Just Another Murder

A man is writing a story while sitting aside his car. His terrible murder mystery is the substance of the film.

"Just Another Murder" is a film by Mack Sennett during his tenure at Educational Pictures. I've seen a few of these films and must say that this is the worst of them. The film seems practically plotless (it's a story within a story...but never really works), there's no humor, and the editing seemed random. But most importantly, it's just not funny. Now some of this isn't surprising, as it stars Vince Barnett. I have seen him in many films and never particularly cared for him and his brand of humor. Sadly, Billy Gilbert is wasted here.

The cost of conversion to sound had dealt Mack Sennett Productions a blow from which it had never recovered. Likewise the dying off of demand for independent short subjects -- Roach, with bigger stars and better contracts would give up within a year, leaving the field to the majors' in-house productions.

In the meantime, Sennett was struggling to produce decent two-reelers, and this is not a particularly good effort. The movie is structured as a story-in-a-story, which both pads it obviously and gives the interior story of mysterious goings-on at a hotel no pay-off. In addition, the editing, which had always been a strong point with Sennett from the beginning of Keystone, has collapsed.

In short, this is a very poor effort. Oh, it's nice to see old pros like Billy Gilbert and Jack Cooper at work in even the poorest effort. But even they can't save this one.