Crime Reporter Dan McKee’s good luck may only last a day, but fortunately he only needs it to last through an evening of murders and mayhem where he successfully “pins” the blame on the guilty party! William Beaudine’s direction is mostly relegated to a few interior set pieces revealing the stage-bound origin of the narrative, heavy with dialogue and multiple characters (suspects) speaking their turn. Unlike a Howard Hawks’ film, there is no overlapping dialogue delivered at a machine-gun pace: every character gets their moment to speak and defend themselves from blame or offer clues to the identity of the true killer. This closed-door murder mystery may not be wholly satisfying by the end but it’s rather surprising and brutal in a Pre-Code way!
NOTE: I GIVE AWAY THE ENTIRE MYSTERY IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS
OPENING STATEMENT
A mysterious man wanders into the local police precinct and confesses to a murder…he hasn’t committed yet! So, the setup concerns Dr. Emil Brandt (of distinctly German ancestry, reflective of Teutophobia in the decades after The Great War!) who treats criminals by hypnosis and mental suggestion in order to cure them of their Mens Rea. However, he is currently treating a shell-shocked bank teller (a Great War veteran!) and has gone all Svengali by convincing him to steal $100,000 from the bank and bring it to him, then the “good” Doctor will stab him through the heart with a medical instrument! He confesses this plan to Capt. Riley before it is completed, hence his appearance at the precinct. Racked with guilt, he agrees to allow the police to accompany him home to await this hypnotized patient with the cache (and cash!).
CASE IN CHIEF
Phillip Ames, the previously mentioned shell-shocked somnambulist, does indeed return to the Dr.’s house with an envelope full of cash. Now, it’s a mighty skinny envelope and we’re expected to believe there is $100,00 in cash contained therein, but I recall from my coin collecting days that there were $1,000 and $10,000 bank notes in the 30s! However, it is later stated that these were old bills and well circulated so the serial numbers couldn’t be traced. It would be rather difficult in 1930 to get untraceable bank notes of that denomination, I suppose. Now plot gets rather complicated.
Eventually Cpt. Riley (Robert Elliot) arrives as expected and sees both Mr. Ames and the cash. The Sgt. threatens to arrest Ames because now the crime isn’t inchoate, the theft has been completed! Dr. Brandt begs that he’s going to mesmerize Ames into returning the cash so the bank will never know it was stolen. The Sgt. reluctantly agrees. This seems strange because the crime was committed by Dr. Brandt, not the patient! Statute concerning Involuntary Intoxication (intoxicant being mesmerism) should apply. But this seemingly skewed perspective makes more sense in the final minutes of the story! We also learn that Dr. Brandt’s gold-digging wife Freda (Wynne Gibson) has pressured him into financial fecundity, and she and her lover plan to steal the money after the Dr. murders Ames! We also have ace crime reporter Dan McKee (Stuart Erwin) who is tailing the Cpt., looking for a lead on his next story. Also introduced is Dr. Brandt’s daughter Doris (Frances Dee) and a mysterious skulking stranger. Dr. Brandt’s Butler and Maid are thrown in for good measure (even though Bodil Rosing as the Maid overacts her small part). With all these ingredients at roughly the same place and time, out go the lights and Ames is stabbed through the heart just like Dr. Brandt planned, and Brandt is chloroformed and unconscious on the floor next to the body. Freda is assaulted and her face bruised, and hand scratched, and the money is gone! So, whodunit?
Now we get a minute respite as an objective narrator allows the audience to briefly consider each suspect and come up with their conclusion. However, this is a false premise because we haven’t been given all the information yet. Sgt. Riley gathers all of the unusual suspects (excepting one, as he’s not formally introduced yet) and they re-enact the crime. But if one of them murdered Ames and stole the envelope, then where is the money? Deduction: it must still be in the room! In the course of this strangeness Freda is stabbed in the chest with scissors when the lights go out (again) as she was about to remember some implicating fact. So, we have another body, the same suspects, missing money, and a strong motive for Dr. Brandt’s conviction. He’s arrested and taken to the station. Our scrupulous (and “scoop”-ulous) protagonist Dan McKee has other ideas and evidence, such as a lost unmatched button, an Ace of Spades from an unknown deck, a lipstick smeared glove, and a gut feeling that the incarcerated Dr. is quite moral; after all, Dan’s crushing on his daughter!
VERDICT
McKee sneaks back to the house with Doris to search for the money. But so does Freda’s beau and the unnamed stranger. When they discover the cash hidden in the liquor cabinet, it is purloined by the stranger who kisses Doris gently before absconding. Turns out this is her brother, barely mentioned in the first act! When the police arrive, the truth is shockingly revealed: Sgt. Riley committed both murders and hid the money in order to return and retrieve it secretly. Holy shit, what a Pre-Code denouement! When McKee confronts him with the Ace (from a different deck, shown in the very first Act when they’re playing cribbage in the precinct, and which cards they (McKee, Lt. Martin and Sgt. Riley) have been carrying around throughout the film, he knows he’s pinned. Gun drawn, Sgt. Riley chooses the wrong door and backs into a closet where the Lt. locks him in. With five gunshots he tries desperately to escape; the sixth ends his life. Fuck, police suicide too!
SENTENCING
Sgt. Riley gives up his long career quite suddenly, and murders for a chance at $100,000? Really? I suppose Depression Era audiences would have understood that desperate times calls for desperate measures, but there is never any motivation revealed, like he has gambling debts, medical problems or some other need for more money. It just seems like a good idea. We also need to believe that Cpt. Riley knew exactly where the chloroform was kept, having never visited the residence before. And, when all goes dark, knocks out the Dr., stabs Ames, assaults Freda and hides the money in the span of 30 seconds (at most). An analysis of darkened rooms, according to this film, reveals that when the lights are off, not only is it completely, absolutely dark with no ambient photons intruding, but all other senses cease to function! Sound is muted, sensations of fluctuating air movement upon the skin are repressed. At least McKee finally matches the button…to his own suit! Ha! Nothing like a little humor spiced with a pronouncement of procreation after a double murder and suicide, to get a girl to like you.
Final Grade: (B-)