The Night Club Lady

This is a beautifully directed film, a fast moving whodunit remniscent of Michael Curtiz' THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (which this film preceded by a year). Adolphe Menjou is well in his element as Thatcher Colt (a very Philo Vance-ish figure), and the screenplay crackles with pre-code New York sophistication. Though the entire cast it excellent, the real star of the film is director Irving Cummings, who keeps things constantly moving with interesting camera angles, dolly shots, and even a zoom lens!

There was a sequel to this film, THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933 - directed by Roy William Neill), which, while still interesting, somewhat lessens its impact by revealing the identity of the murderer less than two/thirds through the film. And CIRCUS QUEEN had no Mura...

Mura knows!!!

Lola Carewe is a night club owner. She is apprehensive about "Your time is drawing near" veiled death threats she has been receiving. Her mother has a premonition feeling about Lola going to her night club on Old Year's Night. Despite her mother's warning Lola feels she can't afford to stay away. Police Chief Thatcher Colt is at the club and spots Lola's unease. He is convinced Lola is in danger and escorts her home with plenty of police protection. There seems no way that Lola can die at the appointed time of the midnight chimes. I enjoyed the ominous menace of the ticking clock and the wind howling outside. I reckon this is better than Adolphe Menjou's other Thatcher Colt mystery, The Circus Queen Murder. This is the first time I've seen Mayo Methot in a movie. She plays Lola with her 1930s crimp-waved platinum blonde look.

Night club hostess Mayo Methot is well connected. She's got enough pull that when she's threatened with death at midnight, police commissioner Adolphe Menjou and eight men show up to gather around her; if someone wants to get to her, they'llhavd to go through this mob... which they. At midnight, she screams and dies. Now Menjou must find out not only who killed her, but how and why.

It's a pretty good murder mystery, based on a book by Fulton Oursler writing as Anthony Abbott. Of course, it's a lot of talk with a list of about half a dozen witnesses who saw nothing, and no suspects, until Menjou gathers them all together to go ver what he knows and draws his conclusion, which came as a surprise to me. Director Irving Cummings keeps things moving along all the way through.

This film is a chance to see the 3rd Mrs. Bogart, May Methot....a woman whose fights with her famous husband are the stuff of legends. Back in the early 30s, Mayo was a star but her off-screen behaviors soon relegated her to supporting actress status.

When the story begins, someone has informed party girl Lola (Methot) that she will be dead by midnight. Just who this is an why is unknown and the Police Commissioner himself (Adolph Menjou) is taking the case. Apart from announcing the murder ahead of time, it's a mostly by the numbers murder mystery...the type they made by the hundreds or thousands during that era. Ultimately, however, the film ends on a high note...a shrill and thrilling Pre-Code ending that I'll keep to myself so I won't spoil anything.

Having the smooth Menjou in the lead sure didn't hurt this one and overall it's well worth your time. It is not super-remarkable but reasonably entertaining and, at times, clever.

Author Anthony Abbot (real name Charles Fulton Oursler), no doubt inspired by the success of S. S. Van Dine's Philo Vance, created the fictional detective Thatcher Colt, New York City Police Commissioner, first appearing in 1930's "About the Murder of Geraldine Foster," finishing with a total of 14 stories in all. Novel number 3, 1931's "About the Murder of the Night Club Lady," served as the inspiration for this attempt at a series from Columbia, casting the debonair and dapper Adolphe Menjou as the sophisticated Police Commissioner, adeptly demonstrating his multilingual lip reading abilities, with screen newcomer Ruthelma Stevens as his faithful assistant Miss Kelly. The lady in question is Lola Carewe (Mayo Methot), whose plans to celebrate New Years Eve are upset by harrowing death threats. Determined to go out anyway, it's Thatcher Colt who learns of her plight by reading her lips across the room, gathering a police force around her in her own apartment. Unfortunately, her appointed midnight date with death really happens, right in the middle of her living room, surrounded by Colt's men. It's a genuine puzzler, greatly benefiting from its pre-code frankness, with Skeets Gallagher and Nat Pendleton providing light comedy relief. Mayo Methot is best remembered, not for her ten year Hollywood career that ended by 1940, but by her tempestuous 7 year marriage to Humphrey Bogart, who gave up on her violent drunkenness for happiness with Lauren Bacall (Mayo had already divorced twice before). While this was Mayo Methot's second film, it was the first for virtual unknown Ruthelma Stevens, whose future career was surprisingly undistinguished, only twelve featured roles out of 29 credits, the last in 1951. Her Miss Kelly is quite a sexy, smart, and savvy presence, perhaps closer to Thatcher Colt than Della Street to Perry Mason. Their best scene has him asking her to lie down on the couch, her priceless, quizzical, and slightly shocked look not precluding her following orders, only for him to demonstrate the murder victim's recumbent position, his ear at her bosom ("well, looks like I'm making progress, eh Kelly?"). The excellent supporting cast includes underrated Teru Shimada, who once passed himself off as Mr. Moto in 1938's "Mr. Moto's Last Warning," but may be more familiar to viewers for his ubiquitous presence on television in the 60s, plus his villainous turn as Osato in the James Bond thriller "You Only Live Twice." A direct sequel followed a year later, "The Circus Queen Murder," then a one-shot at PRC in 1942, "The Panther's Claw."