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Sunday, November 8, 2020

THE MYSTERY OF MR. X (1934)

M-G-M stuck Robert Montgomery into five films in ‘34, all sounding pretty dreary, including RIPTIDE, a prestige item with Norma Shearer.  But surely this little thriller was the most unnecessary.  A final Hollywood credit for accomplished B’way producer/ director Edgar Selwyn, his eighth since called to the coast in 1929 to make those newfangled Talkies, he never did get the hang of the medium.  On the other hand, hard to imagine anyone doing much with this.*  It starts with a decent enough twist as Montgomery is nearly trapped while stealing a valuable jewel just as a serial killer is offing a London ‘bobby’ right under his nose.  He’s officially in the clear, but even without evidence he’s detective Lewis Stone’s number one suspect.  A situation that makes his new romance with Elizabeth Allan, the already engaged daughter of Scotland Yard man Henry Stephenson, somewhat awkward!  Sure, you could run with that plot, but under Selwyn, not a spark of life in it.  Even cinematographer Oliver T. Marsh, putting out nice atmospheric work on exterior sets, is trapped by Selwyn’s laisser-faire point-and-shoot drawing room interiors.  Desperate to show some range beyond tuxedo’d pleasantries, Montgomery would campaign for a year to play the charming sociopath in Emlyn Waugh’s shocker NIGHT MUST FALL/’37.  Try that, or . . . 

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: * Not that M-G-M couldn’t put together a light, entertaining murder mystery in ‘34, it’s the year THE THIN MAN came out.

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