The Secret Witness

The best thing about this movie is the Art Deco set design of the apartments. It's not bad, but I can't really recommend it (unless you're a Zasu Pitts completist or something). I'll give it a 6/10.

"The Secret Witness," a Columbia release from late 1931, is a decent whodunit with an unusual twist. Hooper Atchley plays Herbert Folsom, a womanizing husband whose latest lover, Tess Jones (June Clyde), confronts him about leaving his wife Sylvia (Rita La Roy). He prefers to be married, avoiding taking responsibility for his affairs, and refusing Sylvia's numerous requests for a divorce. After the heartbroken Tess leaps to her death from Folsom's high rise penthouse apartment, the police discover a dying Folsom lying on the floor, shot at close range by an unseen assailant. His last words implicate Arthur Jones (William Collier Jr.), brother of Tess, who is found one floor below in the apartment of Lois Martin (Una Merkel), daughter of the city's deputy commissioner, who believes him to be innocent, especially after the building engineer (Clyde Cook) also winds up shot dead. The lone witness to both crimes is Folsom's longtime pet chimpanzee, who expresses genuine grief at finding the dead body of its master (but is later revealed to be capable of handling a gun). Both Zasu Pitts and Nat Pendleton are around for some light comedy relief, thankfully not too intrusive, due mostly to the short 66 minute running time (as was customary of the early talkie era, there is no music in this film). Una Merkel was a dependable comic performer who was quite capable of drama as well, and Clarence Muse again proves to be one of Hollywood's most respected actors, playing the helpful doorman with a light touch, not as a clichéd comic stereotype. The flawed "The Leavenworth Case," from Republic in 1936, was a later mystery that featured a primate, billed on screen as 'Jocko.'

Shortly after the movie begins, you see a really awful guy create three different reasons for folks to murder him! First, he betrays a guy who visited him...though the guy (Nat Pendleton) overhears the plan and avoids being killed by mobsters. Second, a woman comes to tell him she's pregnant by him...and he responds that he doesn't care and he's already married....and the poor lady jumps out the window to her death. And, third, his wife hates him since he's such a weasel, but he refuses to grant her a divorce because he likes the arrangement because being married allows him to impregnate other women at will and not marry them since he's already married! Rarely have I seen a murder victim so quickly shown to be a complete jerk...and yes, he's soon murdered...but by whom?

The police think the brother of the dead woman did it...and they soon arrest him. Inexplicably, they also arrest a woman, as the guy they arrested was hiding in her apartment...even though they have no evidence she was involved...which she wasn't. This isn't surprising, as the film progresses, it's obvious the cops are among the dumbest I can recall in a B-movie. And, they also arrest a few other people (as well as a chimp!) while they're at it! It seems they want to arrest anyone who had a motive to kill the guy...and that includes a LOT of people! But there was only one bullet in the victim, so it's can't be like "Murder on the Orient Express".

Like so many B-mysteries of the 1930s-40s, the cops are not only idiots, but the case is ultimately solved by an amateur. In this case, Lois (Una Merkel) is the innocent arrested woman and she later investigates the crime herself. And, it turns out, she's the police commissioner's daughter!

So is it any good? Well, it's okay. Merkel is very good but as one other reviewer pointed out, Zasu Pitts is more a distraction and annoyance when she's in the film. Imagine a movie where Olive Oyl periodically makes an appearance and you'll understand about Pitts in the movie. Overall, I'd say this one is at best a chiched time-passer.