The Roadhouse Murder

Let's see if I have this right. A newspaper reporter and his girl friend are caught in a downpour. Their car is stuck in the mud so they stagger off to the nearest hostelry where they stumble on a murder. Most people would call the cops. But not our plucky newsman. He plants clues implicating himself as the killer so that he can cover the story from a unique angle. Of course, he has something that will prove his innocence. And of course...duh!!!!...that item mysteriously vanishes. Which means unless a miracle occurs, he's going to the chair. Okay, it was 1932 and movies were just learning to talk. But this has to be one of the dumbest ideas for a thriller, even for those early days. On the other hand, idiotic as it is, it's curiously entertaining.

Reporter stumbles upon murder scene and gets the harebrained idea of framing himself for it. This will allow him to write a great human interest story about the thoughts and feelings of a man being hunted by the police. And of course he can prove that he didn't do it, when the time comes. And of course he winds up in much too close proximity to the electric chair. (What his cute g.f. Dorothy Jordan sees in this loser is a mystery to me.) The plot is as silly here as in nearly every other variation of the one where some moron frames himself for murder with good intentions, but Jordan is perky and helps carry the film in one of her bigger RKO roles. Seeing her name in the credits was the primary reason I watched this picture.

Despite the story problems, picture is also well made by director J Walter Ruben (this was the second film of his that I had ever seen). Ruben and his films are largely forgotten, but he was one of the first writer-director double threats of the sound era, working nearly a decade at RKO before moving over to MGM where he produced but only occasionally directed, before his premature death in the early 1940s. Most of his films are well worth seeking out. TROUBLE FOR TWO, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Suicide Club," is outstanding.

Eric Linden is in trouble with his newspaper's publisher. Nonetheless, he continues his secret romance with the boss's daughter, Dorothy Jordan. They go for a drive, but their car gets stuck in the mud outside a roadhouse. They take shelter inside. Their host is murdered, and they discover enough clues to lead to the actual murder. But Linden gets the hare-brained idea to plant clues to make himself the suspect. This will give him a chance to write the lead story for the paper every day for weeks. He gives the exonerating clues to Miss Jordan.

Things don't go as planned.

It's one of those ideas that aren't appealing, but under director J. Walter Ruben, once you accept the premise, it's handled well. Cinematographer J. Walter Hunt offers some excellent Old Dark House lighting in the first half, made creepier by extensive Dutch angles. An excellent cast, including Purnell Pratt, Roscoe Ates, Bruce Cabot, Gustav von Seyfferitz, and Roscoe Karns help to make it more entertaining, if not believable.

Top-billed Dorothy Jordan had not been having the most stellar career over at MGM. Trained as a dancer, her movie roles had not earned her good notices. Nonetheless, she began dating RKO's Executive in Charge of Production. She married him in 1933, and they remained wedded until his death. Unfortunately, her honeymoon interfered with her career, and she chose love over the role that was taken by Ginger Rogers in FLYING DOWN TO RIO. She died in 1988 at the age of 82.

Watched "The Roadhouse Murder" (1932) with Eric Linden, Dorothy Jordan, Purnell Pratt, Roscoe Ates, Roscoe Karns, David Landau, Bruce Cabot, Phyllis Clare, Gustav von Seyffertitz, and others. Good little thriller that is beyond the bounds of credulity, but as a piece of watchable entertainment is a great way to kill 73 minutes. Linden works for a newspaper, and when he discovers a murder, he takes the blame to catch the real murderer. Right. Who's gonna do that?? No one. Yet this plays. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Looking at the cast, you can guess who the baddie is by the date the film was made. No, it's not Seyffertitz. This was recently released by Warner Archive Collection. Linden can be on or off for me, the viewer. Here he was on. My wife thought he looked as if he were 12. I'd have put him at least at 17. Nevertheless, he was actually 23, and he was playing a character at least that age or more. Dorothy Jordan, first in the cast line-up, has a nice part, but it could have been more incisive line-wise yet added-to dimension-wise. The writing's good, but not great. Directed by J. Walter Ruben. These RKO Radio Picture films like this one were a dime a dozen in the early 30's, and though the plots are over the top, they're fun watching even now. At least I think so.

Oh, where to even start with this sad B movie.

An ambitious young reporter who wants to get married and provide for his wife gets caught in a downpour with his fiancée. They duck into an inn. Hearing noise, they find someone in the next room dead, as well as the guy who let them in. The killer was a guy looking for money, and he had a woman with him -- they find the money, but she leaves her purse behind with her name and address inside.

The reporter sets himself up as the murderer, but gives his fiancée the purse to keep to prove his innocence. He calls in the murder anonymously and then sends reports in of how it feels to be hiding and on the run from the cops.

Eric Linden plays the idiot reporter who apparently never heard of hard work rather than schemes, and Dorothy Jordan, who is in for a life of misery if she marries this guy, is his fiancée.

This was Bruce Cabot's first credited film, and soon after, he saved Fay Wray from King Kong.

The film will remind some of the Fritz Lang film, "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt," which I happen to love. It will remind you of it, and then, hopefully, you will forget the comparison since there really isn't one.