Murder with Pictures

Part of the Treeline/Reel Media 50-Movie Mystery Classics Collection from 2003, the sound quality is a little shaky, which probably explains why we NEVER see this one on Turner Classic Movies. Director Charles Barton had helped on a couple of silent movies, but had only been directing for 2 years when he did "Murder with Pictures". Given some quick one- liners by the writers, Lew Ayres stars as photographer Kent Murdock, trying to navigate around everyone involved with the trial he is covering. The part is quite generic, and anyone, like Bogey or William Powell could have played it. Co-stars Gail Patrick and Paul Kelly. Pretty short, at 69 minutes, it was probably considered quality at the time, since Edith Head did the costumes. Lots of cops- and- gangster type threats, guesses, and intrigue, and the bodies start piling up. Lots of car chases and the usual murder mystery antics, but pretty good. Liked Ayres better in "Holiday", which he would make two years later with K Hepburn and C Grant.

Lew Ayres and Gail Patrick both give good performances, and the two of them plus a fast-paced story make this an enjoyable B-feature. The crime/mystery story is often implausible, but it provides some interesting developments and it creates some good action.

Ayres and Patrick were both pretty talented performers, and their roles offer each of them some good material. Ayres plays an easygoing news photographer who gets involved in a murder case, in which Patrick's strong-minded character plays an uncertain role. It's good to see Patrick get a more prominent role than usual, even in a low-budget feature, and her elegance fits in well.

The story uses a number of offbeat details to keep things moving, and this helps to hold your interest in the story as well as in masking some of the low production values. This is not bad at all for a movie of its kind, and it provides an hour or so of good light entertainment.

Routine mystery programmer from Paramount. The mystery part –- who killed lawyer Redfield —is too scattered to immerse viewers. (But I have to admit that like others the sound quality of my DVD was fuzzy. So I may have missed some important threads.) Anyway, instead of the whodunnit, interest for me lies with an energetic cast of B-list players. Ayers plays a fast-talking reporter (are there any other kinds) who becomes an amateur sleuth while cops stumble around in the popular manner of the day. Ayers' career later suffered from his conscientious objector's status during early WWII, which he managed to convert to medical corpsman for the remainder. Perhaps the movie's biggest focal point is the statuesque Gail Jackson-- later executive producer of the highly popular Perry Mason series (1957- 66). Check out her bio; she's every bit the brains that her regal appearance implies. Here, she tends to rivet viewer attention. Also, watch for Paul Kelly as a reporter. He was briefly jailed in real life for killing his lover's husband. If I'm going on about the cast, it's probably because the movie itself amounts to little more than a routine time-passer, fuzzy sound or no. There's one amusing moment when Ayers and Patrick share a shower with, guess what, their clothes on. Thanks, Production Code.

While there are enjoyable parts to this film, they have most to do with the wisecracking performances. There is just too much suspension of disbelief to work very well. The characters seem bound and determined to fit into the plot, even if the plot is particularly strained. The byplay between the stripper who has a contract to marry him, doesn't play very well, in my opinion. I know what comic relief is, but I really can't take anything seriously once she shows up. This is about murder, and yet there is little care taken to protect those who are victimized. Cameras come into play frequently and the provide us with the clues we need. There is so much evidence and such carelessness by the authorities that it really detracts. I may be taking this too seriously, however; it's not much of a heavyweight film. The conclusion left me utterly cold.

MURDER WITH PICTURES (Paramount, 1936), directed by Charles T. Barton, is a quaint little newspaper story and murder mystery from the studio's second feature unit. Starring Lew Ayres, who, by this time, was an ordinary actor who hasn't had a solid blockbuster since the Academy Award winning production of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Universal, 1930). Before his career was awarded a new and successful chapter with his "Doctor Kildare" hospital series for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1938-1942), MURDER WITH PICTURES is a prime example to the many routine programmers Ayres was doing by this time. Based on the story by George Harmon Coze, the finished product does offer some twist and turns normally found in murder mysteries, but nothing quite suspenseful as anything directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The plot begins at a trial of crime boss, Nate Girard (Onslow Stevens) for the murder of his partner, Joe Cuslick. As I. B. McGoogin (Paul Kelly) and Phil Doane (Benny Baker) reporter and photographer of the Daily Post await for both verdict and the arrival of crack photographer, Kent Murdock, the jury enters the courtroom with a "Not Guilty" verdict. After Girard, Stanley Redfield (Ernest Cossart his defense attorney, along with his associates leave the courtroom to return to his place of residence, Girard is approached in the elevator by Meg Archer (Gail Patrick), a mystery woman who wants to talk to him privately, and Kent Murdock (Lew Ayres) stepping in through a trap door from above to take some pictures. As everyone heads to the apartment, Redfield invites Murdock and the press to stop over later in the evening to attend Girard's celebration victory party. While there, Murdock interviews Meg Archer, and is caught kissing her by Hester Boone (Joyce Compton), a bubble dancer and his jealous fiancee, who happens to be there on an invite by McGoogin so he can get a scoop from the mystery woman himself. After Murdock and Bubbles leave, a photograph is then being taken at the very same time Redfield keels over and dies. Because of the mysterious disappearance of Meg, she becomes the prime suspect of Redfield's murder. Murdock unwittingly acquires a picture plate that might be the clue to the murder, especially after finding his apartment was searched and offered $5,000 for the negative by a mysterious caller over the telephone. As another reporter, having acquired the dangerous photo, is murdered while developing the photo plate in the dark room, further convinces the police Meg Archer connected to these crimes. Murdock, accompanied by Johnny Mercer (Anthony Nace), his new assistant, believes otherwise and tries tries to clear Meg's name, unaware of the danger that awaits him.

Featuring the supporting cast of Joseph Sawyer (Inspector Bacon); Don Rowan (Siki); Frank Sheridan (The Police Chief); Irving Bacon (Keogh); and Purnell B. Pratt (George, the Newspaper Editor). With Platt and Sheridan properly placed in their typical roles, it's interesting finding movie gangster-type, Joe Sawyer, on the right side of the law, and Ernest Cossart, usually cast as a butler, playing a lawyer instead.

MURDER WITH PICTURES is routinely produced 71 minute mystery that improves with its second or third viewing after knowing the final results. Commonly presented on late show television in the 1960s and 70s, MURDER WITH PICTURES had been out or circulation for quite some time, especially in the New York City area where it was last shown on television's WPIX, Channel 11 in 1972. Later available on video cassette and DVD format, MURDER WITH PICTURES is no masterpiece by any means, but satisfactory programmer from the early years of young Lew Ayres before his most famous role as "Doctor Kildare," and Best Actor nominee in JOHNNY BELINDA (Warner Brothers, 1948), for which he is best noted. (** flashbulbs)