User Reviews

Chick Brian (Eric Linden) is a young and very eager reporter. However, eventually you see that he's not only eager but amazingly stupid--too stupid to make this film work.

Chick and his girlfriend, Mary (Dorothy Jordan) are caught out in a rain storm. The top to his car is broken and they seek comfort at the Lame Dog Inn (with an emphasis on the word 'lame'!). The place is almost deserted and soon, out of the blue, there are a couple murders. It seems that a couple did it (the guy was Bruce Cabot in his first film) BUT instead of Chick and Mary reporting what they've seen, Chick gets a brilliant idea(????). He deliberately covers up real evidence and makes it appear as if he might have committed the murders. Now what RATIONAL reason would anyone with at least half a brain have for doing this?! Chick thinks it will be cool to mess with the police and reveal the real crime after he exploits this in the paper. But, not surprisingly, once he's gotten himself implicated, extricating himself is a lot more difficult than he'd imagined (well, duh!)...and I just kept hoping that they'd send this idiot to Death Row. Anyone that dumb doesn't deserve to live! Plus, he's cocky and annoying to boot--I say fry 'em--especially because even if the moron could eventually prove he didn't do it, he'd surely go to prison for obstructing justice!

My feeling is that any film that requires the audience to suspend this much belief is a movie not worth your time. Characters behaving THIS irrationally simply make this film a chore to watch or respect. The only case where a film with a somewhat similar plot is worth seeing is Dana Andrews' "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt".

The only reason I watched this one was to catch a glimpse of ERIC LINDEN, the man who played the amputee soldier in a devastating hospital scene from GONE WITH THE WIND where Dr. Meade gives the order to amputate. I had never seen him in a starring role.

Indeed, here he looks nothing like the man in the GWTW epic--he's clean-shaven, youthful looking in a boyish sort of way that makes it hard to see how he could have played the amputee victim of war in that Selznick film classic. The make-up was a big help.

The plot has a man framing himself for murder and then unable to prove that he didn't commit the crime when the time comes for him to produce the evidence that got away when his girlfriend's pocketbook was stolen by the real culprit--BRUCE CABOT.

By now, this plot has been used many times and it has been done to better effect by directors like Fritz Lang, who used it in BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT. Here, the story is weakened by some stereotyped newspaper types (particularly ROSCOE KARNS as the fast-talking editor), and some less than stellar supporting role performances.

DOROTHY JORDAN is so-so as the femme lead and Linden is merely adequate in the role of the unwise reporter who gets caught up in circumstances beyond his control. Nothing special, but it holds the attention for its brief running time.

Eternal juvenile actor Eric Linden gives a sincere performance as a naive novice reporter who plants evidence to make him appear to be the killer at a roadside inn. Unfortunately, the evidence seems pretty tight and he ends up on the run on spite of evidence he's given girlfriend to clear him which is conviently stolen. This starts off atmospheric and a heavy rainstorm at a spooky old countryside flop House where spooky caretaker Gustav von Seyffertitz saunters around with a black cat clutched in his arm and speaks with a heavy foreign accent.

There's also a thrilling sequence where a newspaper headline indicating Linden as a suspected murderer covers the screen as within the paper, Linden is seen roaming around various locations in an effort not to be caught. However, the film is ridiculous in its plot setup with the lead character showing that young characters don't use their brains while pushing their ambition, and the courtroom sequence is just as lame brained. Chronic stutterer Roscoe Ates provides the comic relief with Roscoe Karns as the stereotypical fast talking newspaper editor and Bruce Cabot as a nasty character also involved. Even with all of the absurdities, the film is still genuinely entertaining and the atmosphere makes it seem a bit better than it really is.

When Wesley Ruggles put out a casting call for his movie "Are These Our Children" he found 3 bright stars. Eric Linden was given the leading role of the young braggart and won rave reviews. From then on he had a very up and down career (unfortunately mostly downs). He was dubbed "the tragic boy actor of the screen" and when given a meaty part often proved more memorable than the movie. Maybe this was the movie that started the "why don't I plant evidence so I can be convicted of the crime" cycle but films like "Circumstantial Evidence" (1936) and "Beyond Reasonable Doubt" (1956) posed serious questions about capital punishment, whereas with "The Roadhouse Murders", it was simply a novel twist to a tired mystery plot.

Chick Brian (Linden) a reporter on a muck raking paper (is there any other kind) is desperate to prove himself - even surprising women in their baths to get a sensational photo. His girlfriend Mary (sweet, petite Dorothy Jordan) is the daughter of the local police chief (Purnell Pratt) and as her father is not impressed with the brash Chick, they tend to meet on the sly. One of those times, they are caught in a downpour and seek shelter at the Lame Dog Inn and within an hour are embroiled in a double murder. Even though they see the murderers, Chick thinks it would be a swell idea if he with-holds evidence and plants clues showing himself to be the murderer, then he can send the paper sensational articles about life on the run and thoughts of a wanted man. To give Mary her due, she is not keen on the idea and only falls in with her idiot boyfriend when he convinces her that all she has to do is turn up at the trial with the pocket book and it will be champagne all around.

Bruce Cabot, who easily gives the most dynamic performance in the movie as the brutal thug, starts following Mary around and - yes, you guessed it, manages to steal the pocket book!! What will our intrepid dumb-cluck do now!!! Even before Chick is caught, life on the run is taking it's toll - he starts to feel hunted and guilty!!!

This was Linden's 4th movie. Even though he was versatile, his first 2 films gave him parts that were abrasive braggarts, in this he was a cocky upstart and with the next one "The Age of Consent" you guessed it - he wasn't the sensitive hero but "Duke" who loved fast cars and fast women, so is it any wonder his star faded so quickly. The maid's role was filled by the uncredited Julie Haydon - films didn't do right by her so she went to Broadway, to be the muse of George Jean Nathan and Noel Coward.