Campus Sleuth

In 1948 the classic era of old-school murder mysteries was already coming to its end and while this little movie was definitely not one to revive the genre or add anything new to it, it is still a pleasant little timepasser if you do not have very high expectation. The story (about a murder on a campus during a concert and the ensuing hunt for the killer by the "teenagers" and their clashes with the police inspection) is so-so, the characters are paper thin (but some of them are still loveable), the songs are of very uneven quality, the script has a couple of holes, but still, the film has a good pacing, the solution is actually kind of clever and the whole movie has a charmingly simpleminded quality to it. It is the kind of film that is not good, but is just... nice, and you cannot be angry at it for its shortcomings.

I am not at all familiar with Monogram's relatively short-lived The Teen Agers series which came to its end with this picture, so I don't know if it is better or worse compared to the other enries, but well... while it is quite obvious that those teenagers are anything but actual teenagers, they still do a proper job with their roles (unlike some of the supporting cast). And of course Donald MacBride shines as always as the grumpy cop/daddy.

The film seems to be in public domain and the copy I have seen is the rather low quality one up in ArchiveOrg, which clocks a bit below 57 mins.

Don't know if this is possible to see--anywhere--and would love to hear if anyone knows where it can be accessed. I HAVE read the final shooting script--and it's a workaday Monogram mystery musical. The highlight is the screen appearance of the wonderful 40s/50s singer Little Miss Cornshucks (Mildred Jorman), who sings in a haywagon sequence. If anyone knows more, please let me know.

Copies of Campus Sleuth survive, and are in collectors' hands in truncated form, as well as the UCLA archives; I've not seen THAT copy. The mystery is whether an uncut copy still exists, containing the hayride musical l number featuring Mildred Jorman--Little Miss Cornshucks, It has been cut out of what existing prints I've seen.

This is the only footage known to exist of this colorful and talented blues/vaudeville performer of the 40s and 50s, and a subject I've been writing about and researching. Should a complete copy be available anywhere, I'm very interested in learning about that. this is not a masterpiece for the ages, but anybody's claim, but it contains a valuable performance that needs to survive-and also to be seen..

Yes, I'd like to see this movie as well, as Little Miss Cornshucks was my adopted auntie in Chicago. My earliest memories were of her living with us in Chicago's Hyde Park, in an apartment, when I was about four or five years old. The last time I saw her I was about nine years old. I have fond memories of those times, although now they seem a little foggy, and the memory of her face has faded away, but somehow I still faintly remember her hair being braided in two pigtails on either side of her head, and a broad happy smile, somehow didn't reveal her inner pain and from what I was told later from family members, of her struggle with substance abuse. I miss her dearly and just discovered that she passed away in 1999. If anyone knows where I can get this movie please let me know. My name is Desi Singh.

A collector friend of mine has a 16mm print of CAMPUS SLEUTH. He timed it at 57 minutes. I saw it perhaps twenty years ago, but can't remember if it had a hayride musical number. Is the timing 57 minutes with or without that number?