From Warners’ ‘Clue Club’, third in a series of six mid-‘30 mystery movies, mostly adapted from novels, in hopes of starting a monthly release schedule that proved far too ambitious. This one from a Ben Hecht genre potboiler written ‘on spec’ as a personal dare to see how fast the famously speedy journalist/playwright/scripter could write a commercial bestseller dictating to a rotating staff of typists. Trimmed to essentials by Tom Reed and (considering the budget) stylishly directed by Robert Florey, it’s pretty good fun, boasting a super cast of second-leads & supporting contract players (Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay, C. Aubrey Smith, Henry O’Neill & Robert Barrat; plus a superb sniff from Herman Bing) who pull our young protagonist (the last of the murdering Borgia family) from a planned suicide. He’s helped by a suggestion from a friendly psychiatrist that rather than kill himself he should try writing it out to clear his mind. Convert your destructive thoughts into a period play on your ancestors to release your personal demons. Presto!, not only cured, but with the biggest theatrical hit in town! Alas, the star actress hired as Lucretia Borgia falls into a deep depression after her father, the play’s director, is murdered. Perhaps she’s succumbed to the Borgia family curse (method acting gone too far?). Or has the playwright reverted to type. Neither, says the psychiatrist who thought he was helping the lad. Indeed, many a secret from the recent past will need to be cleared up before uncertainties can be explained. Explained with the help of an amusingly amoral Viennese police captain.* Everyone on set seems to be having a ball making this one (not always a good sign for the movie itself, BTW), and happily the feeling is infectious. Just keep expectations to a reasonable level for best results.
READ ALL ABOUT IT/LINK: The Movie Database has this list of the Clue Club films. https://www.themoviedb.org/collection/1058366-clue-club-collection?language=en-US
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Perhaps the plot also baffled the recently empowered Hollywood Production Code who allowed someone to get off scot-free with not quite justifiable homicide!
1 comment:
This was fun, but really odd! Stylishly directed and nicely-shot, with so many plot twists and suspicious characters lurking about that it seemed longer than its 69 minutes. The short-lived Clue Club is certainly an interesting footnote to the Warner Brothers story.
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