The King Murder

I will transport myself to 1932, and then if I look at, it isn't that bad as some of use have said here. It definitely has more merit than the 5.4 score that is given now. The mystery is built up quite well, of who-dunnit and being precode, the story could openly say about the pre as well as post marital relation - the fact of life which naturally the codes won't let be brough out. And in those circumstances, the high society blackmailer (Miriam King) is killed - and probable murderer could be any of the three current (should have been more) males she had been sponging on, her own black mailer, or even any of the current girlfriends/ wives of her victims who knew of her existence with their lovers/ husbands. The method of the murder was very ingenuous and probably unless the murderer hasn't committed virtual suicide, to save some one dear, the case would have remain unsolved. It is a neat mystery, fast paced, and not too much to find-fault about, even if it wasn't a 'B' movie.

Dorothy Revier is a kept woman with a man or two on the side, as well as a sideline in blackmail. When Don Alvarado and Marceline Day break into her apartment to recover some letters, they discover her dead. They leave, but soon Detective Chief Conway Tearle is on the case, with a large number of suspects.

THis straightforwardly plotted mystery seems to have been based on the murder of showgirl Dorothy King in 1923; it was also the inspiration for S. S. Van Dyne's THE CANARY MURDER CASE and the movie THE NAKED CITY. The handling of this Poverty Row movie is fast and seems to be rather random under the dirction of Richard Thorpe.

Tearle is clipped in his line readings. He had spent most of the 1920s as leading man to lady stars who wanted someone who didn't want the audience being distracted. By the 1930s he was reduced to leads in cheap B movies like this, and good supporting roles in major studios' A movies. He died in 1938 at the age of 60.

"The King Murder" like "The Canary Murder Case" (1929) and "Discarded Lovers" (1932) featured a female victim with multiple paramours. Any one of them could be guilty.

The victim was Miriam King (Dorothy Revier). She was shaking down a few men who'd been dumb enough to cheat on their wives with her. She was found dead one night by a man named Jose Moreno (Don Alvarado) who'd broken into her apartment to steal some letters that compromised him. He as well as a host of other men were suspects. Even two women were suspects: Elizabeth Hawthorn (Natalie Moorhead), the wife of one of Miriam's marks, and Pearl Hope (Marceline Day), the friend (or more) of Jose Moreno.

I must say that this murder mystery did have me guessing. At one point I was convinced of who the murderer was (I always lock on to the one with the least supposed motive and opportunity), just to be wrong. So for that, I give this movie a 7/10.

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I once was amused by a lousy Bela Lugosi thriller called "Murder by Television", from the '30s before television had actually gone public, but this earlier mystery/police procedural was even clunkier in its plot gimmick. It does have a certain camp fascination now, before reaching its centenary, on the level say of a "Creation of the Humanoids", a minimalist sci-fier I used to see in crummy syndication packages that not surprisingly was a favorite of Andy Warhol's.

The defects here are quite obvious, most significantly being the absence of real characters, as the writing is all geared toward function: situation drama rather than situation comedy. The actors are not attractive or interesting at all and emerge as mere stick-figures. I suspect that a 1932 audience would have to be addicted to B movies to get into it -no "Grand Hotel" superstar glamor or allure or even stars on the rise like a Bogart or Lombard. The cop is smug and dull, and only moves forward in his investigation by luck. The suspects are numerous and all equally boring. Worse yet, its talky emphasis unfolds like a radio play -one can close one's eyes and not miss anything, especially with the various opportunities for a fight, a chase or even real violence carefully avoided to minimize the budget.

I watched this movie as an entry on one of those "50 Movies" DVD sets (Crime Classics), so maybe I didn't get the highest quality video around. Nevertheless, I found this movie to be stultifyingly bad. The script is muddled and confusing. Characters come and go and the time line is jarring and confusing. The acting generally sub-par, with the best performance being turned in by Maurice Black, probably best known for his role as "Little Arnie" Lorch in "Little Caesar". The audio is terrible and at time unintelligible. The cinematography is primitive and looks many times as if filmed in a closet. Don't get me wrong, I like "bad" movies but more in the vein of Ed Wood bad. This film has nothing to offer the viewer on any level.