Green Eyes

Cops investigate a costume party murder in a rich man's mansion.

Thoroughly routine whodunit, despite the promising opening scenes. Not surprisingly, it's one of the type popular in the 30's, when amateur sleuths out-sleuthed the professionals. Here it's Charles Starrett as a novelist figuring out the clues before the cops do. But at least the screenplay doesn't turn the head cop into some kind of buffoon as often happened in these 30's programmers.

Now I'm used to seeing Starrett with a six-gun and Stetson giving the bad guys a hard-eyed stare. So, seeing him here as a loosey-goosey lounge lizard in alpine shorts took some getting used to. But he does liven up the acting, which otherwise tends toward the dull side. Still, that last scene in the lethal bedroom stands as a real grabber of staging. Too bad the rest of the movie doesn't show a similar level of imagination.

(In passing—Am I mistaken or does Starrett look like an early version of Rock Hudson.)

GREEN EYES opens with a costume party gone wrong, when the host is found stabbed to death. With his granddaughter as a handy suspect, the police believe they've quickly solved the crime. Obviously, that would result in a 5 minute movie, so, the cops wind up with a houseful of suspects instead.

The bulk of the film is taken up with the grilling of these people by Inspector Crofton (John Wray). While it's not a bad movie, anyone expecting a fast-paced movie packed with oddball characters spouting snappy 1930's-style dialogue could be disappointed. On the bright side, the story is interesting enough and gets sewn up nicely...

This is a well made mystery film from 1934 with a conclusion that makes sense. It would be difficult to ascertain that from most of the reviews on this database that discuss this film, however. I am not sure why they even bother to watch it in the first place, since they seem to dislike it so much. The police are portrayed as "morons" says one review, but I didn't see them like that. The cast consists of "unknowns" says another. Charles Starrett who received second billing may have not been a big star in 1934, but beginning in 1935 he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures and had his own series of Westerns until 1952. He was able to quit the series and retire at 48, a wealthy man.

Charles Starrett is a writer of murder mysteries who gets involved in—yes, a murder mystery. Nothing too original in Green Eyes, but a fair assortment of suspects and intriguing clues help maintain interest. Once again, it's a murder in a big old house in which nearly all of the film's action occurs. The event which sets the story in motion is the murder of the house's owner, one Steven Kester, during a costume party, and it's quickly established that his guests, his employees and even his granddaughter are not particularly sad to see him go. Even his butler can't find anything nice to say about him:

Inspector Crofton: "What kind of a man was Mr. Kester to work for?" Lenox the butler: "He was a Simon Legree, sir. It's been most difficult to put up with him these past 20 years."

For the first half of the film, John Wray as the inspector barks out a good half of all the dialog spoken as he rounds up clues and lays out the facts and motives. In the second half, we see more of Starrett as he quietly investigates while more noisily presenting a rather foppish front to most of the group.

Shirley Grey and Dorothy Revier, as the two women involved in the case, are given just enough screen time to hint that their characters could contain some interesting depths; but alas, a 70-minute movie holds limited space for developing character studies.

Nice touches: the goofy getups sported by the guests in the opening costume party and ensuing interrogation; the "green eyes" of the title; and a clever closing bit with Starrett at his typewriter.

Charles starrett, shirley grey. The kesters throw a costume party that goes very wrong! As the bodies start piling up, the coppers try to figure out what's going on. Unfortunately, both the sound and the picture quality are pretty awful. It seems to be the same ol issue where they made copies of copies, and the copies got progressively worse. This version showed on tubi streaming, and it gets pretty bad at times. In fact, the last ten seconds of the film, the camera zooms in on the typewriter... but it's so blurry, we can only make out some of the words. In this case, the poor picture quality really interfered with the story. Which was already shakey to begin with. Directed by richard thorpe. He later worked with elvis a couple times. John wray, who plays the inspector/captain, (although they keep calling him "chief") died young at 53. The imdb cast list says inspector, while the actual film lists him as captain. The story is based on the novel by h ashbrook. This seems to be the only film made from his work.