SYNOPSIS AND CAST LIST: Who killed Steven Kester (Claude Gillingwater), one of the meanest, grouchiest misers in Massachusetts? It has to be one of the guests at a midnight masquerade party, hosted by his daughter, Jean Kester (Shirley Grey). Perhaps the novelist hero, Bill Tracy (Charles Starrett)? Or Jean's pretty boy Romeo, Cliff (William Bakewell)? Or the millionaire's secretary, Pritchard (Alden Chase)? Or the secretary's lovely wife (Dorothy Revier)? Or the tycoon's housekeeper, Dora (Aggie Herring)? Or his butler, Lenox (Elmer Ballard)? Or his former partner, Hall (Arthur Clayton)? It's certainly not loud-mouthed Inspector Crofton (John Wray). Or the inspector's amiable offsider, Regan (Ben Hendricks, junior), or one of his uniformed motorcycle policemen (Frank Hagney), or the medical examiner (Frank LaRue). Nor the banker (Edward Le Saint), broker (Robert Frazer), chemist (John Elliott), lawyer Howe (Lloyd Whitlock), nor a guy named Raynor (Edward Keane), because their roles are too small.
Director: RICHARD THORPE. Screenplay: Andrew Moses and Harriette Ashbrook. Based on the 1931 novel The Murder of Steven Kester by Harriette Ashbrook. No film editor credited. Photography: M.A. Andersen. Art director: Edward C. Jewell. Music director: Abe Meyer. Assistant director: Melville Shyer. Sound recording: L.E. Clark. Producer: George R. Batcheller. A Chesterfield Production, shot at Universal Studios.
Copyright 14 June 1934 by Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 15 June 1934. U.K. release through Gaumont British: 22 December 1934. Never theatrically released in Australia. 7 reels. 67 minutes.
NOTES: Starrett's 26th of 166 movies.
COMMENT: Harriette Asbrook's novel attracted a fair amount of critical attention back in 1931. Not that there was anything remarkable about the routine plot, the stereotyped characters or the drawing-room dialogue. (Best line is the hero's put-down to the police captain who describes him as a novelist: "I'm not exactly a novelist. I write detective stories.")
What Miss Ashbrook did to break ground in the mystery field was to develop a plot capable of two different but entirely tenable solutions. These two scenarios are both entirely compatible with the facts. It's not until the last pages of the novel that one is eliminated and the other proved beyond doubt.
The movie version muffs these opportunities. Mind you, the novel ran to a mighty 812 pages. Andrew Moses was forced to make drastic cuts to condense it down to 67 minutes.
Fortunately, the players do somewhat come to the rescue. Claude Gillingwater easily steals the limelight as the surly Kester. We likewise enjoyed Ben Hendicks' ingratiating study of Wray's amiable assistant, and Arthur Clayton's nicely relaxed, pleasurable ease as the main suspect. Starrett is interesting too, as the buttinski writer, and Miss Grey makes a viable heroine who confounds the mold by not making so much as a single glance in our hero's direction. Inspector Wray, however, gets on our nerves a bit with his two limited styles of dialogue delivery: — loud and extra loud.
Director Richard Thorpe has valiantly tried to give this over- long talk-fest a bit of pace, but is stymied by the almost total lack of action. Nonetheless, by the humble standards of Poverty Row, production values are reasonably glossy.
Director: RICHARD THORPE. Screenplay: Andrew Moses and Harriette Ashbrook. Based on the 1931 novel The Murder of Steven Kester by Harriette Ashbrook. No film editor credited. Photography: M.A. Andersen. Art director: Edward C. Jewell. Music director: Abe Meyer. Assistant director: Melville Shyer. Sound recording: L.E. Clark. Producer: George R. Batcheller. A Chesterfield Production, shot at Universal Studios.
Copyright 14 June 1934 by Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 15 June 1934. U.K. release through Gaumont British: 22 December 1934. Never theatrically released in Australia. 7 reels. 67 minutes.
NOTES: Starrett's 26th of 166 movies.
COMMENT: Harriette Asbrook's novel attracted a fair amount of critical attention back in 1931. Not that there was anything remarkable about the routine plot, the stereotyped characters or the drawing-room dialogue. (Best line is the hero's put-down to the police captain who describes him as a novelist: "I'm not exactly a novelist. I write detective stories.")
What Miss Ashbrook did to break ground in the mystery field was to develop a plot capable of two different but entirely tenable solutions. These two scenarios are both entirely compatible with the facts. It's not until the last pages of the novel that one is eliminated and the other proved beyond doubt.
The movie version muffs these opportunities. Mind you, the novel ran to a mighty 812 pages. Andrew Moses was forced to make drastic cuts to condense it down to 67 minutes.
Fortunately, the players do somewhat come to the rescue. Claude Gillingwater easily steals the limelight as the surly Kester. We likewise enjoyed Ben Hendicks' ingratiating study of Wray's amiable assistant, and Arthur Clayton's nicely relaxed, pleasurable ease as the main suspect. Starrett is interesting too, as the buttinski writer, and Miss Grey makes a viable heroine who confounds the mold by not making so much as a single glance in our hero's direction. Inspector Wray, however, gets on our nerves a bit with his two limited styles of dialogue delivery: — loud and extra loud.
Director Richard Thorpe has valiantly tried to give this over- long talk-fest a bit of pace, but is stymied by the almost total lack of action. Nonetheless, by the humble standards of Poverty Row, production values are reasonably glossy.