Someone at the Door

SOMEONE AT THE DOOR is one of those comedy thrillers that were so popular. This one boasts a gorgeous print and excellent set design (creepy old country house with hidden passageways, etc.) but the plot just doesn't come together. Billy Milton and Aileen Marson play siblings. He's a hack writer looking for an angle and she's just inherited said spooky old house in the country. With a pal in tow (John Irwin), they go down to the house to hatch a plan. Believe it or else, the plan is to fake her murder and get him arrested so he can write some "my confession" stories and make some money. There's a surly butler (Edward Chapman), a bumbling cop (Charles Mortimer), and a visiting businessman Noah Beery) in the mix. There's also a missing missing servant and a cleaning woman (Hermione Gingold in her second film). Directed by Herbert Brenon from a play by Campbell and Dorothy Christie. Milton is quite brash. Marson gets a lot of loving close-ups. She made 16 films in the 1930s and died in childbirth in 1939.