Pasos en la oscuridad

Enjoyable comedy mystery with Errol Flynn as a man who, unknown to his wife and mother-in-law, leads a double life as an amateur sleuth and writer of murder mysteries. I like this one a lot, which appears to place me in the minority here, judging by a quick glance at some of the reviews. Errol Flynn shows how well he can do with comedy in a nice change of pace for him that still plays to his strengths as a charming ladies man. Unlike some other reviewers, I don't see any reason for comparisons (positive or negative) to William Powell's Nick Charles from the Thin Man series, beyond the most superficial similarities. The great supporting cast includes Allen Jenkins, Ralph Bellamy, Lee Patrick, William Frawley, Roscoe Karns, Grant Mitchell, Lucille Watson, and Alan Hale. Nice seeing Hale in a slightly different role than usual as the police inspector frustrated by Flynn but relying on his help. It's what I would call the James Gleason role because he played those kinds of parts perfectly. Lovely Brenda Marshall plays Flynn's wife and, like Flynn, proves she can handle comedy quite well. It's a fun picture. It doesn't bring to the table anything particularly innovative for either the comedy or mystery genres but it gets the job done as lightweight entertainment. Flynn had a great run from about 1935 to 1945 where he made most of his classics. I've seen all of his films from this period and, in my opinion, there wasn't a stinker among them.

Footsteps in the Dark is the title of a mystery novel that investment banker Errol Flynn wrote under a pseudonym that has become a best seller. Unfortunately he used as characters some of his wife Brenda Marshall and mother-in-law Lucille Watson's society friends and they'd like to sue the author if they can find him.

Errol while trying to see they don't find out what his double life is gets himself involved in another murder of Noel Madison who wanted Flynn to essentially launder the money from some stolen jewels in his banker self.

Flynn spends over 90 minutes struggling to keep his identities secret from those who know him in one guise or the other and solve the mystery at the same time. The only two who know about his masquerade are his chauffeur Allen Jenkins and his lawyer Grant Mitchell.

Flynn had a very good gift for comedy, he had already done The Perfect Specimen and Four's A Crowd and had gotten good reviews. Footsteps in the Dark was an effort by Warner Brothers to cash in on the popularity and success MGM was enjoying with The Thin Man series. Flynn and Marshall were good together though there was no further sequels.

Best in the film by far is William Frawley as one truly dumb detective that even his superior Alan Hale is frustrated with. Flynn bounces some great lines off Frawley.

It's a different Errol Flynn than normal and not a bad one.

Never realized that Errol Flynn made a comedy in 1941 with Brenda Marshall and a great cast of veteran actors who were all in the top of their acting careers. This is a very funny film about a rich financial investment banker, Francis Monroe WarrenII (Errol Flynn),"Cry Wolf", who also on the side writes mystery books and keeps it all a complete secret from his family. Brenda Marshall,(Rita Warren), "Whispering Smith", plays the role of a rather dumb wife who begins to get suspicious of her husbands 3 AM arrivals through their bedroom window almost every night. Ralph Bellamy, (Dr. R.L.Davis),"Rosemary's Baby plays the role as a dentist and does more than pull teeth painlessly. Alan Hale along with Allen Jenkins give great supporting roles along with a fast paced comedy that is full of laughs and that bow tie on Errol Flynn did me IN! Enjoy

The synopsis from IMDb aside, I liked this movie a lot. Probably because it was quite a departure for Flynn and because it was a rather breezy little comedy. For what this movie tried to be, it did a good job accomplishing it.

Flynn has a double life. Though a rich and socially adept man much of the time, he hides a darker side to his personality--he writes cheap mystery books that poke fun of the very sort of people that he pals around with at the expensive clubs and dinner parties. Knowing that this would ruin his reputation, he naturally keeps this from everyone--including his own family! When, quite accidentally, he stumbles on a REAL mystery, he feels compelled to prove that he really has the stuff to solve crimes--and nearly gets himself killed in the process!

Overall, the film excels due to an excellent case, a breezy and likable script and it's "fun factor"--you just can't help but enjoy the film.

a hidden gem, shows the wide variety of skills errol flynn possessed but was not given credit for until much later. errol could really act, he had an excellent comedic touch and really makes this well written mystery a lot of fun. brenda marshall is her usual gorgeous self, shes a dream. the mystery is well crafted and this was good enough that they should have done a sequel. errol was type cast by the studio as a the prototype "super man" and "action hero", which he did better then anyone. what the studio prevented was errol doing comedy and other roles which he was marvelous at. the few comedy roles he was allowed to do in his career are superb. his star was brighter then most, but hidden by studio hacks were many of his varied talents.