The Roadhouse Murder

A reporter on the copy desk tries to get a chance to break a big story he has a lead on. When he tries to run it down he ends up bursting in on the girlfriend of the publisher of the paper as she's bathing. Deciding to relax with his girlfriend after a trying day he ends up stuck in the rain in his car with its top down. Getting a room at a roadhouse the couple thinks they hear a shot. Going to investigate they find two dead bodies and two people rifling through a desk who tell them "they know and saw nothing" before they climb out a window. Our hero sensing a big scoop then tries to bend the crime to his advantage and sets himself up for the murder so that he can write about it. The problem comes when he's unable to prove his innocence when he needs to.

This early talkie is an okay, if clichéd, little film once it gets going. The early scenes in the newsroom seem to be steals from the Front Page and its over lapping dialog in a mad attempt to exploit the then novelty of sound film. Once the murders occur and the plot is in motion things are enjoyable even if we've seen it all before.

The problem with this film is that its plot has been done countless times before and since. You know whats going to happen the question is do you care enough to see how they do it this time. Complicating matters is the acting which is often stilted and seemingly out of date and artificial. The behavior of the City editor at the opening is very unnatural. Coupling the odd acting styles with what now seems to be very silly dialog makes matters worse. I wasn't sure if I was laughing at or with the film. There are a few times when all of the problems in plot,acting and dialog come together to produce some big "they didn't mean that" sort of laughs.

If you like old mysteries and don't mind one thats a bit past its freshness date I'd give it a try. If you don't want your movies stilted I'd stay away.

Reporter stumbles upon murder scene and gets the harebrained idea of framing himself for it. This will allow him to write a great human interest story about the thoughts and feelings of a man being hunted by the police. And of course he can prove that he didn't do it, when the time comes. And of course he winds up in much too close proximity to the electric chair. (What his cute g.f. Dorothy Jordan sees in this loser is a mystery to me.) The plot is as silly here as in nearly every other variation of the one where some moron frames himself for murder with good intentions, but Jordan is perky and helps carry the film in one of her bigger RKO roles. Seeing her name in the credits was the primary reason I watched this picture.

Despite the story problems, picture is also well made by director J Walter Ruben (this was the second film of his that I had ever seen). Ruben and his films are largely forgotten, but he was one of the first writer-director double threats of the sound era, working nearly a decade at RKO before moving over to MGM where he produced but only occasionally directed, before his premature death in the early 1940s. Most of his films are well worth seeking out. TROUBLE FOR TWO, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Suicide Club," is outstanding.

Aggressive cub reporter Chick Brian (Eric Linden) is willing to do anything for the story, but he takes a bathtub picture of the wrong girl. He and his girlfriend Mary Agnew get stranded at a remote inn in the middle of a storm. There's a gunshot and a murder. Chick is excited to have the story. In order to get even closer, he decides to hide evidence of his innocence.

I don't like Chick and I don't like his plan. I could like Chick and Mary helps a little. Although his plan is stupid and it reflects badly on him. I don't like his undeserved arrogance. I don't like his thin plan. Since he's the one hiding the evidence, the initial stakes are too low. It takes too long to raise the stakes and it's ultimately his fault anyways.

Eric Linden is in trouble with his newspaper's publisher. Nonetheless, he continues his secret romance with the boss's daughter, Dorothy Jordan. They go for a drive, but their car gets stuck in the mud outside a roadhouse. They take shelter inside. Their host is murdered, and they discover enough clues to lead to the actual murder. But Linden gets the hare-brained idea to plant clues to make himself the suspect. This will give him a chance to write the lead story for the paper every day for weeks. He gives the exonerating clues to Miss Jordan.

Things don't go as planned.

It's one of those ideas that aren't appealing, but under director J. Walter Ruben, once you accept the premise, it's handled well. Cinematographer J. Walter Hunt offers some excellent Old Dark House lighting in the first half, made creepier by extensive Dutch angles. An excellent cast, including Purnell Pratt, Roscoe Ates, Bruce Cabot, Gustav von Seyfferitz, and Roscoe Karns help to make it more entertaining, if not believable.

Top-billed Dorothy Jordan had not been having the most stellar career over at MGM. Trained as a dancer, her movie roles had not earned her good notices. Nonetheless, she began dating RKO's Executive in Charge of Production. She married him in 1933, and they remained wedded until his death. Unfortunately, her honeymoon interfered with her career, and she chose love over the role that was taken by Ginger Rogers in FLYING DOWN TO RIO. She died in 1988 at the age of 82.

Let's see if I have this right. A newspaper reporter and his girl friend are caught in a downpour. Their car is stuck in the mud so they stagger off to the nearest hostelry where they stumble on a murder. Most people would call the cops. But not our plucky newsman. He plants clues implicating himself as the killer so that he can cover the story from a unique angle. Of course, he has something that will prove his innocence. And of course...duh!!!!...that item mysteriously vanishes. Which means unless a miracle occurs, he's going to the chair. Okay, it was 1932 and movies were just learning to talk. But this has to be one of the dumbest ideas for a thriller, even for those early days. On the other hand, idiotic as it is, it's curiously entertaining.