London by Night

London By Night (1937)

** (out of 4)

Mystery film from MGM has London being stalked by a mad killer who uses an umbrella as his disguise to prevent being seen. A local reporter (George Murphy) links up with a rich woman (Rita Johnson) to try and figure out who the mysterious figure is. Apparently the working title of this film was THE UMBRELLA MAN was the working title for this film and that probably would have fit it a lot better. I've seen so many mysteries like this over the years to the point where I'm feeling there aren't too many out there left for me to watch. This one here is about middle ground as there's nothing too bad but there's nothing too good either. The one thing the director does get right is the atmosphere as the film has a very dark and fog filled look to it. This here is a major plus as is the casting of George Zucco in the role of a good guy. You don't get to see that very often so it was nice to see it here. He's pretty good in the role as is Virginia Field and Leo G. Carroll in their parts. I wasn't too interested in either league, which was one of the film's faults and I'd also say the identity of the killer was given away rather early even though the "secret" is held to the end. I think most will be able to figure things out. If, like me, you've seen the majority of these types of movies then you might as well check this one out as well. If you haven't seen too many of what the genre has to offer then there are many others you should check out before catching this one of TCM.