Dopey fun. One of those Dark Old House Murder Mysteries starring the pretty (and pretty much forgotten) Jean Muir who’s waiting to meet a brother not seen in over twenty years. There’s a $2 million estate to split, but only if she can prove her identity. Then again, who will prove his identity? And why are so many guests at Hotel Navarre aware of her inheritance . . . and dying of the knowledge? Enter Ricardo Cortez, a new guest and a likely suspect in a couple of the murders. The complications are . . . er . . . complicated, but with the constant howling wind and creepy atmosphere (the design of the big set giving director Alan Crosland and lenser Tony Gaudio lots of visual opportunities), solving the mystery is less important than following shifting alliances & the secret motives & identities of some amusingly shifty characters.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Where Don Ameche smiled thru his roles, Cortez smirked. It should be irritating, but he’s so ineffectual, the effect is more harmless than menacing. Born Jacob Krantz, he’s in on the joke of a nice little career with a Rudolph Valentino inspired name: Ricardo Cortez. Ole! Even his brother Stanley (that’d be Stanley Krantz) took it up as Stanley Cortez, the great cinematographer of MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS/’42 and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER/’55.
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