A Strange Adventure

I'm fascinated by what cinema does to people, and therefore interested in how it has become what it is.

Some things are quite obvious, like why justice is served as visually violent death; why war and crime seem entangled with romance; why certain gauzy and pastel images imply sentiment.

Much more interesting are the things that have a non-obvious reason to be as they are.

This is a mystery, a detective sort of mystery from the first few years of talkies when the genre was experimental. It has many standard elements: a death seconds before a punitive will is signed. A death in plain view. All the suspects collected in the house. A surprise as to the murderer, motive and method.

But its also got some elements that would break out on there own as sort or independent memes. One is the brash girl reporter, sexy and who has the hots for the chief detective. Her name is "Nosey Toodles." She's most of the entertainment, and its easy to see how this could develop a life of its own.

The other element is the one that interests me. All the suspects and the detectives are locked in the house, and the murderer skulks about in a black-hooded ghost costume. There are knives, young women at risk while sleeping, and an obligatory black servant who runs away bug-eyed and sputtering.

Now, the setup of the murder is contrived for the film audience in most details. But somehow that's of a less radical idea than having murderer conceal his or her face and body. There's only one reason to hide, and that's from the audience. There's only one reason to slither about with spooky gestures down a vacant hallway. Us.

I believe that these two theatrical devices, the murder and the "ghost" became linked in plays that were precisely copied in the early talking cinema, when plays could be appropriated.

What's interesting is that this hooded figure, slashing about has spun into its own genre, maintaining the mystery of identity, The cloak and mannerisms are precisely the same as in "Scream." The only difference now is that instead of the racist bug-eyed servant, we have the sexist bug-eyed and screaming slut.

The production here is poor, and there are better examples of this.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

This movie, known also as "Wayne Murder Case" is a typical drawing room murder mystery. A rich old man is sickly and dying, and before his death he decides to have a reading of his will to his family members. As he is about to read the will, in a room full of family members and police, he is murdered, but who did it? This film is a typical old dark house murder mystery, with Regis Toomey playing the lead detective. June Clyde plays the nosy reporter who will do anything to get the story. Dwight Frye has a very small role as a family member. Look for a degrading role played by Snowflake, of a black manservant.

This film was made in 1932 and is in the public domain and as such can be found on VHS and DVD.

This movie is a whodunit dressed-up like a mix of Midnight Faces (1926) with The Cat and the Canary (1927).

There is a clever twist to how the murder itself is effected, but unfortunately the story containing it is rather meager; it could have been presented in perhaps 20 minutes, rather than in the hour expended.

As in various other films, an independent investigator whose behavior is plainly illegal is tolerated rather than taken into custody or even expelled. The explanatory device, in this case, is that the officer in charge is in love with her, but credibility is over-stretched.

That officer ultimately solves the case using evidence withheld from the audience while in his possession; that evidence is not particularly surprising, but it also is not sufficiently strong, especially given that the officer had to rely upon testimony as to events at the time of the murder, rather that being himself a witness to it.

Another flaw in this story, common to a great many films of the period, is the presence of a stereotyped black servant -- dim-witted, superstitious, cowardly, and slow-moving except when terrified.

So this film was made on Poverty Row, where actors went to make a quick buck when the big studios weren't underpaying them. The only thing that makes this film memorable compared to the dozens of others with more or less the same plot is the inclusion of Dwight Frye of Renfeild fame as one of the relatives.

An angry old man gathers his relatives for the reading of his will, after dissing many of them, he has a fainting spell and is found with a bad case of a dagger to the heart.

The rest of the movie is a detective and reporter romantic couple trying to unravel the case. It also includes a not-so-fun racist stereotype of the easily frightened black domestic employee... because that stuff was funny to people in the 1930's.

Like many of these early 1930's films, there's no music (they hadn't figured that out yet) and the blocking of the movie was more like a stage play.

Silas Wayne is about to read the benefactors of his will to his nearest relatives and associates (whom he all hates and thinks nothing of), when he fulfills the eternal movie cliché of dying just before he is about to read the stipulations. Two police officers (who were summoned by Wayne, so that he could reveal a criminal in his midst to) summon Detective Sergeant Mitchell to investigate the murder. Nosy Toodles (a newspaper reporter) also works to solve the crime with Mitchell, much to his regret. The prime suspect is Claude Wayne, nephew and secretary to the murdered man, who stole a valuable diamond which was to be given to Wayne's maid, Ms. Sheen, but a mysterious cloaked figure lurks the house that evening and strangles Claude Wayne and also tries to eliminate all the other murder suspects one by one. This movie was described on the title card as "A Monogram Melodrama" and the filmmakers emphasized that part to the fullest. It has plenty of murder mystery clichés and performances that are respective of the genre, but the film is badly directed by Whitman, with many scenes just taken forever to go on. June Clyde probably gives the only performance with any life in it, and Snowflake's "comedy" antics are somewhat painful to watch. The end does seem to come out of nowhere, since I thought a lot more substance would precede it. All in all, a decent poverty row mystery. Rating, 5.