The Night of the Party

Michael Powell was still working his way up the ranks of director with this film. Malcolm Keen is a rich man who invites a bunch of guests, all of whom have cause to want him dead, first to a party, then to a game called "Murder".... and winds up dead. It's from a stage play co-written by Roland Pertwee, and shows its origins very clearly, despite the agile camera-work of Glen McWilliams.

Although this one-hour mystery is clearly a lesser production, it boasts a good cast, including Ian Hunter, Leslie Banks and an always amusing Ernest Thesiger. Although Michael clearly did not have the budget or time to do much more than produce a good programmer with this one, it would be only two years later that he directed his breakthrough THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, and four until he began his great collaborations with Emeric Pressburger.

The film version pays its respects to the play... there's not much camera movement and no music at all. Despite that, the capable cast and brisk pace make this an enjoyable 60 minutes of movie theater. There are a few red herrings thrown in and the culprit could be anyone. There's a watchable copy on YouTube at the moment.

As a mystery fan I was a little disappointed by this whodunit. I was getting the upper crust characters confused with each other and there is little running time to get them and their situations sorted. But there are two distinctive characters who save the film from becoming too stuffy. They are Chidiatt the flowery writer and the slightly dotty Princess Amelia.

Princess Amelia of Corsova is played by Muriel Aked. She's the one who proposes the game of murder in the dark. She has brought a toy gun along for the occasion. In the past she reveals that she's been told that she "can see better in the dark than any other woman I've known" by a man who has had enough experience to tell I expect. She has the best lines in the film especially when she's talking to the General.

Chidiatt is played by Ernest Thesiger. He takes charge of Princess Amelia's toy gun as he enthusiastically joins the game of murder. At one point he says he prefers guns to flowers but I notice he carries a posy in the court scene. He gets away with murder the way he talks to the Judge. Thesiger is so thorny and witty as usual and his impishness brightens up the film.

A film from the beginning of Michael Powell's career, still without Emeric Pressburger.

A serial product (Powell made no less than five films in 1934, and would make six more in 1935), with cinema gaining audiences due to the recent introduction of sound.

This is a typical detective film, in the style of Hercule Poirot's whodunit, almost entirely filmed indoors, without much rhythm and whose main virtue is to be able to keep in suspense, until the end, who the murderer is.

It would be hard to guess, from this film, the enormous qualities that the director would demonstrate in the following decade.

In 1935 Gaumont British produced 14 films including such classics as The 39 Steps and First A Girl.They also decided in that year that they would make this quota quickie and handed the job to Michael Powell.What the end results show is that even a great director such as Michael Powell can not turn dross into gold.Of course any film which features the ever theatrical Ernest Theisiger can not fail in part to be entertaining but this really is a rather lame effort and clearly Powell just wanted to get it done with as quickly as he could.The denouement of this film reminds me of the Perry Mason series when in the courtroom the culprit breaks down and confesses.To be quite honest by a process of elimination it is not that difficult to guess whodunit.Muriel Aked has what must be one of her best roles.