The King Murder

I once was amused by a lousy Bela Lugosi thriller called "Murder by Television", from the '30s before television had actually gone public, but this earlier mystery/police procedural was even clunkier in its plot gimmick. It does have a certain camp fascination now, before reaching its centenary, on the level say of a "Creation of the Humanoids", a minimalist sci-fier I used to see in crummy syndication packages that not surprisingly was a favorite of Andy Warhol's.

The defects here are quite obvious, most significantly being the absence of real characters, as the writing is all geared toward function: situation drama rather than situation comedy. The actors are not attractive or interesting at all and emerge as mere stick-figures. I suspect that a 1932 audience would have to be addicted to B movies to get into it -no "Grand Hotel" superstar glamor or allure or even stars on the rise like a Bogart or Lombard. The cop is smug and dull, and only moves forward in his investigation by luck. The suspects are numerous and all equally boring. Worse yet, its talky emphasis unfolds like a radio play -one can close one's eyes and not miss anything, especially with the various opportunities for a fight, a chase or even real violence carefully avoided to minimize the budget.

"The King Murder" is available on DVD from Alpha Video. Like most of Alpha's films, this one has a rather rough print--a bit blurry (looking as if copied from a videotape or just a very used print) and with poor sound (there's too much background hiss). Unfortunately, this is likely the only way you'll find the film so you'll need to accept it, warts and all. Fortunately, as the film progresses, the sound quality at least improves though at the end it suddenly became worse.

This story was apparently based on a famous murder case of the era involving a blackmailer named Dot King. Interestingly, the studio (Universal) didn't disguise this very well, naming the character Miriam King.

Miriam has made a career out of seducing rich married men. Then, once she has incriminating information, she blackmails them into paying her not to produce this information to their wives. After her latest shakedown, Miriam ends up dead and the police are trying to figure out what happened. It isn't easy, as she's gathered a lot of enemies over the years.

Conway Tearle plays Detective Barton--the man assigned to work on this murder case. Interestingly, despite the subject matter being rather salacious and the recentness of the actual murder, the film did NOT seem exploitational in the least. Likewise, it was handled in a quiet, cerebral fashion and the overall film was far better than I'd expected--especially since it was from tiny-budget Chesterfield Productions. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the pawn broker seemed incredibly broadly portrayed---extremely Jewish--most likely in keeping with stereotypes of the day. Worth seeing even with the lousy print.

It's a remarkable fact that some of the "B" directors like Richard Thorpe adapted to sound much faster than acclaimed "A" leaders like John Ford and Howard Hawks. Thorpe's Border Romance (1929) is very competently made indeed, and in this 1932 production he could still give some of the masters a keen lesson in pacing. Indeed, the first two reels move with such celerity that the average viewer needs to be really on his toes to keep up with the plot. And at this stage it's worth paying attention, because the sultry Dorothy Revier is right up there on the screen. When she is killed, the pace slows somewhat when the focus shifts to Marceline Day (who is too rake-thin for my taste) and plodding-as-she-goes hero, Conway Tearle. Nonetheless, the mystery is still intriguing enough, and Thorpe makes good use of Universal's standing sets to give the movie a bit of class. Natalie Moorhead is exotic enough to command a bit of interest, and an outstanding cameo by Rose Dione also helps. Alas, as usual in many of these Poverty Row thrillers, the solution to the mystery is somewhat contrived. Also disappointing is the revelation of the actual killer. In fact the whole climax is a letdown. One gets the impression that the producer ran out of money at this stage and simply wound the film down. Curtain!

Dorothy Revier is a kept woman with a man or two on the side, as well as a sideline in blackmail. When Don Alvarado and Marceline Day break into her apartment to recover some letters, they discover her dead. They leave, but soon Detective Chief Conway Tearle is on the case, with a large number of suspects.

THis straightforwardly plotted mystery seems to have been based on the murder of showgirl Dorothy King in 1923; it was also the inspiration for S. S. Van Dyne's THE CANARY MURDER CASE and the movie THE NAKED CITY. The handling of this Poverty Row movie is fast and seems to be rather random under the dirction of Richard Thorpe.

Tearle is clipped in his line readings. He had spent most of the 1920s as leading man to lady stars who wanted someone who didn't want the audience being distracted. By the 1930s he was reduced to leads in cheap B movies like this, and good supporting roles in major studios' A movies. He died in 1938 at the age of 60.

Classy Natalie Moorehead plays Beth Hawthorn, who is worried her fiancée is involved with a notorious gold-digger, Miriam King (Dorothy Reiver). Miriam is being blackmailed by a Mr. Scott and agrees to ask one of her lovers for the $5,000 needed. Before she can obtain the money she is murdered.

Pretty Marceline Day plays Pearl Hope, Miriam's former room-mate. She is in love with Marino (Don Alvarado, a Latin type actor in vogue in the early sound era) who was also involved with Miriam months before. Everybody is implicated in the murder.

Conway Tearle, a matinée idol of the silent screen, plays the chief detective. Maurice Black, who had a long list of credits usually playing ethnics was Mr. Scott.

The story isn't much although there are so many suspects you will never guess who did it. It is just nice to see 3 beautiful actresses in the same short film.