This was directed by Armand Schaefer. He only directed about two dozen movies in the thirties, mainly Westerns, but they included "The Three Musketeers" with John Wayne and "The Miracle Ryder" which was the last movie of Tom Mix. Schaefer shows a nice, simple clean style and gets good production values out of this obviously low-budget film. He went on to produce the popular "Annie Oakley" and "Gene Autry" television series in the 1950's.
I spotted two recognizable actors with long careers, the lead detective, Jack Mulhall, and the Hindu Swami, Mischa Auer. Jack Mulhall was a major silent film star starting in 1914. He starred in over 150 movies from 1914 to 1933. After 1933, he hit 50, and good roles disappeared. He hung around in Hollywood doing bit parts and uncredited extra roles for the next 25 years. Mischa Auer usually played a mad Russian. He was the first to die in the Rene Clair version of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". Both give nice, professional performances here.
The gimmick in this murder mystery is that the victim appears to solve his own murder by recording an argument on a Dictaphone, one of the first primitive home recording instruments. Then again the killer just might be that creepy future seeing Swami faker that his wife likes so much. Or maybe its his oddly manly looking Lesbian assistant that does him in. There are three or four more good suspects along the way. Suspicion is thrown nicely on each suspect in turn.
The best line, "Don't call me, Watson, My name is Watkins," gets delivered several times with amateur gusto by the lead detective's assistant.
Altogether this is a rather classic and nifty one hour murder mystery story. The minor technical glitches, common for low budget films of the period, like moments of silence on the sound-track, can easily be overlooked and forgiven.
I spotted two recognizable actors with long careers, the lead detective, Jack Mulhall, and the Hindu Swami, Mischa Auer. Jack Mulhall was a major silent film star starting in 1914. He starred in over 150 movies from 1914 to 1933. After 1933, he hit 50, and good roles disappeared. He hung around in Hollywood doing bit parts and uncredited extra roles for the next 25 years. Mischa Auer usually played a mad Russian. He was the first to die in the Rene Clair version of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". Both give nice, professional performances here.
The gimmick in this murder mystery is that the victim appears to solve his own murder by recording an argument on a Dictaphone, one of the first primitive home recording instruments. Then again the killer just might be that creepy future seeing Swami faker that his wife likes so much. Or maybe its his oddly manly looking Lesbian assistant that does him in. There are three or four more good suspects along the way. Suspicion is thrown nicely on each suspect in turn.
The best line, "Don't call me, Watson, My name is Watkins," gets delivered several times with amateur gusto by the lead detective's assistant.
Altogether this is a rather classic and nifty one hour murder mystery story. The minor technical glitches, common for low budget films of the period, like moments of silence on the sound-track, can easily be overlooked and forgiven.