Stars: Ray Walker, Irene Ware, Hedda Hopper Director: Charles Lamont When a pair of detectives investigates the murder of an aging millionaire, they find there is no shortage of suspects, many of them in the victim's own family!
I'm starting to find these 1930s murder, mysteries quite enthralling; this was an especially good one. I really like listening to the dialogue - people of a certain class spoke so well back then. Or at least the writers of the screenplays chose to write their scripts in a more intelligent and refined manner, which was probably a reflection of society at the time. Quite a convoluted plot line, on a par with with Agatha Christie.
Their sophisticated, somewhat English speech is called the Transatlantic accent. It was used by actors, politicians, news broadcasters and others up until the 1950s. Listen to FDR, Bette Davis, H.V. Kaltenborn (broadcaster). The last public figure to use it was probably William F. Buckley Jr.
@@tamarahiney8288 Hi Tamara, I'm baby boomer as well, I recently found here in you tube the old man that cry wolf with Edward G. Robinson, and the lesser evil, from the 70's and 80's. both very good movies. I'm also enjoy very much this old black and white movies.
At 6:56, Hedda Hopper came on the scene smoking a cigarette and talking with the retired detective. Hedda was a famous columnist who wrote gossip about the Hollywood stars in the 1940's and onward until she either retired or passed away. She wore crazy hats to be noticed during that period of her life. I have never seen her as an actress so this was fun! Thank you, Pizza!!
Berton Churchill reveals years of working on the stage through his mannerisms. He "phones it in" the first half of the picture but exerts himself a bit the second half. It's great seeing him play a good guy for a change. Irene Ware was pretty. Thanks for putting this on the Web. I enjoyed watching.
@PizzaFlix Thank you for another delightful movie. There were twists and turns till the very end, but I figured out who did it long before then. I love these old movies.
This Was Quite an interesting"who done it" w plenty of suspects!! Hedda Hopper was Quite an actress& very tall,too! She was the mother of Willam Hopper who played Paul Drake in the Perry Mason tv series of 50's-60's.Ms.Hopper layer became a Hollywood columnist on par w Louella Parsons.Thanks.PizzaFlix4 Sharing this well- made film!!
Quite the little backstabber was Hedda. She used her friend J Edgar Hoover to dig up dirt on movie people, and assisted Joe McCarthy in his communist witch hunt that destroyed a lot of lives and careers.
4-26-17. Now this is probably the. 4 or 5th. time. I've see this movie,. but you know it gets better every time Thanks once again for uploading it for people to enjoy !
Like a well-written piece of music - maybe a Sibelius Symphony or tone poem - it warrants being watched more than once. You can't say that about a film that is lacking essential quality, when once may be too many!
Man alive the ending was priceless. The man says who asked you & she says I'm telling you that we are getting married 😅 Brilliant movie, thank you for sharing.
It's nice to see Berton Churchill in a leading role.He is still a bit grumpy as usual but he's more sympathetic and nice here and he's gonna get married!
These old movies get a new lease of life on the internet , they would have disappeared because of the film quality for tv ,,but film lovers will be able to feast on these for ever
One interesting thing about all these murder mysteries is the people all are of the wealthy type with all those gowns and tuxedos there is never any average people in these type movies, I doubt the average person of that time could afford any of the life style shown in these movies. It would be great if these movies would have average people involved in such movies and if such movies even exist but thank you for finding these.
Carl Mac These were the depression years when most people didn't have 2 coins to rub together and if you did have 2 coins most likely you owed someone 3. Watching movies with fine clothes and elegant manners helped people forget what it was like in the real world for a while.Seeing people on screen portraying a mirror image of their own life would just be boring.
Maybe the less than wealthy people were too busy trying to earn a crust to have time to get up to illegal activity wheres the idle rich had too much time on their hands. I know I generalize and this doesn't ring true across the board but it could be partly true.
I have found that the old black n whites are great! They don't have the special effects, or CGI. They have to rely on a good script. Good acting. And, the lighting specialist. That's a lost art , the effort put into the proper lighting made the B n W's great. Thanks to all that have contributed.
And all to never reappear but, captured for ever-and-all time in B&W !! Since you like all about the era, Carol, be sure to investigate the World's Fair of olde '39 held in San Francisco. It's patron was Goddess PACIFICA!! She was terrific, being eighty-feet high! Whenever I think of her, my heart races!
Nice movie with a surprise ending. I love these old movies. This one had a remarkably clean image for a movie from 1936. Often movies of this vintage are very poor transfers to video. There were some slight missing bits now and then for a few seconds or so and occasionally signs of dirt or other marks on the original film. Thanks for posting this.
Notice the manners at the beginning. The maid says “Thank you for asking.” The young woman enters and tells the elderly mantl be seated but he waits until she sits first. This was the courtesy of men standing when a woman came into the room and no sitting until she is seated. This kind of deference and courtesy was taken for granted by early feminists eager to get rid of it. Look what you have now.
I was watching the closed captions. it is a wonderful help for the deaf and hearing-loss population. but the words in the subtitles need to be an accurate presentation of one language to the other. no?.
Spoiler follows below. I call that ending a vicious cheat, the kind that the mystery writers of the golden age had agreed not to use. Nevertheless, an entertaining movie.
Chesterfield was a remarkable Poverty Row company which owned ten third-run theaters and figured that they could break even if they kept their budgets to $15,000. They were absorbed into the Republic merger. First movie I've seen with Aggie Herring.
All remaining great problems of our times should be treated in the media as mysteries to be solved via the input of possibly millions of people interested in them. All rational answers to them should be sufficiently published and discussed online. - Or has that already. been sufficiently done so far, anywhere, in in any country? - JZ, 7.1.21.
I love these old movies and I just felt some sadness ove the fact this Pandemic has shut down all the theaters. We have a beautiful classic Theater, The Castro, here in SF that shows old movies frequently. I miss it. They have a huge organ that comes out of the orchestra pit and plays every night between or before movies. Hope we get it all back someday. WEAR YOUR MASK. IT'S NOT A JOKE.
Alvin, wearing five dollar masks is not going to stop a microscopic virus. FAKE NEWS!!! Wear a military style gas mask maybe you'll be safe, but change the filters often....
Alvin........You wear that stupid and useless mask. Instead, you might want to wash your hands frequently and stay the hell at home if you're sick, instead of parading around in public!
