The King Murder

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.

This is about philandering. It has at the center, a gold digger who is using planned extortion to get what she wants. She sets herself up, leaving little choice among her victims. Of course, the men are truly culpable and deserve much of what they get. The conclusion is pretty far fetched. If you are old enough to own a phonograph (turntable) you will get my point. The bad guys are depending a lot on some pretty random incompetence. This is interesting and has a few twists and turns, so it's not bad, but the conclusion is unsatisfying. The character of the young woman is pretty well portrayed and the acting isn't too bad. Still, it could have been better with a little more imagination.

"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.

Free on YouTube.

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.

Classy Natalie Moorehead plays Beth Hawthorn, who is worried her fiancée is involved with a notorious gold-digger, Miriam King (Dorothy Reiver). Miriam is being blackmailed by a Mr. Scott and agrees to ask one of her lovers for the $5,000 needed. Before she can obtain the money she is murdered.

Pretty Marceline Day plays Pearl Hope, Miriam's former room-mate. She is in love with Marino (Don Alvarado, a Latin type actor in vogue in the early sound era) who was also involved with Miriam months before. Everybody is implicated in the murder.

Conway Tearle, a matinée idol of the silent screen, plays the chief detective. Maurice Black, who had a long list of credits usually playing ethnics was Mr. Scott.

The story isn't much although there are so many suspects you will never guess who did it. It is just nice to see 3 beautiful actresses in the same short film.