Double Alibi

Frances Robinson is murdered. The police naturally look to her husband as a suspect, but she doesn't have one. She does have an ex-husband in newsman Wayne Morris. Fellow reporter Margaret Lindsay sees a story in this, and helps Morris in finding the real murderer before the police can put him in jail.

It's one of those mysteries you can write in your sleep, with the entire story written first and then the guilty individual chosen afterwards. That's the way Agatha Christie wrote 'em, and they seem to work. Miss Lindsay, as always, is delightful; Morris has his usual delivery that makes him sound slightly baffled, not a bad choice in this one. Well remembered supporting players abound, like William Gargan, Roscoe Karns, Robert Emmett Keane and Robert Emmett O'Connor (were they cousins?). Director Phil Rosen is more interested in getting the movie over in an even hour than in giving them time to strut their stuf,f but he does so, and that's worth something.