By Whose Hand?

Murder mystery B-movies are a dime a dozen and they must have made thousands of them in the 1930s and 40s. Because of this, I had low expectations for "By Whose Hand?"....fortunately, my first instinct was wrong!

The story begins with a man being murdered while aboard a train. Soon, you see newspaper headlines announcing that 'Killer' Delmar, the escaped maniac, is responsible! The scene then cuts to a train station and a bunch of different folks and their stories are introduced...much like you'd see in a film like "Airport". This would seem to indicate that Killer Delmar will strike on this train. But what you don't realize is that there are more evil people aboard. There's the convicted criminal being taken to prison as well as several career criminals who are hiding out among the many passengers.

The reason why I enjoyed this Columbia movie so much was the excellent writing. I almost gave the movie an 8 but decided against it due to a couple cheesy things I saw in the film (such as the comic relief drunk)...but otherwise an excellent film. In particular, the finale is marvelous and makes such a humble picture seem bigger and better.

You probably shouldn't enjoy this because it's not a good film, in fact the script and some of the acting is terrible but it's got just enough early thirties energy and determination to be fun that it's 100% pure entertainment. A real trashy treat.

Unless written by a Ben Hecht or a Robert Riskin etc. There was a line dividing early thirties B-movies between those which were written and acted so badly that they're unwatchable to those which tried too hard not to be dull but in doing so ended up being so stupid, silly and annoying that they're equally unwatchable. This picture made by Columbia's B team but with pretty decent production standards straddles the line perfectly.

If you love early thirties pictures, particularly Warner's gritty features but can't be doing with those mushy theatrical productions, you'll probably like this. It's no classic but it's no MILLION DOLLAR LEGS either. Great fun.

I've seen him in quite a few pictures but can't say I've ever really 'noticed' Ben Lyon before - he's tended to be a bit nondescript but in this he shines. His character, a less cheesy version of Dick Powell, is just right for this and he virtually single handedly brings this to life.

This film was shown on Turner Classic Movies in the early hours of the AM and I was very glad to have been able to view this nice Classic Film from 1932. The story is all centered on a train ride with a prisoner aboard the Steam Engine powered train and some very shady characters both men and women. A detective on the train loses his prisoner and everyone went crazy trying to locate him, they searched the Pullman car with its bunk bed arrangements with a drawn curtain over each bunk. Some of the passengers were lovers and some couples were newly-weds and they all had to get out of their beds. There is lots of comedy even though there is murder, funny cigarettes give out and a few jewel thieves. Ben Lyon, (Jimmy), Hell's Angels" played the role of a reporter along with Barbara Weeks (Alice),"One Man Justice" who gave a great supporting role. There seemed to be plenty of blonde women on this train, it was during the 30's and everyone wanted Jean Harlow in their pictures or someone who looked like her. Ben Lyon was the star of "Hell's Angels" produced and directed by Howard Hughes. If you can catch this film on TV, you will enjoy a Classic Great Film from the PAST.

Back in the mid-1990s, while researching, along with Greg Mank, the biography of Dwight Frye, it was believed that "By Whose Hand?" was a "lost" early talkie. Therefore, we were not able to screen it for the book. A few years later (approx. 1998), it was learned that the film, along with a number of other early Columbia titles, had been preserved but was unlikely to ever be released on DVD or shown on TV. That was until this morning, when TCM ran a beautiful print of "By Whose Hand?" The film is a breezy murder mystery (working title was "Murder Express") with Ben Lyon doing a fine job as the lead Jimmy Hawley, a crime reporter, who boards a train more to pursue the beautiful Barbara Weeks than to follow a lead that the escaped Killer Delmar (Nat Pendleton) might be on the train. There are many suspicious characters aboard the train, including Ethel Kenyon as a jewel thief, Kenneth Thomson as a womanizing jeweler, Helene Millard as a "grieving" widow, and the always enjoyable William V. Mong as a vengeful, bitter old man. Detective William Halligan has in his care (in cuffs) one Chick Lewis (Dwight Frye), who had squealed on his old buddy Delmar and is now being transported to prison near San Francisco. There are others on the train who somewhat spoil the mood - a goofy newlywed couple (Lorin Raker and Dolores Rey) and the usually good comic actor Tom Dugan, who somewhat overplays a drunk here and who becomes attached to Lyon. Oscar Smith plays a nervous porter with some good comedy moments.

There are some plot twists and murders on the train which will not be revealed in case TCM airs this again. Suffice it to say Lyon and Weeks play off one another quite well. Their performances do not seem that dated for a 75 year old film. Dwight Frye is more subdued than usual and has a nice sympathetic moment with an actress playing his elderly mother prior to his boarding the train in an early sequence. Mong was beginning to become typecast as miserly old men, but here shows the skills of a veteran actor, even in a role without much dimension. Millard and Kenyon were good in their respective roles, but neither had much success in Hollywood. Barbara Weeks, however, is a fine actress who has never received her proper due from film historians. She gave up her film career (except for a few later appearances) while still in her twenties and was rumored to have died in 1954 (when she actually lived almost 50 years more - until 2003). Her grace, beauty, charm, and sense of humor all come across on screen and make one wonder why her career never really took off.

"By Whose Hand?" is a film I have waited to see for many years and feared I'd never get the chance. Now that I have finally viewed it, I am pleased to say it met and even succeeded my expectations!

If you like movies that take place on trains, you might get a kick out of this Columbia programmer, in which a wide cast of characters become the usual suspects when murder is committed on an L.A. to San Francisco sleeper. Ben Lyon and Barbara Weeks make attractive leads, and some of the supporting players (Ethel Kenyon, Dwight Frye) are interesting to look at. Less successful is Tom Dugan's "comic" bit as a drunk who for obscure reasons attaches himself to the newspaper reporter hero outside a phone booth in Union Station and makes a general pest of himself. Rather below the standard set by Warners for this genre of picture, but entertaining nonetheless, and about 90% of the picture takes place on the train itself, for which Columbia had provided quite nice sets.