Lady in the Death House

Plot synopsis:
Mary Kirk Logan is led from her cell to the electric chair, to be "killed by the hand of the man I love."
A psychologist and criminologist, Charles Finch, tells her story. They first meet in a bar when Mary's dress catches fire. Dr. Bradford, having drinks with Finch, helps extinguish the fire. He takes Mary home and they fall in love.
Bradford is a scientist who hopes to develop a way to revive dead tissue. He works as an executioner for the state. Mary won't marry him unless he quits this profession.
A blackmailer is killed in Mary's apartment and she is arrested and tried. Her teenaged sister Suzy is the key to the case. Finch gets her to identify the real killer, but a race against time begins to find the governor so he can stop the execution. Bradford holds off the warden and guards until Finch can save the day.

Tags: murder

Review:
This tautly constructed little movie should serve as a model for those modern film authors who cannot unfold the simplest story line in less than two hours.The movie opens with Mary Kirk being led from her cell to walk to the death chamber.
Half way into the movie he has reached the point at which Mary was convicted and sentenced to death.
He still has not succeeded by the time we have caught up to the opening of the movie and see Mary finish her walk to the electric chair.
The remaining few minutes are a desperate race against the clock played more or less in real time.The movie does not waste an inch of film.
Particularly effective is the way in which the character of Mary's younger sister, Suzy, is handled.
Her appearances are almost always incidental to the main action, but as the movie progresses it becomes clear that she is somehow central to the solution.The nature of the plot means that the title character plays a passive rather than an active role.
Marcia Mae Jones' porcelain-doll prettiness frequently led to her being cast as a vain and foolish little madam, and her role here as Suzy suits her talents.
Lionel Atwill makes a convincing sleuth, neatly conveying a blend of scientific detachment, humanitarian concern, and an occasional twinkle of humour.Anybody who thinks that "first class B movie" is an oxymoron should study this film and learn better..
Lionel Atwill plays the hero for a change in serious-minded mystery.
Opening scene: Jean Parker walks into the death chamber to be electrocutedand the action cuts to Lionel Atwill and a roomful of reporters apparently congratulating him on cracking the case.
He tells them the tale of how he met Parker, how she came to be convicted of killing a blackmailer by whacking him over the head, and how Atwill himself grew convinced of her innocence and set about investigating.Atwill is quite smooth as Charles Finch, a well knows criminologist who says, "I keep insisting I'm a psychologist." Lionel Atwill didn't get to play the good guy every day, and he does well as the insightful and wise but also quick-thinking detective capable of decisive action.
Jean Parker is sympathetic as the earnest young woman who has a family secret from which it's hard to hide.
The role doesn't offer a lot of opportunities for showing her character's fun side, but Parker does a capable job of playing it smart and attractive.She is also the responsible one in a family that includes a wild younger sister (Marcia Mae Jones) who is obviously concealing information vital to solving the mystery.Douglas Fowley is the other lead, a young doctor ("I prefer to think of myself as a scientist") who has some bold ideas (he is developing a method to revive dead things) but is obliged to raise research money doing a job he hates down at the prison—he throws the switch when a convict is put in the electric chair.
Fun to see Atwill in a central good guy role.In the early scene where Fowley tells him his mad-scientist-type idea, I was half expecting Atwill to say something like, "Yes, I've tried that in one or two of my other films".
But when the blackmailer ends up dead on the floor, and some people saw this unfold through the window, Parker is arrested and ends up on death row.
Shortly before all this happened, she met scientist researcher Douglas Fowley and criminologist Lionel Atwill, and Fowley fell in love with her.
Atwill doesn't believe Parker is guilty, and thinks Parker's sister Marcia Mae Jones, whom he caught lying on the night of the murder, holds the key to finding the real killer.The movie is told in flashback by Atwill as he recounts the story to some of his colleagues, using a letter Parker wrote shortly before walking to the chair.
It is told & shot in the typical fashion employed by the low-budget studios, PRC in this case, where pace and economics mattered more than logic (that is: if you have time to think about a plot hole while watching a movie, the movie needs more trimming).
It doesn't have a lot of noir visuals, and the movie works better as a mystery, but it's a decent effort that does tick a few boxes.It's not a movie that really demands multiple viewings, but as a quick time-waster, it holds up decently well.
Lady in the Death House I'm sure is a movie publicist's wet dream.
It's up to a criminologist, er, psychologist to figure out who really killed the shady friend of the prisoner's sister, AND has to get a hold of the Governor somehow Before It's Too Late!
This movie is somewhat fun, but fairly predictable, Jean Parker as the lady in question and Lionel Atwill are good here, but nothing really remarkable.
I mean, shouldn't he be AVAILIBLE for last minute clemency phone calls and what have you instead of ordering Denver Sandwiches ("smothered in onions!").
Jean Parker may have the worst sister but she's got a friend in Lionel Atwill, so it'll be OK.
Poverty row cheapie starring Lionel Atwill as a criminologist who tries to stop an innocent girl from being executed in the electric chair.
Told through flashback, the story begins with Atwill befriending Doug Fowley's character, a scientist who's going to do big things someday but until then he has to make ends meet as the executioner at the state pen!
He wants to marry Jean Parker but she refuses, having pretty strong opinions on capital punishment on account of her dearly departed dad being a criminal.
Things get even more melodramatic when a guy who was blackmailing Jean winds up murdered and she's tried and convicted for the crime.
Leave it to Lionel Atwill to solve everything, albeit taking his sweet time to do so.
An interesting whodunit that suffers mainly from flaws in motivational logic for the characters, as well as unbelievable legal procedures, but that is part of the sense of disbelief that has to be suspended for many B-movie crime dramas of the era.Lionel Atwill is the state executioner, who needs his job to finance his research which is ironically, brining the dead back to life.
He feels he has to keep his job though because of the importance of it to his work, particularly financing it, despite the fact that his fiancée finds the job abhorrent and refuses to marry him when she finds out what he does.In the opening scene you have seen her walking to the death chamber, with the story told in flashbacks by the detective played by Cy Kendall.
Lionel Atwill's character you figure out early is in the unenviable position of being required to pull the switch on his girlfriend.
As time is running out, Kendall tries to gather evidence to clear her.Since it is told in flashbacks, some things that are to happen you learn early on, but the film telegraphs too much that it doesn't intend you to know, at least not for sure.
With a little work on the script, this could have been a much better movie.All in all not bad, and with a runtime of 56 minutes doesn't have time for you to grow weary waiting for the solution.One aspect that seems amusingly dated today though is the crime Mary's father was convicted of when she was a child: Pinball racketeering.
Mary (Jean Parker) is due to die on the electric chair.
The story is told by Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) in flashback.
Will Mary be saved for a crime that she didn't commit...?...While Atwill is quite good, the acting is all rather forgettable.
The cast are uninspiring to watch with Marcia Mae Jones's character as Suzi, Parker's sister, being the standout performance.
The short-lived P.R.C. movie production company had a history of making junk in a really short period of time, and other than the classic film noir "Detour", most of their films are quickly forgettable.
Like the slightly more well known Monogram, they produced a ton of Z grade westerns, some action films that took clichéd looks at the enemies of World War II, and a smaller amount of horror, dramas and comedies.
This is a sort of exploitation drama about a young lady (Jean Parker) who faces the electric chair where her own boyfriend is the one who will pull the switch.
Kindly psychiatrist Lionel Atwill rushes to prove her innocence of murder with the help of Parker's younger sister Marcia Mae Jones who truly believed her to be guilty.
This is one of those times where I give two thumbs up to what was once considered the one movie studio where serious actors did not want to work..
A suspenseful, enjoyable and very melodramatic mystery movie, with Jean Parker, Marcia Mae Jones and Atwill, chilling as usual, and directed by Steve Sekely, peopled also by a few unlikable characters (the dedicated scientist, the fat sergeant), and made in a bombastic style reminiscent of Soviet cinema or silent movies, while Atwill only enhances this atmosphere of mayhem; Atwill didn't seem convinced that his character was not only a good guy, but also a nice one, so that his cordial smiles don't seem very reassuring.
Marcia and Atwill give kindred performances, in the same popular expressive vein; Jean was above this kind of powerhouse role, and her acting has some class and even perhaps a resigned charm.
"Lady In The Death House" is an interesting crime tale, largely told in flashbacks.
And although some of the supporting performances (particularly from the police inspector and the wide-eyed little sister) are a bit amateurish, Jean Parker gives an affecting performance as the doomed-to-die heroine (a 180 degrees different role for her from Kitty O'Day, whom she played the same year), and Lionel Atwill gives a solid center to the film in a rare, for him, good-guy role.
In fact, if we can accept the somewhat unbelievable manipulations of the plot (e.g. the doomed heroine's boyfriend just happens to the state's official executioner) and the implied but strong criticism of the U.S.A. justice system, it's quite a revelation.
Fortunately, Lionel Atwill manages to hold the plot together and, despite all, the film does emerge as a second feature winner.
Jean Parker makes an attractively convincing heroine, while Douglas Fowley holds down an unusual role as the sympathetic executioner.
This low-budget but entertaining crime thriller about a dame scheduled to die in the electric chair for a murder that she didn't commit is a fine example of a movie that impugns the death penalty.
Mary Kirk Logan (Jean Parker)has been shielding her younger sister Suzy and herself from the truth that her father was a criminal in the pin-ball racket.
Actually, Mary's boss at the bank, who hired her because he needed somebody who he could trust to handle confidential information, played a crucial role in a law and order crusade to put her father behind bars.
Ironically, the villain who is blackmailing Mary is considered a low-life even by his own kind.
Mary has managed to fool Gregory about her checkered past for five years."Lady in the Death House" opens with Mary taking the final 39 steps of her life to the electric chair.
Happily for Mary, she knows a tenacious criminologist Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) who uses his skills to set her free."Revenge of the Zombies" director Steve Sekely tells the story in flashback for maximum suspense and doesn't have Mary exonerated until the last three minutes..
LADY IN THE DEATH HOUSE is an economical and familiar thriller of the 1940s, centred around a young woman who ends up wrongfully accused and put on Death Row awaiting her imminent execution.
There are touches of science fiction and horror in the premise alongside a supporting role for villainous old-hand Lionel Atwill, but otherwise this is a straight-up thriller with a predictable outcome..
I decided to watch this ultra-low budget film from the "Poverty Row" studio, PRC, because it co-starred the exciting character actor, Lionel Atwill—plus I really liked the title.
Even though Atwill often played in these cheap movies, his excellent style of acting always made the films seem a lot better, as his screen persona was great (his real life is also quite interesting—sort of like a bizarre soap opera).
Yes, there is a good chance this was filmed after normal working hours—a common thing for such studios.The story begins with Lionel Atwill telling his friends a story about something that he was involved with years ago.
But, apparently the jury was filled with brainless people and she was convicted and sent to Death Row. Even more brainless is that her old boyfriend was the man who was responsible for her execution.
Until this fateful hour, her friend (Atwill) spends much of the film trying to prove her innocence—and prove that the flaky sister knows far more about the case than she'll admit.Overall, the movie is only mildly interesting and a bit silly.
While it is watchable and Atwill is good (as usual), the rest of the film never really rises above the mundane and some of the acting is pretty shabby.
This movie begins with a young woman by the name of "Mary Kirk Logan" (Jean Parker) writing a letter in prison minutes before she is supposed to be executed for murder.
The scene then shifts to a criminologist named "Charles Finch" (Lionel Atwill) as he is reading a portion of the letter to a small group of men who are interested in the story he has to tell.
It's at this point that the movie backtracks to the day that the murder occurred.
However, rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that it contained an adequate amount of mystery and suspense but it was too short (only 56 minutes) and compact to be as effective as it could have been.
Of course, a number of movies produced during this particular time were rather abbreviated due to budget constraints so this particular film isn't necessarily an anomaly.
****SPOILERS**** With his girlfriend Mary Kirk Logan, Jean Parker,to be executed that evening at 11:00 PM sharp the Sing Sing Prison executioner Dr. Brad Bradford, Douglas Fowley, is finding it more and more difficult to do his job in juicing her, by pulling the switch, in the prison's hot seat.
It's then that the movie goes into back or forward mode, were not quite sure which one, with famed psychologist Charles Finch, Lionel Atwill, telling a group of friends about a letter he received from Mary just before she was to be executed.
In it Mary explains how she's been framed in killing the person who was blackmailing her, in revealing her dad's criminal past to her boss, mobster Willy Mullin, Dick Curtis, by someone who did him in while she was locked up in another room in her apartment.The flashback scene comes across as if it were in the present making it more and more difficult to gage what time is taking place in the movie.
We slowly get the message that it was Mary's kid sister the bug eyed and spaced out Suzy, Marcia Mea Jones, who knew who killed Millen and is covering it up at the expense of her older sister Mary's life.
It's Finch who slowly uncovers the person, through a number of clues, who killed Millen but as usual in movies like this, working against the clock, time is running out for Mary to be saved from being zapped.
With the only person who can save her Governor Harrison, Sam Flint, nowhere to be found and contacted before 11:00 PM the time for Bradford to pull the switch.****SPOILERS**** Lionel Atwill in one of his last appearances, he passed away two years later, is excellent as both psychologist and part time private eye Charles Finch who saves the day as well as Mary Kirk's life by getting the Governor, through a radio broadcast, to get the news that Mary is innocent and stop her execution.
But it was Mary's boyfriend Brad Bradford that made that all possible by at the very last moment refusing to pull the switch and locking himself up in the power room that gave Finch the needed time to get the word out to Gov. Harrison about her being innocent.
Thus stopping in the nick of time Mary's impending execution..
As the movie opens, Mary (Jean Parker) is making her way to the electric chair.
Crimanologist/psychologist Charles Finch (Lionel Atwill) believes Mary to be innocent, but is running out of time to prove it.
To make matter worse, Mary's boyfriend is the State's executioner and will throw the switch on Mary.
Can Mary be saved in time?
Lady in the Death House is far from the worst of the Poverty Row films I've seen, but it still has a number or problems.
To start with, Mary's boyfriend is (conveniently) the executioner.
The witnesses used at the trial that help convict Mary saw the murder through a solid shade, meaning they only saw a silhouette.
Next, as evidence is gathered that will clear Mary, the Governor, the only person who can stop her execution, has (inconveniently) stopped for a Denver sandwich and can't be reached.
Lady in the Death House does feature better than expected (at least for this kind of movie) acting.
Lionel Atwill is the kind of actor that's always good.
Jean Parker, Douglas Fowley, and Marcia Mae Jones hold up their end and give solid performances.
A lot of these Poverty Row films look like they were shot on the same dirty, poorly lit set.
Finally, I thought the use of flashbacks was a nice way to tell the story of Lady in the Death House.
We see Mary headed to the electric chair, but have to wait 50+ minutes to see if she really is put to death.
Quite nice.Overall, the bad outweighs the good and I'm left rating the movie a 4/10.