The Murder Party

Michael Powell was still working his way up the ranks of director with this film. Malcolm Keen is a rich man who invites a bunch of guests, all of whom have cause to want him dead, first to a party, then to a game called "Murder".... and winds up dead. It's from a stage play co-written by Roland Pertwee, and shows its origins very clearly, despite the agile camera-work of Glen McWilliams.

Although this one-hour mystery is clearly a lesser production, it boasts a good cast, including Ian Hunter, Leslie Banks and an always amusing Ernest Thesiger. Although Michael clearly did not have the budget or time to do much more than produce a good programmer with this one, it would be only two years later that he directed his breakthrough THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, and four until he began his great collaborations with Emeric Pressburger.

In 1935 Gaumont British produced 14 films including such classics as The 39 Steps and First A Girl.They also decided in that year that they would make this quota quickie and handed the job to Michael Powell.What the end results show is that even a great director such as Michael Powell can not turn dross into gold.Of course any film which features the ever theatrical Ernest Theisiger can not fail in part to be entertaining but this really is a rather lame effort and clearly Powell just wanted to get it done with as quickly as he could.The denouement of this film reminds me of the Perry Mason series when in the courtroom the culprit breaks down and confesses.To be quite honest by a process of elimination it is not that difficult to guess whodunit.Muriel Aked has what must be one of her best roles.

There's an inexplicable other-worldliness about this which makes a routine tale of a murder amongst a group of stilted upper-class English folk completely absorbing. It's so much enjoyable than it should be.

One reason this is such compulsive viewing is the presence of the wonderfully camp, wickedly witty, unapologetically over the top Ernest Thesiger. Most people who've actually heard of him will probably just know him as the weird one in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN but this larger life living Roman candle can't help but adding an almost magical sparkle to anything he's in. His effervescence works perfectly here amongst the staid, stiff upper lipped ensemble.

You might at first think that watching a group of relics from a bygone age would be unrelatable to us now but as stiff as they first appear, they're all such well rounded, well directed and believable characters, you will easily engage with them. Leslie Banks, our version of Walter Huston: Mr integrity, plays his usual upstanding role anchoring the story firmly in reality but the biggest surprise is Malcolm Keen. His loathsome character really does engender absolute hatred in your heart. In an astonishing performance, especially from this era, you will feel like applauding when he eventually meets his well-deserved comeuppance.

Whilst it's obviously based on a stage play, Gaumont achieved something not too common in the 1930s - to make a real movie, not a filmed stage play. Fans of murder mysteries won't be too taxed in working out who did what and why but the journey along the way is presented so skilfully that you won't be able to look away.

Immensely gifted British-born Director Michael Powell shows touches of upcoming genius in this 62-minute noir whodunnit which may well have given some ideas to René Clair as he helmed the much larger budget production AND THEN THERE WERE NONE of 1941.

In addition to unusually clear B&W cinematography for 1934, NIGHT OF THE PARTY aka MURDER PARTY benefits from superior acting, in particular Ernest Thesiger as Adrian Chiddiat (rhyming with idiot), a failed writer belittled by womanizer Lord Studholme (excellent short portrayal by Malcolm Keen), Muriel Aked as Princess Amelia of Corsova; and, inevitably, the great Leslie Banks makes the most of his short and efficient part as Sir John Holland, a police inspector invited to attend what turns out to be a MURDER PARTY.

Top notch dialogue by Roland Pertwee and John H Turner.

Definitely warrants watching as an early Michael Powell vehicle showing many of the touches that would lead to such masterpieces as COLONEL BLIMP, THE RED SHOES, BLACK NARCISSUS, among others, 8/10.

A film from the beginning of Michael Powell's career, still without Emeric Pressburger.

A serial product (Powell made no less than five films in 1934, and would make six more in 1935), with cinema gaining audiences due to the recent introduction of sound.

This is a typical detective film, in the style of Hercule Poirot's whodunit, almost entirely filmed indoors, without much rhythm and whose main virtue is to be able to keep in suspense, until the end, who the murderer is.

It would be hard to guess, from this film, the enormous qualities that the director would demonstrate in the following decade.