**SPOILERS** Whodunit with an unusual multiracial cast for that time-1933-with African/American Fred Snowflake Toons as the taxi driver and Otto Yamaoka as the Arnold's Japanese houseboy Kono. In fact some ten years later Yamaoka was rounded up with some 150,000 fellow Japanese Americans and put in an internment camp for the duration of WWII as a possible dangerous enemy alien despite him being a native born American citizen.
In the film "Smiling" Ralph Bellamy playing the part of police inspector Trent is called to the Arnold Mansion in Forest Lake NY to check out threats against Edward Arnold's, William Jeffreys, life. Arnold feels that someone is out to get him to fore-fill a third generation Arnold family curse that has him slated to die before the clock strikes midnight! Sure enough as a storm hits the area around the midnight hour Arnold suddenly drops dead right in front of Inspt. Trent and some half dozen witnesses including his personal doctor David Marsh, Arthur Pierson!
It's soon determined by the local coroner that Aronld didn't die of fright as at first thought but of an injection of cyanide potassium. With Dr. Mrash giving Arnold an injection for his heart condition just hours before his sudden death he becomes the #1 suspect in his murder. Inspt. Trent for some reason feels that Dr. Marsh is innocent in Arnold's murder because it was so obvious to him that he was set up to take the blame for it! Inspt. Trent concentrates on those at the mansion at the time of Arnold's death which included his best friend the mysterious John Fry, Clude Gillingwater. It was Fry back in 1918, in far off China, who saved Arnold's life from a rare and tropical disease. There's also the mystery of the late Edward Arnold's live in secretary Janet Holt, June Collyer, who as it later turned out was the reason, without her having a clue about it, for Arnold's murder.
***SPOILERS*** As Inspt. Trent starts to uncover the mystery behind Arnold's murder he zeros in on Arnold houseboy Kono who not only knows who was behind his "Master's" murder but what was the instrument of murder that he used to kill him. There's also the late Arnold's shyster lawyer Howard B. Smith, Bradley Page, and John Fry's estranged wife Marvis, Betty Blythe. The two are involved in trying to get their hands on Janet's late moms diary locked in the Arnold mansion's safe that reveals the true reasons for Arnold's infatuation with both her and her daughter that may have well been the real reason for his murder.
A little on the complicated side "Before Midnight" does keep the audience as well as Inspt. Trent guessing to who murdered Arnold who as it turned out was someone as close to him as his very shadow. The surprise ending came so unexpectedly that it even took the cool and collective Inspt. Trent by surprise even though he was the one who figured it out!
In the film "Smiling" Ralph Bellamy playing the part of police inspector Trent is called to the Arnold Mansion in Forest Lake NY to check out threats against Edward Arnold's, William Jeffreys, life. Arnold feels that someone is out to get him to fore-fill a third generation Arnold family curse that has him slated to die before the clock strikes midnight! Sure enough as a storm hits the area around the midnight hour Arnold suddenly drops dead right in front of Inspt. Trent and some half dozen witnesses including his personal doctor David Marsh, Arthur Pierson!
It's soon determined by the local coroner that Aronld didn't die of fright as at first thought but of an injection of cyanide potassium. With Dr. Mrash giving Arnold an injection for his heart condition just hours before his sudden death he becomes the #1 suspect in his murder. Inspt. Trent for some reason feels that Dr. Marsh is innocent in Arnold's murder because it was so obvious to him that he was set up to take the blame for it! Inspt. Trent concentrates on those at the mansion at the time of Arnold's death which included his best friend the mysterious John Fry, Clude Gillingwater. It was Fry back in 1918, in far off China, who saved Arnold's life from a rare and tropical disease. There's also the mystery of the late Edward Arnold's live in secretary Janet Holt, June Collyer, who as it later turned out was the reason, without her having a clue about it, for Arnold's murder.
***SPOILERS*** As Inspt. Trent starts to uncover the mystery behind Arnold's murder he zeros in on Arnold houseboy Kono who not only knows who was behind his "Master's" murder but what was the instrument of murder that he used to kill him. There's also the late Arnold's shyster lawyer Howard B. Smith, Bradley Page, and John Fry's estranged wife Marvis, Betty Blythe. The two are involved in trying to get their hands on Janet's late moms diary locked in the Arnold mansion's safe that reveals the true reasons for Arnold's infatuation with both her and her daughter that may have well been the real reason for his murder.
A little on the complicated side "Before Midnight" does keep the audience as well as Inspt. Trent guessing to who murdered Arnold who as it turned out was someone as close to him as his very shadow. The surprise ending came so unexpectedly that it even took the cool and collective Inspt. Trent by surprise even though he was the one who figured it out!