Review by boblipton

While Professor Lee Kohlmar is lecturing about Arcturus to an invitation-only group at the planetarium, a member of the audience is shot dead. Police detective Russel Hopton is called in. He orders reporter Lola Lane out of the room and questions the crowd. Then he sends everyone home and asks Miss Lane for a date. She slaps his face.

It's a nicely done murder mystery under the direction of Frank R. Strayer. Good actors, a decent script and a good pace keeps things rolling along until.... well, before the second murder -- there's always a second murder in a good mystery, although usually the second victim is the first person you suspect -- I had figured out the victim of the second murder, and the method. Since I was far enough ahead, I started to figure out who committed the murders.

Even though there was a twist that surprised me -- always a good thing -- I soon settled on the two people who most likely had committed the murders, just by the structure of this movie. The trouble was, I couldn't figure out why; that was only revealed after the answer to the mystery had been revealed.

Well, that's not fair. That's not playing the game. So although everything else was pretty good for a cheap B murder mystery, with good players and even a twist, even though it was very watchable, in the end, it failed as a mystery. Pity.