The Night Club Lady

Oh joy. A murder mystery that's actually solved by the detective assigned to the case. I've watched so many murder mysteries solved by non-law enforcement that I was beginning to believe that police were there just to make an arrest once the case was solved (see "The Locked Door" (1929), "The Maltese Falcon" (1931), "M" (1931), "The Death Kiss" (1932), "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1932) "Penguin Pool Murder" (1932), or any Philo Vance movie).

In "The Night Club Lady" (TNCL) a woman by the name of Lola Carewe (Mayo Methot) was afraid for her life. She'd gotten a message that stated that she would be killed at midnight on New Year's Day (or New Year's Eve, depending upon how you look at it). Though she was surrounded by eight police officers she was still killed. The doctor called to the scene, Dr. Lengle (Wilhelm von Brincken) summarily said she died of a heart attack after a brief check with his stethoscope. The lead detective on the case, Commissioner Thatcher Colt (Adolphe Menjou), knew it had to be murder. Commissioner Colt then set about piecing the crime together so that he could find the killer.

I enjoyed TNCL. The characters were intriguing as was the murder, and Alfred Menjou was the meticulous and professional type of inspector I like.