The Night Club Lady

This film is a chance to see the 3rd Mrs. Bogart, May Methot....a woman whose fights with her famous husband are the stuff of legends. Back in the early 30s, Mayo was a star but her off-screen behaviors soon relegated her to supporting actress status.

When the story begins, someone has informed party girl Lola (Methot) that she will be dead by midnight. Just who this is an why is unknown and the Police Commissioner himself (Adolph Menjou) is taking the case. Apart from announcing the murder ahead of time, it's a mostly by the numbers murder mystery...the type they made by the hundreds or thousands during that era. Ultimately, however, the film ends on a high note...a shrill and thrilling Pre-Code ending that I'll keep to myself so I won't spoil anything.

Having the smooth Menjou in the lead sure didn't hurt this one and overall it's well worth your time. It is not super-remarkable but reasonably entertaining and, at times, clever.

This is a beautifully directed film, a fast moving whodunit remniscent of Michael Curtiz' THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (which this film preceded by a year). Adolphe Menjou is well in his element as Thatcher Colt (a very Philo Vance-ish figure), and the screenplay crackles with pre-code New York sophistication. Though the entire cast it excellent, the real star of the film is director Irving Cummings, who keeps things constantly moving with interesting camera angles, dolly shots, and even a zoom lens!

There was a sequel to this film, THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933 - directed by Roy William Neill), which, while still interesting, somewhat lessens its impact by revealing the identity of the murderer less than two/thirds through the film. And CIRCUS QUEEN had no Mura...

Mura knows!!!

Whilst it's not in the same league as Poirot, it's a reasonably interesting story in the mould of the popular detective mysteries of the time. This is a clever little 'locked room mystery' - an impossible murder where nobody could possibly have done it....but they did. I just can't warm to Adolphe Menjou though.

It's directed well enough, there's always something happening and it's got a lively feel about it - a sense of mystery - a sense of intrigue. It won't have you on the edge of your seat but you've got to find out how the dastardly deed was done. Columbia's top cameraman Ted Tetzaff has great fun playing with his new zoom lens and the overall effect is a lot more imaginative and interesting to look at than your typical B-movie. The scrip by Robert Riskin (he of the Robert Riskin-Frank Capra partnership) is snappy and witty but nothing too special.

The problem with this or rather my problem with this is that I just don't like Adolphe Menjou. In this his character is as one dimensional as nearly every other role I've seen him in. It's probably not all his fault, the character of Thatcher Colt is really rather dull with no interesting characteristics. Neither is he that great a detective since about half a dozen people get murdered whilst under his watch. His drunken sidekick however played by Skeets Gallagher is actually one of the best characters in the whole thing - he's certainly the only likeable one. Usually the drunken sidekick is just an annoying, unfunny irritant but because the rest of the characters are so uninteresting he adds a bit of life to the whole thing thanks to Robert Riskin seeing that something needed to be added to keep everyone awake.

Lola Carewe is a night club owner. She is apprehensive about "Your time is drawing near" veiled death threats she has been receiving. Her mother has a premonition feeling about Lola going to her night club on Old Year's Night. Despite her mother's warning Lola feels she can't afford to stay away. Police Chief Thatcher Colt is at the club and spots Lola's unease. He is convinced Lola is in danger and escorts her home with plenty of police protection. There seems no way that Lola can die at the appointed time of the midnight chimes. I enjoyed the ominous menace of the ticking clock and the wind howling outside. I reckon this is better than Adolphe Menjou's other Thatcher Colt mystery, The Circus Queen Murder. This is the first time I've seen Mayo Methot in a movie. She plays Lola with her 1930s crimp-waved platinum blonde look.

Night club hostess Mayo Methot is well connected. She's got enough pull that when she's threatened with death at midnight, police commissioner Adolphe Menjou and eight men show up to gather around her; if someone wants to get to her, they'llhavd to go through this mob... which they. At midnight, she screams and dies. Now Menjou must find out not only who killed her, but how and why.

It's a pretty good murder mystery, based on a book by Fulton Oursler writing as Anthony Abbott. Of course, it's a lot of talk with a list of about half a dozen witnesses who saw nothing, and no suspects, until Menjou gathers them all together to go ver what he knows and draws his conclusion, which came as a surprise to me. Director Irving Cummings keeps things moving along all the way through.