Review of The Menace

Except for "Seed" (1931), I've now seen every Bette Davis film she made until 1951. Last night I watched "The Menace" (1932) with Arthur Byron, H. B. Warner, Bette Davis, Natalie Moorhead, William B. Davidson, Crauford Kent, Halliwell Hobbes, and Charles K. Gerrard, along with a couple of other minor characters. The print was so bad that I still have eye strain this morning! The sound was so good I had to listen to it at "4" out of "100". But I watched it all the way through. This is a minor, very old fashioned murder mystery with Gerrard thrown in for comedy relief. The comedy is broad and over-the-top and wears itself out. Still, overall, this is a decent mystery, one we know how to solve from the beginning, but we watch the protagonist solve the mystery all by himself - this, after he's been accused of murdering his father, been put in prison, escaped from prison, been severely burned in an oil fire (a business where's he's made a fortune in the three years since he escaped!), had plastic surgery to the point no one recognizes him, gone back to England to the old mansion where the baddies are still encamped, etc., etc., etc. Fun to watch, or, more correctly, should have been. It was torturous watching the bad print, but I felt compelled enough by the pot boiling to get boiled. This mornin' I'm a hot daddy with eye strain.