Guilty as Hell

This surely would be something they'd make the damned suffer over and over again for eternity in Hell. Supposedly it's a comedy and supposedly Lowe and McLagen are meant to be a double act. Supposedly this isn't meant to be torture?

Paramount B-pictures, as this demonstrates really were B-pictures! Cheap, shabby time-fillers which were never intended to draw in an audience. They were just on whilst you found your seat and chatted with your pals before the main feature came on. Watching them now would be the equivalent to our great grandchildren watching the hour of adverts and trailers we currently have to endure before a movie. Those involved in making this would be totally bemused as to why any of us now are actually watching this.

They'd also be embarrassed because these actors are all truly terrible. How Edmund Lowe ever got leading roles is one of life's great mysteries. How Victor McLagen was ever let within a hundred metres of a film studio needs to be investigated by the police. Together, these two are as funny as a house brick. Their characters lack any credibility at all. In a comedy, naturalism and believability isn't always necessary but this isn't meant to be just a comedy - I think we're supposed to believe that this is a mystery drama?

Even the addition of thirties 'super-model' Adrienne Ames can't inject any life into this badly acted, pitifully written drivel. A few films like THE RIGHT OF WAY (1930) are so bad that they're funny. This is just so bad that even though it tries to be funny it's just bad. Real bad. Bad, bad, bad and bad.

Curiously in the last five minutes director Earle Kenton presumably assumes that nobody's watching it anymore so has a bit of fun with some crazy close-ups. Holy mackerel, this is bad.