In most of John Barrymore's scenes he gazes into space rather than at the person who is sharing the scene with him (it works because he is always plotting, planning and second guessing people's reactions) but the other actors put up with it because they knew he was reading his lines from an off camera blackboard. He was counting on a handful of movies to pull him out of his debts but the bad publicity resulting from drink and a failing memory made prospects look bleak. His memory may have gone but as "Night Club Scandal" proved, his inimitable style was still there in spades and it brought class and pizazz to a remake of a small time 1932 who-done-it "Guilty As Hell" - although Adrienne Ames, Noel Francis and Claire Dodd have a more tantalizing appeal than the forgettable Louise Campbell.
Rescripted by Lillie Hayward to bring focus onto John Barrymore, he plays Dr. Ernest Tindall who as the first scene unfolds is shown to have murdered his wife (calm demeanour, stepping over the body etc) His clinical methods are all part of his plan to frame her lover and with Tindall's over emotion at the scene of the crime it is easy for the police (gritty Charles Bickford) and press (loopy Lynne Overman, channelling Lee Tracy) to fall into his way of thinking.
There are also enough people at the apartment (landlady, cook etc) to paint Tindall's deceased wife as a woman with no loyalty to her husband and a bit of a good time gal (a role tailor made for the original version's Claire Dodd). Louise Campbell had come along causing no great stir but as a leading lady in a few of the Bulldog Drummond's must have been used to the eccentricities of John Barrymore. It is up to the stalwarts - Bickford, Overman, Barrymore, with the always watchable J. Carroll Naish and Evelyn Brent (absolutely stunning in her first scene in a slinky spangled evening gown) as a shady night club duo who give the movie it's punch!! Also one of the lamest endings ever - whoever thought of it, it shouldn't have finished in that way!!
Rescripted by Lillie Hayward to bring focus onto John Barrymore, he plays Dr. Ernest Tindall who as the first scene unfolds is shown to have murdered his wife (calm demeanour, stepping over the body etc) His clinical methods are all part of his plan to frame her lover and with Tindall's over emotion at the scene of the crime it is easy for the police (gritty Charles Bickford) and press (loopy Lynne Overman, channelling Lee Tracy) to fall into his way of thinking.
There are also enough people at the apartment (landlady, cook etc) to paint Tindall's deceased wife as a woman with no loyalty to her husband and a bit of a good time gal (a role tailor made for the original version's Claire Dodd). Louise Campbell had come along causing no great stir but as a leading lady in a few of the Bulldog Drummond's must have been used to the eccentricities of John Barrymore. It is up to the stalwarts - Bickford, Overman, Barrymore, with the always watchable J. Carroll Naish and Evelyn Brent (absolutely stunning in her first scene in a slinky spangled evening gown) as a shady night club duo who give the movie it's punch!! Also one of the lamest endings ever - whoever thought of it, it shouldn't have finished in that way!!