A Dama Escarlate

Who killed Albert J. Sayre? Another witty gem from Chesterfield. The dialog between sleuth Reginald Denny and his "secretary" Patricia Farr (who died at age 35) is every bit as good as that between Nick and Nora Charles in "The Thin Man" series. They certainly have an interesting relationship. Unfortunately, Ms Farr looks nothing like Myrna Loy. Sayre's daughter, Julia, however, is played by the very beautiful Dorothy Revier. Lew Kelly does his slightly dimwitted slow burn as Police Inspector Trainey. There are plenty of suspects. It's a well-kept secret who done it right up to the end. You'll just have to guess.

Pretty decent presentation of a man who sets up his daughter for failure and poverty because he doesn't like her choice in men. Unfortunately, he meets his demise and that launches most of the plot. A couple of Nick and Nora type detectives get into the act at the behest of the young wife of the man. It turns out she really loves the old jerk and wants to see justice done. Many are dragged into the fray, but, of course, the facts will set you free. This is a fun movie because of the byplay between the two private detectives. There are lots of conflicting clues and some surprises. I have seen many of these types of films and have to admit that this one isn't half bad. It has a little bit of sexual tension which works pretty well.

From 1935, The Lady in Scarlett stars Reginald Denny, Patricia Farr, and Dorothy Revier, directed by Charles Lamont.

The wife (Revier) of wealthy art dealer, Albert J. Sayre (John T. Murray) runs into a detective friend (Denny) and his assistant (Farr) at a restaurant. He drives her home, and they find her husband dead.

Sayre's daughter Alice (Claudia Dell) claims her father disinherited her and is sure her stepmother killed him for the money. It's revealed that the new will wasn't signed, and the assets are to be split.

However, the attorney warns Alice that her father had heavy losses in the stock market. Alice says there were bonds worth 100,000 put aside for her in the safe. When the safe is opened, however, there are no bonds. Alice insists her stepmother stole them.

Decent whodunit with very uneven acting. This film had nice potential for a series starring Denny and Farr, who had both fun repartee and some dialogue that really pushed the humor too much and in a few cases, was demeaning.

Farr was a good comedienne who died at 35 from pancreatic cancer. Toned down by a director, it's easy to see she would have been very good.

Denny is delightful, elegant, smooth, and amusing. It's a shame he didn't have more opportunities in this type of role.

During the 1930s and 40s, the quality as well as cheapo studios made zillions of murder mystery films--so many that it's easy to get them all mixed up in your head. While some of the films were stand-outs, such as the Charlie Chan or Saint films, too many just weren't made very well or offered nothing but retreads of the same old same old characters and stories. In many ways, "The Lady in Scarlett" is yet another dreary mystery films--with the usual get 'em all together in a room and get one of them to incriminate him/herself at the end of the film finale. These were ludicrous but so many of the films followed this same sort of formula. In most ways, this film did too...but fortunately, it did offer two things to set it apart--Reginald Denny's erudite persona and his assistant, who was anything but! In fact, she was a complete smart aleck and kept me interested in an otherwise passable film. Well worth seeing just because of her!

Reginald Denny stars a a detective who gets involved with the murder of an antique dealer.

For the most part this is a by the book murder mystery with several interesting twists in it. The plot basically is that a wealthy antique dealer is suspicious that his wife is having an affair. People are watching the house and the husband appears to be involved in crooked dealings. The wife while out with her lover notices an old friend and semi famous detective at the bar. The lover leaves and the wife talks to the detective whom she talks into taking her home. Once there they find the husband dead and a very twisty, and not entirely fair, murder investigation is set in motion.

Denny is as always a joy to behold and his interplay with his girl Friday is funny, if not rather cruel. Frankly if it wasn't clear they loved each other it would be abusive.

A friend watched most of this with me and sat there in disbelief at the creakiness of it and of the bad acting. But this is an independent programmer that was made fast and cheap so that fact it is of any quality is usually a plus. Its not as bad as she made it out to be, and I don't think she hated it, she just enjoyed the camp value of it all.

I liked it, but I didn't love it. Its a movie that sort of is unexceptional in anyway, and so just sort of is. Its a pleasant time killer and nothing more. In answer to Lucy's question, yes at some point I will watch this again, if only to see what I missed plot wise since the clues appear to all be there even if not clearly....