The Devil Plays

I usually love these old parlor mysteries but this one started with a thud that just got more boring as the film dragged on and on. To say the acting was stiff is an incredible understatement. Thomas E. Jackson played the Inspector with Lew Kelly providing "comic relief" that made you wish the killer would strike again and put us all out of their memory. The doctor, played by an uncredited George "Gabby" Hayes diagnosed that a decanter of water had been drugged by tasting it. The mystery writer/amateur detective ran rings around the cops as expected but was just as useless at solving the crime. The only crime here was the 63 minutes that was stolen from me (no wonder Hayes didn't want to be listed as being in this turkey). I never expect a masterpiece from a Chesterfield poverty row production but most of them at least have a coherent story. I wonder if the screenwriter decided who the killer was or they just drew lots for it 3/4 of the way through the film. There's a lot of movies better than this one. Don't waste your time.