Murder at Dawn

The brilliant recluse Dr. Farrington (Frank Ball) has just completed his invention. The VXO Accumulator, a device that can harness the sun's rays and offer free energy to everyone. He discloses this information to his friend Judge Folger (Phillip Smalley) and plans to give it to the world tomorrow.

Wait! What's this? The lights go out. When the lights come on Judge Folger is dead and soon Dr. Farrington disappears.

The search for Dr. Farrington goes on by his daughter (Josephine Dunn) and soon-to-be son-in-law (Jack Mulhall.) Meanwhile, we have mysterious viewers, long-fingered creeps, hidden panels, and it appears that someone will be murdered at dawn.

This is a 1932 black-and-white whodunit. The only version I saw was the Alpha video DVD. It needs a little cleaning up.

Now, "Murder at Dawn" perhaps may not suit the tastes of a highbrow who demands a perfect production and direction and an answer to everything - but it's a very stunning, atmospheric and VERY much underrated B movie, with all the elements of a classic 'isolated mansion' mystery: complete with a thunderstorm, shady types creeping through the garden at night and peeping into windows, a mysterious housekeeper (Martha Mattox, well known to fans of the genre from "The Cat and the Canary" and "Murder by the Clock"), turning fireplaces, bodies in the closet, and so on...

It's also got its 'scientific' element (which constitutes the reason for all the murderous ongoings): an inventor is working in the seclusion of this old house on a device for producing electricity, which could of course be very important for the future of mankind, but also very dangerous...

But the entertainment isn't neglected either in this charmingly old-fashioned 'cheapie': there's romance in the shape of the inventor's daughter (Josephine Dunn) and her fiancé, played by Jack Mulhall - and also a comical side, which is handled very nicely by the 'old' married couple Marjorie Beebe and Eddie Boland. And a very special surprise: Mischa Auer in a VERY unusual role as the strange and sinister caretaker - you'll have to look twice to recognize him!

For friends of the good old 30s' mysteries, an absolute 'must' - it catches the mood and atmosphere just as well as the much more famous classics of the same time, like "The Old Dark House" or "The Bat Whispers"!

My idea of torture, which might perhaps be inflicted upon terrorist suspects in order to make them scream and divulge their confederates, would be to tie them down, prop open their eyelids with those tools used by optic surgeons, and force them to watch this film. Richard Thorpe directed it, and later he learned how to direct, as proved by 'A Toy Wife' six years later, but at this early stage in what was to be a long career (offering him plenty of time to go to confession and tell some holy father that he had committed the sin of directing 'Murder at Dawn' abominably), he seemed to imagine that film direction was something one does with a knife in a butcher shop, serving up the offal to the masses, of which this is a misshapen specimen. To pretend that this is a film is like pretending that an ant is an elephant. Of course, everything is relative. After all, to a flea, an ant is an elephant. And similarly, to Richard Thorpe in 1932, this presumably did appear to be a film. But we who live in later times are not fooled: this is unmistakably a piece of rubbish.

Danny and Doris along with some friends go to Dr. Farrington's house to ask get his consent to marry. Well, once they arrive weird stuff happens...such as finding Farrington and his friend dead...and soon after this discovery the bodies disappear!! What follows is essentially a murder mystery and an old dark house film rolled up into one.

As far as the genre goes, this one is fairly good--despite coming from a low-budget studio. However, one thing bothered me and may well bother other viewers--the very ignorant black character. Back in the day, folks thought it was funny featuring a scared black man as comic relief....and this one is no different...except that he's even more ignorant than usual. A sad cliche, I know...but still a decent film despite this.

Murder at Dawn (1932)

** (out of 4)

Danny (Jack Mulhall) and Doris (Josephine Dunn) are on their way to tell her father about their engagement but what they don't know is that her father scientist has created a deadly ray that can work off the sun. The father's friend is mysteriously murdered and soon more bodies are piling up as someone tries to steal the secret.

MURDER AT DAWN was one of the numerous "old dark house" movies that were produced in the 1930s. This one here features lightening, thunder, mysterious shadows, screams in the night, a nutty scientist, murder and of course an annoying lead couple who go for laughs. If you've seen at least two of these then you already know what's going on in these types of movies as there are countless suspects and out of no where one pops up at the end as the killer. Rarely do these films make any sense so it takes something really special happening in order for them to stand out in the pack.

Sadly, nothing too special happens here as there are way too many characters introduced to us and none of them really stand out in an entertaining way. All the stereotypes are in full force here and I must admit that it was rather hard following the film because it's so uneven. The performances range from fair to decent but, again, nothing really stands out. MURDER AT DAWN isn't horrible and it's mildly entertaining but it's mainly going to appeal to those who want to see all of these sub-genre movies that were made.