan.

So Colt begins his investigation. As he says, usually he just has to figure out who did it. This time he has to determine if it was even murder and if so, what was the method as well. Lola certainly had lots of enemies. Complications ensue.

I've got to wonder if the folks over at MGM were watching this, because Thatcher is a lot like Nick Charles. Just subtract the weird hobbies and the alcoholic friend and add a missus with moxie - Nora Charles, and you have the same basic formula. Then there is Nat Pendleton, playing a part much like his character Guild in The Thin Man. Add in the mysterious, mute, and well dressed Miss Kelly as another associate of Colt, and this is a very entertaining little film.

This is a beautifully directed film, a fast moving whodunit remniscent of Michael Curtiz' THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (which this film preceded by a year). Adolphe Menjou is well in his element as Thatcher Colt (a very Philo Vance-ish figure), and the screenplay crackles with pre-code New York sophistication. Though the entire cast it excellent, the real star of the film is director Irving Cummings, who keeps things constantly moving with interesting camera angles, dolly shots, and even a zoom lens!

There was a sequel to this film, THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933 - directed by Roy William Neill), which, while still interesting, somewhat lessens its impact by revealing the identity of the murderer less than two/thirds through the film. And CIRCUS QUEEN had no Mura...

Mura knows!!!