Based on HEADED FOR A HEARSE, Jonathan Latimer's second great novel featuring hard-drinking detective William Crane. More info on my blog, here: davycrockettsa...
What a great movie. 102 minutes of drama, comedy, & cleverly written lines that are well performed. Don’t know if it’s because I’m old or if the old B&W films of yesteryear are so much better than films of today but they sure seem so. TY for sharing a movie I can watch with the whole family that all can enjoy. Many Blessings 🙏🇺🇸💪
@@derekblattenberger2878 Most stuff in any era is garbage. There were plenty of lousy movies being made in the 1930s as well. To invoke Theodore Sturgeon's useful rule, 90 percent of everything is crap.
Supposedly there were 8 crime club movies made based on the books people subscribed to back in the day. Being a big fan of old time radio, I was immediately curious whether crime club was also done on radio. I've listened to tons of old mysteries but don't recall listening to any called crime club. I checked and there were many made, though none were called the Westland case that I could find. A grateful thank you to the poster
In 1937, Universal Pictures made a deal with Crime Club and were granted the right to select four of their yearly published novels to adapt into films. Eleven films were made in the series between 1937 and 1939. The Westland Case / The Black Doll / The Lady in the Morgue / Danger on the Air / The Last Express / The Last Warning / Gambling Ship / Mystery of the White Room / Inside Information / The House of Fear / The Witness Vanishes
Preston Foster had a TV series 'Waterfront' I always watched. He was one of the favorites in the b&w movies like Pat O'Brien, Wallace Ford, Paul Muni even, so many others - almost forgotten today. Until the internet came along and people who also like them put them up for our reminiscing enjoyment. Thank you.
thank you to this person, evanlewis, and everyone else who knows how to post and share great old movies. i don't know how to do it, at all, but i owe the people that upload them, so much. thank god for youtube and free sites. its a lifeline for so many people that you are helping. please pass this message on to any sites ike this that you admire! i consider them heroes of the quarantine, too! love to all!
Thanks for posting this movie! I enjoyed it a lot. I thought Barbara Peppers was great! And I thought the sidekick, Doc, was great, too. Helps to relax and get away from endless Coronavirus and election news!! Lol!!🍁🍁
Awesomeness ! I last heard there were only 3 celluloid 16mm of this left intact. So glad it has been digitized. In the early 60s My father owned several 16mm films. Westland case was my favorite. Thank You So Very Much for this upload !
What I especially like about these old Films is that they don't shy away from saying their age. So a "Dive" in 1937 terms is somewhere where the Argentina Tango is played. Interesting.
What? No credit for the toothless Aunt Mary?? Outrageious!!! Great movie, really enjoyed it. Not quite as witty as "The Lady in the Morgue" but Preston Foster is excellent in both, thanks! ❤️
Alice Belcher, born in NY, NY in 1880. She had her (silent) film debut in 1919, and appeared in 78 film roles from then through this Westland Case, which was her last. She died in CA in 1939, aged 59. Her roles were almost all uncredited minor roles.
A lot of people commenting on 1930s detective stories are very much aware of the humorous aspects of these films, which seem to counterbalance the "heavier" aspects like discussing how murders occur. But I was thinking, just go forward 10 years from 1937, the year this movie was made, to 1947, and you would be in the midst of the "film noir" era. Think of how this story would be done in that genre.. mostly having dark nighttime scenes, true femme fatales, and somewhat realistic action [ but still wisecracks].. What a difference ten years would have made...
The opening logo of the global ball was the new universal logo 1936, from the previous logo of the Airplane flying around the world. This is when the studio change ownership and called themselves the new universal.
Plenty of phenomenal musicals were shot in B&W (42nd Street, for one); and, earlier, there were masterpieces that were made in the Silent Film era. Look up "The Crowd", " Wings", all the comedies of Chaplin, Lloyd or Keaton, etc. God Bless the mind and legacy of Thomas Edison.
1937, and 'the new Universal'. Standard Capital took over from Carl Laemmle in 1936, after he couldn't make payments. This appears to be an independent production which Universal released. It is quite well-done. Mae West should have sued for copyright infringement.
I really like these movies with Bill Crane and his sidekick Doc, I think there's three of them. I've seen Lady in the Morgue, but I haven't been able to find The Last Warning.
there is one but for the life of me I can't remember the title but he's a writer for paper or a magazine that is against the death penalty. I wish I could remember it, it's a good movie
@@IamEvil69 It is a Bob and Ray script. Ray is hired by his newspaper to find the real killer and to free the innocent man in prison. After spending a boat load of money and traveling around the country for a year interviewing people, he comes back to his boss, the editor, to tell him that the man who was originally arrested, is, in fact, the guilty person.
I live in Chicago area too and of course recognized all the downtown street names. I guessed they were talking about lower wacker. Curious how much of it was actually filmed here.
The ending is very contrived. The mere fact that both Manny and Sprague were murdered and someone tried to kill Crane and Doc clearly shows that someone was trying to prevent Crane from proving Westland's innocence, meaning that the real killer was still out there. That would have been sufficient cause for Frazee to ask the governor for a stay of execution.
This was a fun movie. But....the Webley gun that is shown at 50:16 is a revolver and the telegram at 50:34 says a Webley automatic ( which were never made ). Webley made the revolvers shown and made semi-automatic pistols, but never made any fully automatic pistols. I wonder who got it wrong, the original author Latimer, or more likely the Hollywood screen writers? My bet is on Hollywood; they were never very good at details like this.
@@thatguyinelnorte Thanks John Bailey, I read the link and learned something today. There were several explanations but I particularly liked the explanation by Luke Blasi:..." Because automatic refers to any rifle or pistol that will automatically load a new cartridge into the chamber after the previous one is fired. Semi-automatic refers to a firearm that completes that action with each trigger pull. Fully automatic refers to the same action but without having to pull the trigger multiple times. An automatic gun can be semi-automatic or fully automatic. So automatic is more of a classification of how the gun operates whereas fully automatic or semi-automatic is more of the exact method." Very educational. I am 69 and I still enjoy learning new stuff....thanks...!!
I heard that in most b&w movies and t.v. shows, the actors sometimes wore green make-up because it made them look more natural. Dunno if that's true.🤢🧟💚
The case against Westland hardly seems solid enough to get a conviction. So the door was locked and he had the only key. So what? Keys can be duplicated. Juries are only supposed to vote to convict if the defendant's guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Could someone have stolen his key, duplicated it, and replaced it? Yes. That's a reasonable doubt. If I'd been on the jury, I would have voted for acquittal.
Another mistake is that Westland was taken from his cell to be executed, but when the warden wanted him in his office, he was back in his cell with the priest!🙀
