The Devil Plays

Writer Jameson Thomas comes into the room to find people standing over a body, discussing who had killed the victim. When he demands to know why they haven't called the police, the corpse stands up. They've being going over a scene in his latest murder novel.

Later, when a corpse does show up, they call the police. When Inspector Thomas Jackson appears in charge of a group of policemen, they don't discuss, they ask questions of the people and give nothing back. As they grow frustrated by all the witnesses who saw nothing and know nothing, Thomas begins to work the situation over in his mind.... and makes some suggestions to the rather contemptuous professionals.

Richard Thorpe certainly knew how to get a good movie out of a decent script and skilled players. It led him from Poverty Row oaters to directing epics for MGM, with some camera tricks to keep costs down. In this one, it's never quite clear when characters are performing, and when they're saying what they are actually thinking. If it seems slow at times, because Thorpe won't cut entrances to get to the meat of the scene I felt my usual impatience with the turgid pacing of Poverty Row shows... or was it a sense that opportunity was slipping away while characters thought? A little of both, I think.

THE DEVIL PLAYS is about what happens when a group of people gather at a mansion to play a game called "Murder". When the clock strikes midnight, the game begins, "deaths" occur, and a mysterious woman lurks about.

Later that morning, the game becomes real when someone is found dead. The police arrive to start their investigation, with a house full of suspects. As the case broadens, the cops go outside of the mansion for clues.

Then, a second murder is committed, literally, under their noses! Making matters worse, the deed was done using the very same weapon... which was in police custody!

How is this possible?

A great old-old school murder mystery, complete with a gaggle of interesting characters, and a big, final revelation. Highly entertaining...

This is a typical mansion murder or cozy mystery, with only four sets: the apartment where the murder takes place, the police captain's office, the low-rent hotel of a hard-bitten show girl and a tea room financed by shady money. I tuned in for the tea room, because collecting tea room memorabilia is one of my hobbies.

The set did not disappoint. It is the Universal "basement restaurant" set (seen in other movies as an Italian restaurant, etc.). Outfitted with a bevy of what seem to be Pretty Little Dutch Girl waitresses and laid out to resemble the Bohemian basement tea rooms of Sheridan Square and Greenwich Village in the 1910s to 1920s, mostly fading from view by the time this was filmed in 1931.

There were some nice deco touches in the show girl's hotel room set as well. .

That was about it. The acting was slow and halted, the actors' mannerisms stylized and stagey, and the plot was totally random.

A stiff, static early talkie mystery that has no recognizable (today) actors in it, which is especially impactful in the case of the men, who all pretty much look, sound and dress alike: it is particularly hard to tell those with a mustache apart. The killer seems to be chosen at random at the end, without much regard for sense or motivation. The budget is so low that the entire movie takes place in two or three (under-decorated) sets. There is some promise in the idea of a mystery-novel detective getting involved in a "real-life" murder....but so many other movies have used that idea better. *1/2 out of 4.

A pretty dreadful low-budget murder-mystery which pays little attention to defining its characters. There's a lot of talk, but very little action.