Before Midnight

It's a well-directed mystery with more twists than a pretzel. This movie times in at just over an hour, and had to be filled out with a prologue, epilogue and long takes of Ralph Bellamy thinking to bring it up to that. Carefully directed with full Old Dark House look and feel by long-time director Lambert Hillyer -- he had directed William S. Hart to stardom but had retreated, as had so many, to the B list when sound came in -- there's only one flaw in the mystery plot: the detective has the motive before the audience does.

This was one of a short and probably unofficial series of movies starring Ralph Bellamy as Inspector Trent of the New York Detective Bureau. He is rather straightforward in his characterization, which probably explains why in another couple of years he was relegated to the role of Second Man in the movies, even if he could act up a storm when given the opportunity. Still, the story is the thing in this movie. The mystery will probably stump you and it's only an hour.

Good, tight murder mystery that is brief and no-nonsense in its approach. It is a pre-code film but there's nothing here that might have been objectionable at the time. Also missing is the 30's habit of inserting comic relief into a story that doesn't need any, and this one doesn't need it. George Cooper plays Stubby, a dim-witted assistant detective who comes off as dim-witted but not as comic relief.

Ralph Bellamy is Detective Trent, trying to solve a murder that takes place on a dark and stormy (and very noisy) night in a mansion with the usual suspects roaming around. What strikes you is the tone of all players, and especially Bellamy, as there is not a hint of the good-natured warmth or friendliness normally found in most pictures of this or any other kind - just a group grimly determined to get to the bottom of the proceedings. No jokes, no romance, just the facts.

Nevertheless, it is well worth your time. It is an old-fashioned whodunnit that will challenge your own powers of deduction - and no laughing, please.

Before Midnight (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A man invited Detective Trent (Ralph Bellamy) over to share his fears that he's about to be murdered. A few minutes later the man is dead and it's up to the detective to try and figure out how he was murder and who did it. This is yet another entry in the seemingly never-ending "old dark house" genre. As usual, we're given a murder, a hero and countless suspects. We also get the usual clichés that you find in a film like this. I've seen dozens, if not hundreds of these films and it's hard to find one that offers up anything new original and this one here is no different. Even though the film doesn't offer anything too new, it does feature a couple very good twists that I didn't see coming and Bellamy is as entertaining as always. I think what really makes the film work is the performance by Bellamy who really knows how to mix up the charm, comedy and seriousness. He does very good with the role and manages to work well with all the other actors and can deliver whatever the film is needing in any scene. June Collyer is pretty good as the woman various men want and Claude Gillingwater is good in his role as well. Fred "Snowflake" Toones plays the black taxi driver and delivers most of the "comedy" in the film. The screenplay pretty much follows every "old dark house" film that preceded it as we get a complicated murder, the investigation and countless people lying to try and cover up their involvement. What was so funny here is that the screenplay was quite lazy in terms of the characters and their lies. A character would start lying to cover up what he did, Bellamy would ask a single question and then the character would break down and admit what they did. This happens at least five times in the film and one begins to wonder why at least one of them wouldn't try to get away with the lie at least a second time before admitting what they had done. This Columbia film runs a brief 63-minutes and should keep fans of the genre entertained. Others should probably seek out one of the better entries.

From Nov 1933-Aug 1934, Columbia released a forgotten quartet of features starring dependable Ralph Bellamy in the role of Inspector Steve Trent, with "Before Midnight" the first, followed by "One is Guilty," "The Crime of Helen Stanley," and "Girl in Danger." Since only "One is Guilty" is unavailable, one can judge the series by at least three titles, but it's clear that this modest initial entry has more horror touches in its setup. On a dark and stormy night, Inspector Trent is called to the isolated mansion of Edward Arnold (William Jeffrey), who believes he's soon to be murdered based on a family curse involving a pool of blood and a clock that stops. Director Lambert Hillyer proves he was no slouch at delivering oppressive atmosphere (better known for "The Invisible Ray" and "Dracula's Daughter"), and the whodunit aspects are also first rate. Lovely leading lady June Collyer starred opposite Bela Lugosi in a 1935 mystery, "Murder by Television," before giving up acting to enjoy life as the wife of Stuart Erwin. Bellamy solved quite a few cases ("Rendezvous at Midnight," "The Final Hour") before he started playing detective Ellery Queen in 1940, eventually settling into a solid character career that lasted 60 years.

... or so says a chief of police in reference to a tale of mystery he is about to tell in flashback. In spite of the the fact that this film doesn't have much in the way of production values and has only one major star of the studio era - Ralph Bellamy - this little murder mystery that clocks in at a little over an hour in length is very entertaining with a script full of surprises.

Inspector Steve Trent (Bellamy) is called out to a remote estate one stormy night by wealthy Edward Arnold who presumes he will die before midnight just because he found blood on the hearth of his fireplace, exactly as did one of his ancestors the night before he was killed. What is odd is that the police would take this seriously. What is odder is that the man does indeed die before midnight and now Trent has to figure out who did it. He's got plenty to work with too in the way of suspects. There's Arnold's estranged wife who has traveled 3000 miles just to get more money out of him and admits she hates him, there's Arnold's young beautiful ward on whom he lavishes great unexplained attention and to whom he refuses to give his blessing for her intended marriage, there's the girl's fiancé who resents the fact that their wedding is being held up by all of this, then there is Arnold's servant, Kono, who speaks broken English although it is revealed he is a college man.

Bellamy is great at this part. This is not the Ralph Bellamy you may be used to seeing, always managing to get his girl stolen by Cary Grant in just about every picture they appeared in together. Here Bellamy plays it cool and appears firm and in control without getting heavy-handed to the point of being silly.

The film's poverty row roots do show at some points though. There is a particularly silly line half-way through the picture when Bellamy has a suspect at gunpoint and says "One bullet could settle this case" all because the unarmed man won't talk. Then there is George Cooper as Stubby, supposedly a policeman learning the ropes from a fine investigator like Trent, but I never saw a point in which he was the least bit helpful. Stubby was more like a reader of dime store mystery stories getting in the way of an investigation than anything else.

I'd recommend this as a pretty good precode film.