Ombre di notte

... is all I can say about the villain in this one. On graduation day at a small college the head of the physics department announces he will soon step down and announce his successor shortly. Professor Marvin Griswald (Henry Daniell) has been letting his wife do the research work and he's been taking the credit with her full knowledge of course. She's on the threshold of a discovery that will shake the foundation of physics, and with Marvin taking the credit he's sure to get the department headship, or so he thinks - he's chomping at the bit for this promotion. Unfortunately for Marvin, he's let his loins get the best of him and has been flaunting his infidelity with a pretty young student in his wife's face. She decides to retaliate by summarizing her notes into one small book, destroying the original notes, and refusing to let Marvin have the summary book. Plus she's leaving him, which seems to be the least of the bad news as far Marvin is concerned.

That night, as a party goes on downstairs, Marvin enters his wife's room and does something just awful that shocks her and causes her to have a heart attack and die. Marvin has committed the perfect murder - her weak heart is a well known fact - but unfortunately his wife's notes are no longer in her purse as they were just an hour before. Wherever could they have gone? Now Marvin is in the clear up to now, but based on merely guessing as to which of the guests could have his wife's notes he invades home after home and commits several more homicides trying to find the notes - and these murders definitely do not look like heart attacks.

Fortunately, ace detective Chris Cross (Edmund Lowe) is on the scene and was at the party, since he is an old friend and ex-student of the retiring department head. Like Nick Charles, he prevents the police from arresting the wrong man, and the cast even includes Nat Pendleton playing the same type of easily flustered flat foot that he played in The Thin Man.

Unlike The Thin Man, you'll figure out who has the dead woman's notes from the start and you definitely know who the killer is. Also unlike The Thin Man there is a prolonged rather odd scene set in a sauna in which Chris Cross, Nat Pendleton's character, and the escaped falsely accused suspect sit around relaxing and steam cleaning their pores trying to figure this whole mess out.

Then there's the matter of Marvin's young mistress. She didn't start Marvin on his homicidal rampage or even assist him, but she's an accessory since he's told her everything and she didn't call the police. Like Anne Boleyn, she's got to realize that if her lover will kill to keep her and consolidate power he'll do the same to her if he ever wants to rid himself of her, especially now that she knows so much.

Like I said at the beginning, so much education, so little common sense. Highly recommended if you want to see a crime drama that is definitely off the beaten path yet is well done.

Under Cover of Night (1937)

** (out of 4)

A physics professor is stepping down from the main position of his university so a group of teachers are anxiously awaiting who he will name as a successor. One of the men, Prof. Griswald (Henry Daniell) kills his wife after she threatens to reveal that every "he" knows is actually her work. From this point on he must try and locate a book that proves he doesn't know what he claims and he will kill anyone he has to. A sleuth (Edmund Lowe) begins to investigate with the help of a woman (Florence Rice) and a dimwitted cop (Nat Pendleton). This MGM production features an attractive cast but sadly the story itself just isn't interesting enough to keep you entertained throughout the rather short 70-minute running time. I think the biggest problem is that the screenplay just doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen before and seen countless times already. There are countless scenes where our killer takes a huge chance and with very little to gain. Take for example the scene where he murders his wife who simply has a bad heart. In a rather unintentionally funny sequence, he throws her beloved dog out the window, killing it and the wife then drops dead of a heart attack. The entire murder sequence doesn't really work because it depends on the husband knowing that this would kill the wife and if it hadn't then he really would have been in trouble. Even other murder pieces are pushed onto other suspects but the way this is done just doesn't work and isn't a bit believable. The cast does what they can with Lowe once again giving a decent, laid-back performance where he walks and talks with a cool breeze. Daniell was always good at playing this stiff, dark characters and he does a fine job as well. Pendleton's comic relief isn't really funny but this is due to the rather lame jokes and not his performance. Sara Haden, best known for her role as the Aunt in the Andy Hardy series, steals the show as the wife in her few scenes. Dean Jagger and Harry Davenport appear as well.

Henry Daniell is an unethical professor in "Under Cover of Night," an MGM programmer starring Edmund Lowe and Sara Haden, a very young Dean Jagger, and Nat Pendleton.

We see the crime brought about up front, and then watch "Chris Cross" (Lowe) figure it out. It all hinges on a sort of which came first, the chicken or the egg scenario.

Professor Marvin Griswald is planning on taking credit for his wife's (Sara Haden) research and has plans for himself and a younger woman. His wife gets wind of it and is upstairs packing to leave him; Marvin has to act quickly and get his hands on her notes.

Lowe was a leading man with Broadway credits who started working in films in the teens. By this time, he was a character actor. Openly gay, he married actress Lilyan Tashman, also openly gay, probably for the sake of their careers, but the couple obviously enjoyed a great friendship. They were a very popular Hollywood couple and known for lavish entertaining and high living. When Tashman died of cancer, Lowe was at her side.

Atmospheric film movies quickly and has a very good cast.

Henry Daniell whom I long ago dubbed "the Voice with the built in sneer" steals this film as a professor who commits a series of murders including that of his own wife Sara Haden to gain a promotion in the faculty of his college. He's a total fraud, cheating on his own wife and committing murder in a sick, but admittedly clever way.

Edmund Lowe is a private detective who brings him down and dimwitted police detective Nat Pendleton is there to lend a legal imprimatur to Lowe's activities.

Daniell is truly nuts if he doesn't think eventually they would get to him. As all these crimes are committed within the space of a couple days. A fatal flaw in the story of Under Cover Of Night.

Still Henry Daniell has a legion of fans including me. If you're a Henry Daniell fan this film is a must.

This MGM mystery programmer shows the usual gloss, with plenty of money spent on sets, costumes and a full cast roll not only from Metro's company, but with Henry Daniell in his usual role of suave, low-affect nasty, Edmund Lowe being as bombastic as always -- he sports a one-foot white cigarette holder -- and even Dean Jagger in a move up from Gower Gulch, still sporting a toupee -- the previous year he had starred in REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES.

But these actors, and Andy Hardy's aunt, Sara Haden, giving a very oddly stylized rendition of a woman having a heart attack, are not the point of this movie. The real fun is provided by the air of lurking dread that pervades this movie, thanks to some astonishing proto-noir lighting by DP Philip Clarke. Usually at Metro, the rule was to turn on all the lights so people could see the gloss. However, in the effectively 'B' section, they sometimes let standards slip and here it works tremendously to the film's advantage.