The Devil Plays

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

Some movies aren't worth watching. This is one. There are too many vacuous characters and an insipid plot. The lines are delivered with a full second between speeches, as if they were waiting for the audience to absorb the silly dialogue. There is some humor and that's about all that makes it even slightly worthwhile. Don't bother.

I am writing this review as a counterpoint to the other review. Although I agree with all that was written, it completely misses the point of why this movie is enjoyable. It is the chance to see several veteran players of the silent cinema playing without the restraint of being just bit actors and dress extras, which was their more frequent fate. Sure the material is junk and they would much rather have been working as stars at Metro or Paramount. But the reality was that this was their life, it was a living, and they kept soldiering on. Here is betting that they all had a good laugh after each scene and appreciated that in 1931 any job was a good job.

The flick's a pre-Code detective story. Pretty clearly it's meant as nothing more than a 60-minute programmer, with a no-name cast, an indoor narrative, and a script that generates little suspense. It's a series of murders in a mansion with several high-class couples as suspects. However, the whodunnit never really ignites since the bland uninteresting characters come and go in haphazard fashion. The only spark is the comedy relief cop (Kelly) whose eye-rolling and Karloff-like mug attract some interest. I kept hoping the filming would go outdoors so maybe we could see some of those gas belching tin flivvers from that era. No such luck. But do catch the ladies' many cloche hats so popular during the fashionable 20's. At the same time, there's no real evidence of that uncensored pre-Code period, though the ladies do model some eye-catching apparel. Anyway, I gather the movie was lost for many years, but has since been found. It may not be a big boon for entertainment, but does catch the flavor of its time. So, here's to historical, if not artistic, completeness.