A Night for Crime

Plot synopsis:
Joe Powell (Lyle Talbot) a publicity director for a film studio visits his girlfriend Susan Cooper (Glenda Farrell). When they hear a woman scream, they find out that Ellen Smith who lives across the street has been strangled to death in her apartment. Later, an actress named Mona Harrison (Lina Basquette) who recently disappeared makes newspaper headlines. Police chief Williams (Forrest Taylor) interviews all the people who was at her home for a dinner party the night before, and that after Moan's servants quit she offers to take everyone out for dinner, but never show up at the restaurant. Susan decides to search Mona's bedroom and finds a safe. She hides in the closet when a man enters the room. She is nearly strangled to death until detective Hoffman (Ralph Sanford) enters the room and the assailant escapes.
Joe and Susan later learn that Mona has been found dead, and the coroner determines that although Ellen was murdered by a man, Mona was killed by a woman. Joe is later nearly killed by an unseen assailant as he checks his office files for Mona's twin sister Marie. Susan decides to leave for Reno, Nevada. Concerned about Susan's safety Joe, Hamilton Hart (Donald Kirke) and Carol Lynn heads for Reno. Meanwhile, Susan is nearly driven off the road by Arthur Evans (Rick Vallin). When Susan goes to the hotel she meets Joe, Carol, Hart and also Mona's sister Marie. Susan reveals that Arthur was married to Marie and they were blackmailing Mona. When Mona refused to pay more money, Marie kills her and Arthur killed Ellen who was a witness to Mona's murder. Marie becomes violent and in her fury, she accidentally falls to her death from the hotel window.

Tags: mystery

Review:
Old Fashioned Murder Mystery.
This is an above average PRC mystery.
Lyle Talbot is cast as a movie studio publicity man.
Glenda Farrell is his brash, wise-cracking girlfriend.
When a studio movie star goes missing Talbot is sent out to find her.
What he finds instead is a murder case.
There is nothing new here and it is the type of story that was popular a decade previous.
Ralph Sanford plays the too stupid to be real detective in charge of the murder case.
This film is not terrific, but it never gets boring as it often the problem with PRC films.
It's really a tribute to old pros Talbot and Farrell, who manage to keep this baby entertaining despite a low budget and a so-so screenplay..
Amateurish but still rather charming mystery-comedy.
Joe Powell, movie studio publicity man, visits Susan Cooper, Hollywood reporter, at her apartment.
He proposes, she laughingly refuses, Joe takes a phone call from the bossand suddenly there's a scream from across the hall!
A young actress is found murdered in her room.
And where is Mona Harrison, the studio's biggest star?
Mr. Hart, studio producer, is going to be out $300,000 if Mona doesn't show up to finish her work on their latest picture.It's a Hollywood mystery that makes no sense and contains no great suspense yet somehow manages to be quite entertaining.
Lyle Talbot and Glenda Farrell are enthusiastic as Joe and Susan; Farrell is fine as the spunky and quick-thinking reporter, while Talbot makes a game effort at portraying a smooth talker with a winning wit—a task made difficult by a script that is sorely lacking in originality and cleverness.Since it's a pretty silly movie, Ralph Sanford probably comes across best as the very silly police detective Hoffman.
Big and dumb, Hoffman is supposed to say idiotic things—and indeed he does, often amusingly.
Ralph Sanford does look like he's having fun.A typical exchange occurs when Farrell pretends to confess to the murder and meets Hoffman's objections: "But I had a motive, Hoffman, I had a wonderful motive." "Yeah?
What?" "Well, you see, Ellen bought a dress exactly like one of mine.
Now you know what that does to a woman" --Is that funny?
Not exactly.
But delivered by actors who look like they're convinced that it is funnyit is actually kind of humorous.
And that's pretty much true of the film as a whole.The Hollywood setting is interesting.On Talbot's studio office wall is a movie poster for another PRC production, The Panther's Claw.
Presumably the film's "Motion Picture Associates" is a studio not unlike the genuine Producers Releasing Corporation.
So does the film's creative but ethically challenged studio boss, Mr. Hart, bear any resemblance to real life studio execs?
I could not say.Overall, it's an enjoyable enough picture for viewers willing to let its good-natured and unassuming air overshadow its many weaknesses..
Even by B-mystery standards, this cop is REALLY stupid!.
PRC annoying lady--voice from hell--neighborIn most B-mysteries, there are a lot of clichés you come to expect if you watch a lot of these films.
One of the most familiar is the stupid cop investigating the case.
In reality NO COP is as dumb as these guys and they specialize in coming up with elaborate theories and trying to make the evidence fit their crazy preconceptions.
In the case of "A Night for Crime" the cop (Hoffman) isn't just dumb...he's practically brainless!
This is a deficit in the film as you can't help but wonder WHICH police force would ever hire such a guy or give him such authority!
Fortunately, the other cliché the films has are the amateurs who somehow know MORE than all the cops...and in this case Susan (Glenda Farrell) and Joe (Lyle Talbot) can't help but be smarter than the police!The case begins with a scream...and Joe and Susan find a body in the nearby apartment.
Almost instantly, the dopey detective shows up and Hoffman proves he's one of the dumbest policemen in the history of films.
Plus, in addition to the body, there's a missing woman to be found.
So, the reporter and publicity man decide to figure out the case when the police are so easily baffled.
So is the film any good?
As I already mentioned, it has a lot of clichés.
The only thing that saves it, a bit, is Glenda Farrell--an actress who usually plays snappy-talking broads.
She is enjoyable..
Comedy, wisecracks, and of course, murder!.
While Glenda Farrell and Lyle Talbot don't come close to becoming a second rate Nick and Nora Charles, they are somewhat amusing as they get involved in a disappearance and a murder investigation in this low budget mystery.
You can't expect a Glenda Farrell film without wisecracks (see any of her 30's Warner Brothers films with Joan Blondell for proof of this), and she has many here as a variation of her former Torchy Blane character.
Fellow Warners alumnus Talbot is the publicity man who helps her solve the mystery of what happened to movie star Lina Basquette.
The film slows down to a snail's pace every time Farrell is off screen, but for a low budget film, the set is pretty snazzy looking.
Fellow former "A" lister Jean Parker would move into the ranks as a variation of Farrell's character in two "Kitty O'Day" features which had similar formulas..
As cheap as they come.
There is low budget, there is no budget, and then there is "A Night For Crime".
This is an astonishingly cheap movie, with few exterior shots and even fewer wide shots, probably to avoid exposure of the underdressed sets.
Glenda Farrell plays a character very similar to her famous Torchy Blane (a reporter with a knack for solving murder mysteries), only without the same spark (though she has the occasional good line).
Lyle Talbot is OK as the male lead, though he doesn't do anything that a hundred other male leads couldn't do in his place.
Ralph Sanford has some amusing moments as a Gahagan-like dumb cop, though I found him funnier in "Adventures Of Kitty O'Day" (where he played practically the same part).
The mystery plot is not uninteresting, however this film is overcome by its cheapness.