The Murder in the Museum

This reminded me of Lon Chaney movie where we are brought into a kind of freak show atmosphere with unconventional characters. The neat thing is that they are like all of us, and that's the tragic element. Because the world they live in has so much of an impact on them, it is hard for them to reach above and beyond to happiness. This is actually a pretty decent movie with fair cinematography and decent performances. Another reviewer mentioned Todd Browning. I'd love to hear more about him and his life. His movies are really quite engaging. So this could typify the genre he worked in, even though it wasn't his.

I was pleased that the conclusion wasn't some offhanded, anything to get a finish to this thing kind of work but dealt with the pain and reality of the characters.

Social reformers and political enemies Joseph Girard and Sam Flint are at a dime museum, as are reporter John Harron, and Girard's niece, Phyllis Barrington. It's a thoroughly sleazy affair, promising all sorts of thrills for an additional dime, and delivering very little. Besides the girls in gauzy costumes, there's an armless man, fortune-teller Symona Boniface, stage magician Henry B. Walthall, knife thrower Steve Clemente, and similar acts. Suddenly a shot rings out and Flint is dead. Eventually the police show up and arrest Flint for havinga .45 revolver. When he says he lent the gun to the armless man for an act he was working on, they discovering a toe print on it and arrest the second man. But then it turns out the bullet was a .32 smoothbore. Meanwhile, Harron and Miss Barrington investigate.

It's a Poverty Row movie produced by Willis Kent. The director is Melville Shyer, who spend most of his career as an AD and production manager. I don't think he held any rehearsals, because the lines don't sound very convincing. Still, it's always good to see top-billed Walthall, and Bobby Harron's younger brother.

Among the many 'little' B mysteries from the 30s with the hugely popular pattern 'reporter plays detective', "Murder in the Museum" stands out in several ways. First, it stars the famous and distinguished silent actor Henry B. Walthall as a former professor of philosophy - and now turned a magician in a rather shady carnival show. Then, there are quite a lot of various people and ongoings involved in the plot that revolves around this infamous show: the same day that the show's 'manager' receives a drug delivery from his gangster friends, the two candidates running for mayor visit the show in order to check out if there's a reason to close it down, because they both try to show to their voters that they want to 'clear up' the town. And in the middle of the show, one of the two is shot - and a young reporter is, of course, also on the spot, ready, willing and able (much more than the police) to solve the crime...

There would be a LOT to write about this pretty convulsed plot; but I don't want to spoil it for the friends who haven't watched this movie yet - because they absolutely should do so. There's definitely something more to it than to an average B crime movie: the direction is imaginative and well timed, the plot is REALLY unusual, the actors are doing a fine job (not only Walthall, but also John Harron as the clever young news hound and Phyllis Barrington as the fearless girl who assists him despite his warnings); I highly recommend it!

Another of Henry B. Walthall's 1934 movies (he played in twelve that year), this interesting curio, Murder in the Museum, is one of a handful directed by Melville Shyer, who made some 150 films as an assistant director. Mr Shyer handles this assignment with more than routine competence, even using track shots effectively on occasion. True, he is slightly let down by obviously sparse set dressing, and lackluster silent hero, John Harron, soon demonstrates why he quickly went down the ladder to playing uncredited bits. But super-svelte Phyllis Barrington (in her last of twelve movies) makes an engaging heroine and the support cast is filled out by tip-top people like John Elliott, Symona Boniface, Joe Girard and Donald Kerr, plus two wonderful shimmy dancers and other rakish sideshow denizens. Once the action moves away from the carny setting, alas, the plot becomes less interesting. All told, however, by producer Willis Kent's rock-bottom standards, Murder in the Museum stands as a classy production.

Enterprising "Times Herald" reporter John Harron (as Jerry Ross) investigates "The Murder in the Museum " of a city councilman. This "Museum" isn't what you may be expecting; although there appear to be a few paintings on display, it's really a traveling freak show - "The World's Largest Collection of Natural and Unnatural Wonders". Among the attractions: an armless man, a bodiless woman, and the mysterious Henry B. Walthall (as "Professor Mysto" aka Bernard Latham Wayne). Patrons seem more interested in scantily-clad dancing women; unfortunately, they are told to keep it "tame it down plenty" when "the law" is spotted.

The "Sphere Museum" is also a front for drug-runners (which has attracted police and politicians). Just before the murder, Mr. Harron meets shapely blonde Phyllis Barrington (as Lois Brandon); and, the two fall in love. Mr. Walthall is appropriately mystic; his casting, alongside the brother of frequent co-star Robert Harron, is inspired. Unfortunately, this production is very poor. The cast and crew manage to get through the picture smoothly enough, considering the obvious lack of rehearsals and re-takes.

**** The Murder in the Museum (1934) Melville Shyer ~ John Harron, Henry B. Walthall, Phyllis Barrington