Murder by Invitation

Plot synopsis:
The relatives of Cassandra "Cassie" Denham, an old unmarried lady living in New York who is reputedly good for three million dollars, try to make a judge declare her unable to take care of herself financially. The attempt fails, and in charge of handing in the petition is Cassie's nephew Garson Denham, a lawyer. Instead he summons a newspaper reporter, Bob White (Wallace Ford), and his girlfriend, Nora O'Brien (Marian Marsh), and tells them he has been invited to stay a week at Cassie's estate up in the mountains.
The invitation states that any relative not arriving at the specified time will be excluded from the will. Garson believes his aunt is mentally unsound and plans to kill them all during the stay. Despite this Garson and his wife, his brother's Tom and Larry and their mother Martha keep the appointment.
As they arrive Cassie tells them that they are there so that she can learn which one of them should inherit the bulk of her fortune. She also tells them that she keeps of all her money at the house.
That night Garson is stabbed to death in the library. Bob and Nora receive the news of his death and show up at the estate with a photographer to write about the killing. Sheriff Boggs is already questioning everyone at the house about their whereabouts during the night, and Bob, Nora and the photographer are all invited to stay at the estate by Cassie.
The next night, Larry is killed again in the library, and the sheriff continues his investigation. The dead bodies disappear and turn up again in Bob's closet, but they disappear before he is able to show them to the others.
Later, Eddie sees the bookshelf in the library open revealing a secret doorway and as Cassie comes out from one side, he walks in via the reverse side of the bookshelf unseen by her into a secret passage. Cassie asks Eddie to guard a small box with her valuables, offering him $10,000 to do so, and says she suspects her neighbor, Trowbridge Montrose, of being involved in the killings. The neighbor is supposedly in love with Cassie.
Tom is the next stabbed whilst he is talking to Mary in the garden. However the assailant is unknown as everyone present in the property appears to possess an alibi for the time of the attack. Cassie is determined to catch the killer and tells Bob of a plan she has, saying she will see to it that everyone is outside and then set the house on fire to see who tries to run in and save the money within from destruction..
When the house is in flames Mary, Cassie's house servant, suddenly panics and angrily confronts her employer, stating that she should have the money for working for her for several years and tolerating her imperiousness, saying she was entitled to inherit something, and hysterically admits committing the murders, implicating also her accomplice, Michael, the chauffeur, whom she announces that she has secretly married. She is arrested, and after a chase through the woods the chauffeur is also apprehended by Bob armed with a revolver.
Trowbridge then proposes to Cassie; Eddie presents the box to Cassie and gets his money, but the twist in the tale is that it turns out to be old Confederate States of America currency, and quite worthless. Cassie then reveals that all of her 'fortune' is in the same denomination, but Trowbridge announces that it is unimportant as he has enough for them both to live upon. The film ends with Bob also getting the girl in the form of Nora.

Tags: murder

Review:
An old lady is taken to court by her heirs because they feel she is wasting her fortune and that she should be put away for her own safety.
Turning the tables on the greed family in the courtroom she insists that any of her heirs who want a piece of her money show up at her house that night.
What happens next is a very enjoyable murder/comedy as people start dying as every scrambles to find the fortune.Anyone expecting anything other than a silly time should stay as far away from this movie as possible.
Yes, there is a mystery, but there are a good bunch of laughs as well, as reporter Wallace Ford and his girl wander among the crazies trying to get a story while trying to stay alive.I really like this film, especially the old lady that who is smarter than the relatives who are trying to put her way.
No doubt prompted by the success of Elliot Nugent's 1939 remake of THE CAT AND THE CANARY, Monogram's MURDER BY INVITATION is a spit polishing of dusty doings distinguished by a cagey awareness of its own derivativeness.
Like the imperiled teens of Wes Craven's SCREAM, the dramatis personae here  heirs to a sizeable legacy  - enter into danger with full knowledge of the rules of the game - with comic star Wallace Ford (FREAKS) even cracking: `I'm the handsome young juvenile of this story  he never gets hurt.'
Supporting the ever-watchable Ford is a cast of faces familiar from the Poverty Roll payroll: Sarah Padden (THE MAD MONSTER), Dave O'Brien (THE DEVIL BAT, REEFER MADNESS), Minerva Urecal (THE CORPSE VANISHES) and John James (DEVIL BAT'S DAUGHTER), as well as Marian Marsh (Trilby to John Barrymore's SVENGALI) and Gavin Gordon (Lord Byron in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN).
A former Edison camera man turned prominent silent film director (ABRAHAM LINCOLN), Phil Rosen exhibits little enthusiasm for George Bricker's scenario, and seems grateful that the conventions of the murder mystery allow characters to remain seated for long stretches at a time.
French cameraman Marcel Le Picard also shot the low-rent SPOOKS RUN WILD and VOODOO MAN.Not a must-see film, but undemanding fun for fans of the murder mystery - and Wallace Ford never disappoints..
Perennial second-from-the-left-cop-in-the-station-house, George Guhl, has a featured role, would you believe, in Monogram's 1941 tale, Murder by Invitation, which turns out to be a sort of Mrs Longfellow Deeds Meets the Cat and the Canary.
George Guhl was a big letdown, and I was also disappointed that Marian Marsh was simply just another pretty blonde in this outing and no longer the charismatic charmer of Beauty and the Boss..
Relatives gather in old dark house for murder, laughs.
Rich old Aunt Cassie considers herself "the only sane person in a family of nitwits." She invites her greedy relatives to the creaky family mansion—instructing them to arrive on Friday at midnight—where she will decide which of them will inherit her millions.
Assorted crackpot characters include several shifty relatives, an oddball sheriff, and a snoopy neighbor.Sarah Padden cackles gleefully as the eccentric Aunt Cassie.
Marian Marsh is lively and likable as White's assistant Nora, although she isn't given much to do except keep up with Ford's jokes and detective work.This Monogram production is certainly a cheapie: while some scenes look like they may have been rehearsed, others definitely don't.
However a sense of good natured fun carries the picture along, and joviality mostly makes up for lack of production polish.Also livening up this B mystery are a few cute comments alluding to the fact that this is, in fact, a B mystery.
Just past the midway point, for example, Ford discusses the two missing corpses: Dead bodies, he says, always go missing in murder mysteries and "it generally happens just past the middle of the picture." It ain't profound but it's pretty easy viewing for those who enjoy good silly lowbrow fun.And what a great closing line!.
This is a comedy using the murder mystery genre as background.
The story revolves around old aunt Cassie, whose odd 'uh-heh' laugh is closer to caricature than character-defining.
The newspaper columnist who serves as the detective in this film, is played by Wallace Ford.
The sheriff - presumably from New York somewhere, as that's where the court case was heard - sounds more like an Okie than an upstate New Yorker, and follows his own stereotype of the hayseed lawman, accent included.
A daffy old lady, Aunt Cassie (a terrible performance by Sarah Padden who seems to be reading her lines off of cue cards) invites her greedy relatives to her country estate for the weekend and murders start to pop up all over the place.
A reporter (Wallace Ford) and his secretary (Marian Marsh) arrive at the estate to get the scoop.
Minerva Urecal (whom I usually like) overacts here as one of Aunt Cassie's relations.
Zany dialog is almost unbelievable at times and Ford (although likable) is too old to be pretty Marsh's sweetheart boss.
In spite of itself, "Murder By Invitation" is a film that works, although I don't quite know how!.
This is the kind of film, where you will really have a hard time deciding if you like it or not.
But only almost.There is nothing here that we haven't seen dozens, hundreds of times: old rich lady with greedy relatives, who are all sweet and lovely with her in one minute and try to put her in an asylum the next.
We have the ambitious, but pretty much clueless local sheriff, the clever reporter (Wallace Ford), who does all the job the police should, his pretty assistant and all those other stock characters that pop up at all the similar films.
And that the old lady decides the invite all the would-be heirs to her house at midnight?
The scene where Ford states, that he can't die, as he is the handsome young hero or when they even go as far as mentioning their most obvious inspiration, The Cat and the Canary (which had a hugely successful remake two years before this came out), referring to its similar invited-at-midnight theme...?
But my personal favorite is probably when Ford states that "There comes a time in every murder mystery, when all the corpus delicti are missing and it generally happens just past the middle of the picture." Guess what happens in the movie and when.
But we even know who's going to be the first victim, way before the actual murder takes place.
The screenplay is pretty badly written: the opening scene at the court already puts our expectations pretty low (the wisecracking lady is pretty funny, but the lawyer's complete lack of evidence make the whole scene very awkward), no surprises, no suspense, the characters are mostly very shallow (after they get killed, you will have a hard time remembering who some of the victims were) and even the motives are rather pointless.
With a bit more effort, it could be a little gem, like the rather similar, but far superior One Frightened Night (1935 - also starring Wallace Ford), which worked wonders with its similarly minimal budget.
Old Dark House Mystery.
Thsi film is one of those Old Dark House murder mystery films that Hollywood was so fond on in the 1940s.
This B movie stars Wallace Ford as a popular newspaper columnist and Marian Marsh as his secretary/girlfriend.A rich old lady (Sarah Padden) is claimed to be insane by her family and is taken to court.
Shrotly thereafter she invites all her family members to her mansion in upstate New York to spend the week so that she can watch over them to decide who to leave her $3 million estate.
One by one family members are murdered, with the killer seemingly hiding and watching from hidden passageways that are throughout the house.A typical second feature film, this movie is somewhat enjoyable, but for those of you who are used to suspenseful spooky house movies, this is not what you are looking for.
Even though this B-movie had a running time of only 67 minutes, it seemed to me more like 3 hours, as the whole story was so tedious.
I gave it a watch because Marian Marsh was in it, and she was incredibly captivating in several of her films of the 1930's.
There is one basic principle shortchanged here, and it is one that I believe is basic to any kind of drama (comedy or serious, from wild fantasy to kitchen-sink realism) - the sense that those involved in the production - from the writer to the director to the actors - are playing for keeps, giving it their best.
A rich old woman with an annoying chuckle invites her relatives over to her big house for a week, so that she can study them "just like a scientist studies rats in a laboratory." Her rationale is to determine which one of the relatives deserves her $3 million dollars when she dies.
The light, overall tone of the film conveys the impression that the film was intended as a parody of murder mysteries.The protagonist is Bob White (Wallace Ford), a "famous columnist", who worms his way into the house, after a murder occurs.
Background music is nondescript, manipulative, and in some scenes too loud.With its contrived, paint-by-numbers script, its barely passable visuals and audio, and its cheap sets, "Murder By Invitation" is not a movie I would care to watch again..
We've seen this creaky, old plot rolled out in dozens of 1930s and 40s mysteries, but never with such a poorly written script, or such bad acting.
Wallace Ford, the leading man, is too old and too out-of-shape for the roll of a dashing reporter, and he looks out of place as the boyfriend of pretty "girl-Friday" Marian Marsh.
The rest of the cast are equally unconvincing including the local sheriff, played by George Guhl, whose Upstate New York lawman acts like a hay-seed from Deliverance.
Sarah Padden, who plays the lady whose family has lived in the old mansion for generations, is perfectly willing to burn it down in order to flush out the murderer.
The film is only 67 minutes long, but for those set on watching to the end, it will seem like an eternity..
Well you'll have yourself some fun with this murder mystery even if it turns out to be somewhat nonsensical by the time it's over.
The family of sixty five year old Cassandra 'Cassie' Denham (Sarah Padden) is trying to have her declared incompetent so they can get a crack at her three million dollar estate.
Who was the real crazy one here?During the course of the story, one of the characters mentions that it has all the elements of a good murder mystery, if by that you mean a midnight invitation to a spooky old mansion, a mysterious set of eyes under a hooded mask peering through sliding doors, and a pair of bodies falling out of a closet more than once.
I was surprised they didn't use the old lights out trick here as that would have been standard for the era and quite to be expected.Even with the dead bodies turning up, this one never gets to be all that serious, as New York Evening Star reporter Bob White (Wallace Ford) keeps things light with photographer sidekick Eddie (Herb Vigran) and girl friend Nora O'Brien (Marian Marsh) along for the ride.
You won't believe Aunt Cassie's solution to the problem of turning up the murderer; I think she really might have been crazy after all.
In this, one of her last films, she is stunning and it is a pity she didn't make more films.A family is trying to get their aunt declared mentally incompetent, so they can get their hands on her $3 million dollar fortune.
She sends each of them a letter saying if they want to stay in her will, they will have to come to her mountain lodge at 12 midnight.When one of the relatives is murdered Bob White (Wallace Ford) ace reporter is called in to cover the story.
Along with his very smart and sassy secretary O'Brien (Marian Marsh) he tries his best to solve the crime.This is a good comedy mystery where everyone seems to have a motive, even the aunt.
The aunt has her suspicions about her neighbour - an odd old gentleman, who likes to wander the garden at midnight, smelling the roses!!!
Aunt Cassandra (Sarah Padden) has a strange idea about how to catch the murderer - she has already given $3 million dollars to photographer Eddie, for safe keeping.
The script has some knowing moments of satire at the genre (the outsider who comes in the "last 3 pages", the disappearing corpses "just after the middle of the picture", the closing gag about the Hays office, etc.), and fairly unpredictable culprit(s), but the final twist leaves a bad taste behind since it renders the preceding deaths both meaningless and avoidable.
As the eccentric and sharp-tongued aunt, Sarah Padden is the best out of a generally B-level cast.
Perennial second-from-the-left-cop-in-the-station-house, George Guhl, has a featured role, would you believe, in Monogram's 1941 tale, "Murder by Invitation", which turns out to be a peculiar amalgamation of Mrs. Longfellow Deeds Meets the Cat and the Canary.
George Guhl was a big letdown, and I was also disappointed that Marian Marsh was simply pictured as just another pretty blonde in this outing and no longer the charismatic charmer of "Beauty and the Boss"..
****SPOILERS***When the attempt to declare Cassie Denham, Sarah Padden unable to take care of her finances as well as herself failed she turns the tables on her greedy relatives including her shyster nephew Grason,Gavin Gordon, who tried to get her committed.
That's by her inviting them to stay the weekend at her place in the Catskill Mountains "Graylock" in order for them to get a piece of her three million dollar fortune.It's at "Graylock" that things start to get a bit creepy with a number of the guests including Garson ending up dead with Cassie suspected in murdering them.
It turns out that Cassie has hidden't the three million dollars somewhere in the house and is using it a bate to get the real killer to expose him or herself as well by killing off all his competition for the money.
The big surprise is what Cassie has planned at the very end of the movie in setting the place on fire, yes she has fire insurance, and see who's the one who'll run into to the place to get his or her hands on the money, the three million, hidden there.
That would expose the killer and exonerate her at the same time.***SPOILERS***Were also giver hot shot reporter Bob White, Wallace Ford, and his pretty assistant Nora O'Brien,Marian Marsh, a chance to do their thing in the movie for more or less comedy relief.
In the end the killer or killers are finally exposed or smoked out by them freaking out when the mansion 'Greylock" is put to the torch by Cassie and after being arrested by the police lead by Sheriff William Boggs, George Guhl, who invited himself in and admit their involvement in the murderers.
The biggest surprise of all in Cassie's three million dollar fortune that she had hidden turned out to be confederated or funny money dating back to the Civil War!
So does apparently eccentric matron Sarah Padden, the spinster matriarch of a greedy family who wants to put her in a nut house so they can get their grungy hands on her fortune of $3 million.
She invites them all to spend a week in her mountaintop mansion where you know what starts to happen.
You've seen this all before, but right from the beginning, this film's tongue is so far into its cheek that the laughter starts rolling as soon as the old dear takes the stand in her defense.
Padden is adorable, insulting her family and outlandishly insufferable in-laws (which includes Minerva Urecal, the "poor man's" Marjorie Main) and even columnist Wallace Ford whom she admits to that she reads his column but didn't reveal it on the stand because it might hurt her case.While this plot line has been overdone (often very predictably), it has never been done so fun, and you can see elements of later comedies with the same theme ("Murder By Death" and "Clue") in its short 64 minute running time.
"Murder By Invitation" is what's often referred to as 'an old dark house film'.
This is because quite a few films like it were made--films where a group of people find themselves at a spooky old house--and they are killed off one by one.
Interestingly, this film goes far as even talk about this sort of film when one of the characters mentions early on that this reminds her of "The Cat and the Canary"--one of the earliest and perhaps most famous of the genre.
And, in addition to being an old dark house film, it's also a 'know-it-all reporter film'--another very, very popular sort of film from the era.The story is about a wacky old lady whose greedy relatives can't wait for her to die so they can get her fortune.
When that doesn't work, she invites all these jerks to her home for a mysterious midnight meeting--at which point she says she insists they all stay a week so she can figure out which ones should inherit the estate.
So, by the end, it's up to this wacky old lady to work out the solution to the murders--and WOW is her plan nutty!
While this film is low-budget and occasionally the writing and acting are not great, the overall picture is actually very good.
I mentioned the one "Cat and Canary" comment above, but I also like the ways the film made fun of things such as the Hays Office, Ferdinand the Bull (from the Munro Leaf book) as well as Philo Vance and other film detectives.