Moonlight Murder

"Moonlight Murder," from 1936, is an operatic mystery. A tenor,Gino (Leo Carrillo), singing Manrico in "Il Trovatore" at the Hollywood Bowl is told by a fortune teller (Pedro de Cordoba) not to perform or he will die. Well, you can't keep a tenor from performing that way. But he does die under mysterious circumstances.

Chester Morris plays the detective brought in to investigate. It's a pretty good mystery, and the detective soon learns there are plenty of suspects, including the Gino's cover, who wants to go on in his place, various women, and an escaped lunatic who is angry that Gino did not sing his opera.

Some people complained here that there was too much opera. Frankly I could have used more. Of course I love Trovatore. I actually thought the first aria done by Carrillo (who was dubbed by Alfonso Pedroso) was quite good. Most of the singing was okay despite some screechy high notes.

A little baby boomer trivia: For us boomers, Carrillo was Pancho on "The Cisco Kid," and the Cisco Kid was Duncan Renaldo - who is listed in the cast here. As a friend of mine used to say, "foreshadowing." Ah, Pancho; ah, Cisco.

...and annoying is the best way to describe tenor and opera singer Gino D'Acosta (Leo Carrillo). In the looks department he is a solid 5/10 yet in spite of that and his obvious lack of sincerity and subtlety he is a lady's man with two currently on a string, he has an understudy that badly wants his big chance, then there are the boyfriends (husbands??) of the girls he is stringing along, and a lunatic that wants to kill D'Acosta because he won't sing an opera he has written. So when D'Acosta dies on stage it is no surprise to the audience. On hand to solve the murder is the reason I - and maybe most people - hang around. That reason is Chester Morris as Detective Steve Farrell. He teams up with Dr. Adams' niece Toni (Madge Evans) who is a chemist and helps him analyze evidence. You see, at first it is thought D'Acosta was poisoned by some wine he drank before going onstage, but the autopsy proves that the poison was delivered while he was performing, and now it is a combination of Steve's detective work and Toni's forensic analysis that work to crack the case. Madge Evans is playing this role somewhat as a screwball comedienne Jean Arthur style, and the result is a good performance and good chemistry between herself and the always entertaining Chester Morris who plays this role as a good yet tough guy.

So what's not so good about this film? Mainly the short running time combined with, IMHO, an excess of opera music. The time taken up by the opera music could have been used to beef up the plot a bit more. Still I'd recommend it for fans of B murder mysteries from the 30's and 40's and definitely for fans of Chester Morris.

The show must go on. This legendary expression was never more applicable than here, in this modest poverty-row movie mixture between mystery, comedy and musical. When the tenor and lead star of a fancy Hollywood Bowl opera production gets murdered live on stage during his big performance, the show (and the movie...) continues with grotesque singing for another 10-12 minutes straight before the curtain falls. Which immediately also brings me to point out the biggest default of the film. "Moonlight Murder" has a running time of barely 66 minutes, but at least half of that exists of singing, rehearsing for the live show, and the live show itself. So, unless you have a fetish for both murder mysteries and classic opera (which sounds like a very weird combo to me), you are likely to get annoyed by all the opera blah blah.

And yet, in between all the extravagant set-pieces and opera singing, there's a very neat and compelling mystery plot hidden that is well worth discovering! The opera house setting itself is impressive already, the murder - when it eventually occurs - is extremely ingenious, and the denouement is original and surprisingly unpredictable. I swear, the climax easily could have come straight out of the imagination of acclaimed whodunit authors, like Agatha Christie or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Eccentric opera star Gino d'Acosta is a man with many enemies. He has two mistresses at once, married ones, he deliberately obstructs the career possibilities of his stand-in and ambitious personal assistant, an escaped mental patient claims d'Acosta stole his compositions, and he simply is an overall jerk to everyone during the rehearsals and backstage. Prior to the big premiere, d'Acosta receives several warnings not to sing if he wants to live. He stubbornly does, of course, but inexplicably falls dead during the show. Who is the killer, and how did he/she managed to commit a murder in front of thousands of spectators?

Forget the singing. Forget the weak attempts at slapstick. What remains is approximately 20 minutes of positively engaging mystery and suspense.

1936's "Moonlight Murder" may be from MGM, but its 'B' status is assured by starring Chester Morris, whose 'A' status had passed, but his solid pedigree remained for second features such as RKO's "Five Came Back," plus all 14 features in Columbia's 'Boston Blackie' series. Leo Carrillo is cast against type as opera crooner/lothario Gino D'Acosta, who has more than a few interested females, an escaped maniac (J. Carrol Naish) determined to do away with him, and a mysterious swami (Pedro de Cordoba) predicting his imminent demise if he performs his next opera. There's plenty of opera, predating "Charlie Chan at the Opera" by at least five months, and it does tend to slow things to a crawl, particularly after the murder, when we're itching for some mystery relief to take charge. Another commentator took note of the method of murder popping up in a 'Mr. Wong' feature, but there also were two Monogram Charlie Chans, plus Universal's 1939 "The House of Fear" as well. Director Edwin L. Marin never seemed to escape the 'B' tag (even at MGM), his best remembered features including his debut "The Death Kiss," "A Study in Scarlet," "Bombay Mail," "The Crosby Case," "The Casino Murder Case," "The Garden Murder Case," "A Christmas Carol," "Invisible Agent," "Tall in the Saddle," and "Nocturne."

It's opera night at the Hollywood Bowl and tenor Gino D'Acosta (Leo Carillo) has everyone mad at him: his understudy, the conductor, two women he's been leading on, an aspiring composer upset because Gino won't read his opera….It seems only a matter of time before somebody knocks Gino off. A fortune teller has already told him: "If you sing tomorrow night, you will die."

The story's not real unique but it's performed with panache by a solid and colorful cast. Chester Morris is a fast talking police detective who strikes up a romance with cute scientist Madge Evans. Grant Mitchell is earnest as the tenor's doctor friend. Frank McHugh has some good moments as the singer's secretary who keeps belting out bits of opera, much to the annoyance of maestro H.B. Warner.

The setup of various characters' motives is rather involved and there is a fair amount of music, as well, so the story itself moves somewhat deliberately. The complicated plot eventually arrives at a surprising (and unlikely) resolution.

It's certainly not the best B mystery ever made, but MGM's production values, the somewhat unusual setting, and a fun cast make it very watchable.