Murder Is News

"Murder Is News" is a Canadian-made movie that pretty much looks, sounds and plays like its American version. According to the YouTube host of Hastings Mystery Theater, this film was made in Canada in order to fulfill a British law mandating that a certain percentage of movies shown in the British Commonwealth be domestically produced. But unlike many of such films made in the UK itself, "Murder is News" is clearly intended to look like the Hollywood version. And, overall, I think they did an excellent job of doing this and fulfilling the Commonwealth quota at the same time!

Like so many B-mysteries from the States, this one stars a plucky reporter. Unlike some films, however, he is NOT working completely on his own and the police are his friends. Too often, in such movies the police are bumbling idiots who cannot solve anything...and the smarty pants newsman does it for them. Here, the police simply don't have the authority to do more and they encourage Jerry to investigate as they stand by in case there is trouble.

When the story begins, Jerry goes to see Edgar Drake. Drake's high profile divorce is apparently big news and he promises to give Jerry a big story. But when he arrives at the meeting place, he finds that Drake is dead....and soon someone bonks him on the head and the body disappears. The police also soon arrive, as they received a similar call...but there just isn't much to go on, so Jerry is encouraged to investigate.

The film is an exciting and well made B. And, while I've seen at least a hundred similar movies, this one is a tad better because most of the characters seem less like obvious caricatures. Well made and worth seeing.

Radio reporter John Gallaudet talks on air about a prominent man and his divorce. The man calls Gallaudet and invites him to his house to talk about the situation. When Gallaudet gets there, the man is dead, and Gallaudet becomes both a suspect and a target.

It's one of the ultra-cheap quota quickies that Columbia sponsored up in British Columbia, which jump-started the industry which is still going strong up there. Most of them are dire affairs, and this one is clearly very cheaply done, and everyone speaks very fast to make sure it doesn't come in over an hour. Nonetheless, a good story, a good mystery, and the high-speed motormouth made me wonder if any of the performers went into ice hockey commentary.

Reporter solves murder! Yeah, it's another one of those.

Unlikable, rich, businessman Edgar Drake is murdered at his townhouse the night his wife, who plans to divorce him and marry Drake's high-powered lawyer, is to meet there with her son, who is worried what Drake might do now that her plans were just aired on a radio program.

I picked my suspect, stuck with him, and I was right. It's not a hard one to solve, though. The third act is pretty much standard fare with all the suspects gathered together by the reporter. A series of plot conveniences, clumsily scripted, are then used to hold it together and make it work. Production values aren't high. The story moves along briskly. The dialog isn't as bright as it is in other movies of this type like 'A Shriek in the Night' or 'Murder by Invitation', but I was never bored. The acting is mostly good, aside from Iris Meredith who is sometimes laughably bad.

John Hamilton, who plays the lawyer in the love triangle, is the Daily Planet reporter's chief suspect. Later in life Hamilton would play Perry White, the editor of another newspaper called the Daily Planet, in the 'Adventures of Superman' TV series.

I watched a copy I downloaded from The Internet Archive. It was of decent quality.