It couldn't have happened, but it obviously did: this WONDERFULLY enjoyable, entertaining and clever classic 'whodunit' seems to have sunken into oblivion. I'm VERY lucky that it was recommended to me by a very good friend of mine, a real connoisseur of classic mysteries, because otherwise I'd probably never heard about it at all...
And how much wrong can time do to such great movies - just because they weren't produced by a major studio, just because they didn't have some 'great star' in their cast?? And yet, this SUBLIME example of a classic murder mystery, which has literally got everything from a complicated plot with LOTS of suspects, a pretty unusual murder method, and some QUITE suspenseful moments, to the most funny and original wisecracks and the most hilarious characters, CAN boost of quite some big names among its cast: first of all, former silent leading lady Evelyn Brent (best known to us all as 'Feathers' in the archetypal gangster movie "Underworld"), once again as the 'femme fatale' for many men; then Reginald Denny (whom we got to know and love as 'Algy', the hapless friend of 'Bulldog Drummond') as the playwright who reluctantly starts investigating the case, being pushed by his secretary who's in love with him - and wonderfully played by lovely Inez Courtney - , and last but not least Jack La Rue, one of Hollywood's 'eternal gangsters'.
Now, I'd say that it's HIGH time to remember those 'forgotten' old mysteries, dig them up from the movie cellar and bring them back into the limelight again - and "It Couldn't Have Happened, But It Did" certainly is one of those who DESERVES to become known to a MUCH wider audience!
