Reviews

A sturdy whodunit premise (various characters assembled at a French chateau, vying for an original Gutenberg Bible), potentially interesting plot details and colorful character names suggest that this is perhaps an adaptation of a good golden-age whodunit novel (perhaps one of A.E.W. Mason's Inspector Hanaud tales). However, it was actually a hastily written original for the screen, and after many reels of long, tedious exposition, the plot is resolved quickly, arbitrarily and quite unsatisfactorily. None of the promising plot elements turn out to have any real pay-off (though a good puzzle-plot writer could probably watch the first two-thirds of the film and devise an interesting resolution from what came before).

Though Richard Thorpe never became much of a director (even in his "glory" days at MGM), he certainly improved later upon this feeble early effort. Of course, the vastly superior production values at Metro certainly didn't hurt. "Chateau" was obviously shot shot quickly on standing sets at Universal.

On the plus side (not much here), the always-welcome Claire Dodd is at her loveliest here, Ferdinand Gottschalk is properly egocentric as the detective (though the script gives him no examples of deductive brilliance to justify that ego), and Osgood Perkins (Tony's father) has one beautifully dry explanation for his wife's objection to him keeping floozy Alice White company for the evening: "She's funny that way."

This film was apparently made to capitalize on the success of GREEN FOR DANGER, the classic 1946 whodunit film based on the novel by Christianna Brand. DEATH IN HIGH HEELS, based on Brand's first novel, while not up to the standard of the other film in any department, is not without interest, especially to lovers of Golden Age detective fiction. And while the "surprise" denoument is not difficult to predict, the film (at 48 minutes) hardly outstays it welcome.

This is a beautifully directed film, a fast moving whodunit remniscent of Michael Curtiz' THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (which this film preceded by a year). Adolphe Menjou is well in his element as Thatcher Colt (a very Philo Vance-ish figure), and the screenplay crackles with pre-code New York sophistication. Though the entire cast it excellent, the real star of the film is director Irving Cummings, who keeps things constantly moving with interesting camera angles, dolly shots, and even a zoom lens!

There was a sequel to this film, THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933 - directed by Roy William Neill), which, while still interesting, somewhat lessens its impact by revealing the identity of the murderer less than two/thirds through the film. And CIRCUS QUEEN had no Mura...

Mura knows!!!