Un grito en la noche

A very funny and quite well made poverty row whodunnit from 1932, this pairing of Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot might have just set the ideas in motion for THE THIN MAN series at MGM a year later. I think this film was made at the Tiffany Studio in 1932 just as this company ceased production.... or just after...this is exactly the sort of film they made especially with very snazzy overstuffed deco furniture and solid clunky sound and production values. Credits say it is made by Allied Productions which nobody has ever heard of or from, so my guess as a faux Tiffany Production, might be right. The 1929 Tiffany film PARTY GIRL is made in exactly the same way and with the same solid look and quality sets. Ginger and Lyle also seen in the 'haunted' Monogram pic from the same year: THE THIRTEENTH GUEST offer a smart alec couple making verbal quips and asides and leave the audience well pleased in their natural delivery and likable sparring. This film is well directed with a refreshing and timeless modern style. SHREIK IN THE NIGHT is essentially a haunted house movie set in a skyscraper penthouse and for lovers of pre code goofiness and sexual antics (and even prohibition speakeasy asides) leaves a 2005 viewer with a knowing smile that someone 73 years ago was tuned into long lasting imagery and dialogue. One scene in a cellar with a furnace is particularly creepy and if seen in a 3000 seat movie palace in 1932 must have caused huge screams and genuine shrieks! This is great fun, well made and 'modern' and shows that if Tiffany had survived, they might have outlasted even Grand National Pictures - which I strongly suspect was their successor - and partly ultimately the re-formed 1937 Monogram and certainly PRC ...which I can track as their location and later name. It's a good film, made under what I would think was swiftly changing technology and times. The direction and dialogue and delivery has certainly successfully stood the test of time.