Murder by Invitation

Rich old Aunt Cassie considers herself "the only sane person in a family of nitwits." She invites her greedy relatives to the creaky family mansion—instructing them to arrive on Friday at midnight—where she will decide which of them will inherit her millions. Needless to say, it's not long before the murders start….

Vanishing corpses, secret passageways—murder spoof elements abound in this extremely goofy murder mystery. Assorted crackpot characters include several shifty relatives, an oddball sheriff, and a snoopy neighbor.

Sarah Padden cackles gleefully as the eccentric Aunt Cassie. Wallace Ford is tough to dislike as wisecracking newspaper reporter Bob White. Marian Marsh is lively and likable as White's assistant Nora, although she isn't given much to do except keep up with Ford's jokes and detective work.

This Monogram production is certainly a cheapie: while some scenes look like they may have been rehearsed, others definitely don't. However… a sense of good natured fun carries the picture along, and joviality mostly makes up for lack of production polish.

Also livening up this B mystery are a few cute comments alluding to the fact that this is, in fact, a B mystery. Just past the midway point, for example, Ford discusses the two missing corpses: Dead bodies, he says, always go missing in murder mysteries and "it generally happens just past the middle of the picture."

It ain't profound but it's pretty easy viewing for those who enjoy good silly lowbrow fun.

And what a great closing line!

Talk about screwy films! "Murder By Invitation" almost takes first place! A daffy old lady, Aunt Cassie (a terrible performance by Sarah Padden who seems to be reading her lines off of cue cards) invites her greedy relatives to her country estate for the weekend and murders start to pop up all over the place. A reporter (Wallace Ford) and his secretary (Marian Marsh) arrive at the estate to get the scoop. Minerva Urecal (whom I usually like) overacts here as one of Aunt Cassie's relations. J. Arthur Young is totally offbeat as Trownbridge Montrose (Aunt Cassie's neighbor). Dave O'Brien is good, as usual, though as the estate's chauffeur. Zany dialog is almost unbelievable at times and Ford (although likable) is too old to be pretty Marsh's sweetheart boss. In spite of itself, "Murder By Invitation" is a film that works, although I don't quite know how!

This is a formula piece. It's been done a hundred times. The greed of the relatives causes them to try to get the old lady committed. Their motives are so obvious that any chance they had goes down the tube within minutes. Now they're in over their heads and have to use their resources to survive. Meanwhile, the red herrings start swimming upstream. I should have hated it, but the crazy overacting and general being of the film are rather pleasant in a maniacal sort of way. The conclusion is satisfying and justice is done. The one drawback is that the bad guys are so pathetic and incompetent that they don't pose much of a threat.

No doubt prompted by the success of Elliot Nugent's 1939 remake of THE CAT AND THE CANARY, Monogram's MURDER BY INVITATION is a spit polishing of dusty doings distinguished by a cagey awareness of its own derivativeness. Like the imperiled teens of Wes Craven's SCREAM, the dramatis personae here – heirs to a sizeable legacy - enter into danger with full knowledge of the rules of the game - with comic star Wallace Ford (FREAKS) even cracking: `I'm the handsome young juvenile of this story – he never gets hurt.'

Supporting the ever-watchable Ford is a cast of faces familiar from the Poverty Roll payroll: Sarah Padden (THE MAD MONSTER), Dave O'Brien (THE DEVIL BAT, REEFER MADNESS), Minerva Urecal (THE CORPSE VANISHES) and John James (DEVIL BAT'S DAUGHTER), as well as Marian Marsh (Trilby to John Barrymore's SVENGALI) and Gavin Gordon (Lord Byron in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN). A former Edison camera man turned prominent silent film director (ABRAHAM LINCOLN), Phil Rosen exhibits little enthusiasm for George Bricker's scenario, and seems grateful that the conventions of the murder mystery allow characters to remain seated for long stretches at a time. French cameraman Marcel Le Picard also shot the low-rent SPOOKS RUN WILD and VOODOO MAN.

Not a must-see film, but undemanding fun for fans of the murder mystery - and Wallace Ford never disappoints.

"Murder by Invitation" is a B film from 1941 starring Wallace Ford as Bob White, a reporter who covers the trial of an elderly woman (Sara Padden) whose relatives want to have her declared insane so they can have her $3 million. She proves that she's very far from insane in an amusing court scene.

She then invites her family to her estate for the weekend. She wants to observe all of them and decide which family member is most deserving of her money. She wants them to arrive at midnight, which makes some of them nervous. Not long after they settle in, relatives start dying.

Good B with Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh as an attractive couple, and Sara Padden is quite sprightly as the dowager. The end is interesting and fun.