Given the timing right out of the silent era, this one might be forgiven for it's plodding dialog and long pauses during conversations between characters. Then again, if you're not in a forgiving mood, this might just be one of the most boring flicks you'll ever force yourself to sit through. The set up is reasonable enough, one of those self contained, lights out murder mysteries where just about everyone present had reason enough to kill the victim. I think the film writers went a little overboard peppering the suspects with a couple of ex-cons from the North Side Clan, but at least they kept investigator Devlin (Jack Mulhall) on his toes.
One unique twist to the story had to do with that 'magic slate' that the Swami used to write a cryptic message about the murder victim. By use of a magnet, he was able to manipulate a piece of steel core chalk sandwiched between two blackboards. Interesting concept, but why didn't the chalk produce a mirror image message on the alternate blackboard?
Even though the picture proceeds at a snail's pace, there are a couple of genuine laugh out loud moments to relieve the agony. How about when Detective Devlin grabs Lefty Louie by his lapels to question him about the murder - that was so over the top I had to howl. Then there was Nick Genna's defense, uttered twice, why he couldn't be the killer - he never uses a knife! Like that would have stopped him if he really meant to kill somebody. The Watkins/Watson gimmick would have worked out just fine if it hadn't been so overdone.
I got a kick out of Mischa Auer as the phony Swami Yomurda (with slight change in pronunciation, it would sound like yo-murda!). The following year, Auer portrayed another Swami in the picture "Sucker Money", but in that one he was a truly evil and scary character. That film had more to do with exposing the fake psychic racket, and of the two is the stronger picture. Another decent recommendation if you like stuff like this would be one of the Charlie Chan flicks from 1944 entitled "Black Magic". It's got everything this one does, but moves along at a quicker pace with the help of Sidney Toler and Mantan Moreland.
One unique twist to the story had to do with that 'magic slate' that the Swami used to write a cryptic message about the murder victim. By use of a magnet, he was able to manipulate a piece of steel core chalk sandwiched between two blackboards. Interesting concept, but why didn't the chalk produce a mirror image message on the alternate blackboard?
Even though the picture proceeds at a snail's pace, there are a couple of genuine laugh out loud moments to relieve the agony. How about when Detective Devlin grabs Lefty Louie by his lapels to question him about the murder - that was so over the top I had to howl. Then there was Nick Genna's defense, uttered twice, why he couldn't be the killer - he never uses a knife! Like that would have stopped him if he really meant to kill somebody. The Watkins/Watson gimmick would have worked out just fine if it hadn't been so overdone.
I got a kick out of Mischa Auer as the phony Swami Yomurda (with slight change in pronunciation, it would sound like yo-murda!). The following year, Auer portrayed another Swami in the picture "Sucker Money", but in that one he was a truly evil and scary character. That film had more to do with exposing the fake psychic racket, and of the two is the stronger picture. Another decent recommendation if you like stuff like this would be one of the Charlie Chan flicks from 1944 entitled "Black Magic". It's got everything this one does, but moves along at a quicker pace with the help of Sidney Toler and Mantan Moreland.