One of the first of the Sam Katzman-produced serials at Columbia, WHO'S GUILTY is a bit different from the standard serial in that it is a murder mystery, and beginning with the second chapter each suspect is trotted out after the credits while the narrator points out incriminating things about him/her. My children saw this part of the film and though it was like the game CLUE come to life on the screen. This feels like a Monogram Charlie Chan film spread out over fifteen chapters, but minus chan and number one son and Mantan Moreland. Reliable b-movie leading man Robert Kent (Phantom Rider, She Shoulda Said No) plays a state investigator called into the case of the murder of a wealthy businessman, a man who lives in a mysterious estate and has all kinds of suspicious relatives who are waiting for their inheritance. Kent's comic sidekick (combining the number one son and Birmingham Brown roles, to continue the Chan comparison) is longtime comic actor and writer Tim Ryan, who has played similar roles in Bowery Boys and Chan films, but NEVER this dim-witted or clownish. There are constant red herrings, and the film makes some detours into subplots that wear a bit thin (a subplot in Mexico lasts three or four chapters, a gangster subplot comes up later), but 15-chapter serials almost always have some padding. Overall, this film's old-fashioned over-the-top acting (from the supporting players only--Kent is a stoic hero), occasional mysterious settings, and intriguing murder mystery add up to an entertaining, campy serial. However, unless you like the more humor-laced murder mysteries of the 40s (Boston Blackie, Chan, etc.), you probably will find this film unsatisfying and laughable. Taken in the right spirit, it can be refreshingly unpretentious entertainment and can provide a wonderful mix of laughs and thrills. Special mention should be made of Charles Middleton's wonderful performance as the suspicious butler--often sharpening knives with a gleeful look on his face!
3 Reviews
Let's Start With the Writers!!!
kidboots15 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
When wealthy old Henry Calvert's body is found in a burnt out wreck the finding is suicide - but not by FBI investigator Bob Stewart (Robert Kent). He smells something suspicious. This serial is a bit different as it involves a feuding family where everybody has a reason for wanting Henry out of the way. There are a few familiar faces - Minerva Urecal as the batty housekeeper full of superstitions and weird sayings, good old Charles Middleton as the sinister butler Parsons who is in constant communication with the usual hooded stranger and Wheeler Oakman, once a leading man in the silents but in the 40s always a heavy. He plays head gangster "Smiley" who makes his appearance around Episode 5 when some of the cast go to Mexico (obviously in search of a stiff drink)!!!
Yes, it does have a novel beginning where each of the family, who has turned up for the reading of the will, have their profiles read with the "did they or didn't they" epitaph. It still doesn't make it any easier to follow as just as it's getting interesting with question marks as to whether Ruth Allen is really who she claims, she decides to go to Mexico to try to find Henry's brother Walter.
Definitely not as peppy as Mandrake, with not enough thrills and spills to keep juvenile audiences of the day happy but not sophisticated enough for older viewers. The serial picks up pace when the Mexican locale is left and "Smiley" comes back with them to menace some of those still left at the house. The last few episodes seem to forgo the usual cliff hanger style ending and finish the stunt in the alloted time. There is one unbelievable stunt where Ruth (her stunt man or woman) is lying in the middle of the road, a car runs over her but she manages to claw her way to the bonnet, then she throws herself to safety where she collapses again - all with not a hair or lipstick out of place!!!
Amelita Ward played the heroine Ruth Allen - she was once married to Leo Gorcey of the Bowery Boys fame.
Yes, it does have a novel beginning where each of the family, who has turned up for the reading of the will, have their profiles read with the "did they or didn't they" epitaph. It still doesn't make it any easier to follow as just as it's getting interesting with question marks as to whether Ruth Allen is really who she claims, she decides to go to Mexico to try to find Henry's brother Walter.
Definitely not as peppy as Mandrake, with not enough thrills and spills to keep juvenile audiences of the day happy but not sophisticated enough for older viewers. The serial picks up pace when the Mexican locale is left and "Smiley" comes back with them to menace some of those still left at the house. The last few episodes seem to forgo the usual cliff hanger style ending and finish the stunt in the alloted time. There is one unbelievable stunt where Ruth (her stunt man or woman) is lying in the middle of the road, a car runs over her but she manages to claw her way to the bonnet, then she throws herself to safety where she collapses again - all with not a hair or lipstick out of place!!!
Amelita Ward played the heroine Ruth Allen - she was once married to Leo Gorcey of the Bowery Boys fame.
Best sleeping pill ever....
searchanddestroy-17 December 2022
And worst serial ever, and don't be surprised that it is produced by the awful Sam katzman and directed by the bland, lousy Howard Bretherton. I fell alseep after the third episode. This mystery like story is usually used for short length movies, as there were so many in the early talkies era, certainly not for a 15 episodes serial, five hours long; OK Maybe you have great suspense, if you are still awake to appreciate it. I was not that lucky. It is so slow.... Try once to compare this with a Republic Pictures serial, from the forties, the Golden era for Republic. Try to compare...But for me, it is too much dizzy to compare. MONSTER AND THE APE, the other serial from Bretherton, is also boring, but fun, involuntarily fun. So lousy, that you can't prevent yourself to laugh...
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