Only a few things to recommend about this early pre-code murder mystery involving the strangulation death of musical revue star Louise Brooks (dubbed with a very poor voice over) who seemed to have something on every wealthy man in New York (or on their son), threatened by ex-husband Ned Sparks. Along with the bumbling Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette), private detective Philo Vance (William Powell) seeks to find the real killer after helping his friend Charles W. Lane (no relation to the veteran character actor) deal with issues surrounding Brooks blackmailing his son, James Hall, who's in love with chorus girl Jean Arthur.
Definitely a creaky curio, only Powell and Pallette come off well, not as slow paced as the other actors who speak in monotone as if they're just rehearsing. Arthur suffers from bad sound recording, sounding like she'd just sniffed helium. Slow camera movements also makes this creep along like a snail trapped on glue. The film itself isn't badly written but the direction by Malcolm St. Clair isn't very good. A brief glimpse of the big musical number for Brooks' revue looks like it was just grabbed out of some forgotten musical film and tossed in. Extreme long delays in dialog with soundtrack noise doesn't help either. Also odd is the theory that a killer will expose themselves while playing a game of poker.
Definitely a creaky curio, only Powell and Pallette come off well, not as slow paced as the other actors who speak in monotone as if they're just rehearsing. Arthur suffers from bad sound recording, sounding like she'd just sniffed helium. Slow camera movements also makes this creep along like a snail trapped on glue. The film itself isn't badly written but the direction by Malcolm St. Clair isn't very good. A brief glimpse of the big musical number for Brooks' revue looks like it was just grabbed out of some forgotten musical film and tossed in. Extreme long delays in dialog with soundtrack noise doesn't help either. Also odd is the theory that a killer will expose themselves while playing a game of poker.