The Murder in the Museum

The Murder in the Museum (1934)

** (out of 4)

Typical murder-mystery from the era, this one here is set inside a bizarre museum where a man is murdered while investigating claims that there's a drug smuggling ring inside the location. Soon the prime suspect's daughter (Phyllis Barrington) and a reporter (John Harron) team up to try and get to who did the crime.

I honestly don't think most people realize how popular these murder- mystery films were from this era. It really did seem like they were dozens released each year and they'd take place in a variety of locations. They were set in planes, on ships, in hotels, radio stations, castles and of course the most popular being the old dark houses. I think it's fair to say that these films were popular with producers because they could be filmed quickly and cheaply.

In reality, if you've seen one then you've already seen most of them as very few of them really set themselves apart from what was already out there on the market. This one here gets some attention because it was released the same year as FREAKS and this too deals with some sideshow performers but none of the types that were seen in that Tod Browning classic. As far as the film goes, it's mildly entertaining for what it is but there's no question that it's not a masterpiece or even a very good film.

The biggest problem is that Harron and Barrington just aren't that good of a team. There's no comic banter between them. There's no good romance. Heck, there's not even a bit of chemistry between them. This really hampers the film and I'd argue that the mystery of who the killer is wasn't all that good. At least we get a top- billed Henry B. Walthall but be warned that he's more of a supporting player than anything else.

THE MURDER IN THE MUSEUM will appeal to those like myself who want to watch all of these types of films that they can. Others should start elsewhere.

Another of Henry B. Walthall's 1934 movies (he played in twelve that year), this interesting curio, Murder in the Museum, is one of a handful directed by Melville Shyer, who made some 150 films as an assistant director. Mr Shyer handles this assignment with more than routine competence, even using track shots effectively on occasion. True, he is slightly let down by obviously sparse set dressing, and lackluster silent hero, John Harron, soon demonstrates why he quickly went down the ladder to playing uncredited bits. But super-svelte Phyllis Barrington (in her last of twelve movies) makes an engaging heroine and the support cast is filled out by tip-top people like John Elliott, Symona Boniface, Joe Girard and Donald Kerr, plus two wonderful shimmy dancers and other rakish sideshow denizens. Once the action moves away from the carny setting, alas, the plot becomes less interesting. All told, however, by producer Willis Kent's rock-bottom standards, Murder in the Museum stands as a classy production.

Regarding the variant versions of this film, it should be noted that one IMDb comment-maker thinks the version with exotic dancing features a section filmed later and spliced in. I do know that the version from Alpha Video as of this year (2006) does NOT contain the entire sequence -- but the sequence CAN be found in another Willis Kent movie available from Alpha Video, namely "Confessions of a Vice Baron" (1943), which is a Willis Kent Productions pastiche of scenes taken mostly from films that starred Willy Castello, but also includes a number of non-Castello movie clips as well. I have checked out the question of the missing footage from the Alpha Video DVD version of "Murder in the Museum" and located it. I would like to describe it, for the benefit of my fellow "trainspotters."

In the Alpha Video version of "Murder in the Museum", the cootch dancers are shown doing a come-on for their dance, then doing a "gyp" version of the dance for 10 cents (to appease snoopy vice-busters), and then a 25 cent "real" version of the dance is promised to male viewers who file into a room. We see only the first portion of the 25 cent dance by Caremelita, a traditional belly dancer in a bangled costume. No music is playing as she dances, and her body is partially obscured by various onlookers until the end of the scene. The movie then picks up with the gunshot that signals the promised "Murder in the Museum."

The deleted footage from this sequence can be found in Alpha Video's DVD of the Willis Kent / Willy Castello pastiche movie "Confessions of a Vice Baron." To get to it, jump to Chapter Index 5 and fast forward through the school girl scene and the Willy Castello close-up; it is the next scene. A jump-cut is made from the barker's intro of the dancers, deleting the 10 cent "gyp" dance, and going directly to the 25 cent dance scene opening. We see the same footage of Carmelita dancing in front of the obscuring onlookers, but this time we get to hear the Turkish music. Then the scene opens up and we see Carmelita full view, on the same stage, but with no bystanders to block our sight of her as she continues to dance to the same music. When she finishes, there appears to be a soundtrack splice (the music jumps) and the off-camera barker says "And over here is Fateema!" and we see another young woman doing some traditional belly-dance moves. She is not shown on the same set as the sideshow midway (she is against a dark floral drapery curtain) and she is not wearing traditional Middle Eastern bangles -- rather, she has on silk or rayon "stripper" type clothes, unlike those seen on any of the earlier-shown dancers. The same music continues over her dance, followed by another musical splice-jump, and then the scene closes out with some more footage that was obviously part of the original "Murder in the Museum": One young woman asks the other to leave as they are "the only girls" in the audience, and her friend declines, with a slight hint of lesbian interest in the dancers; they both then leave, along with the boyfriend of one of the girls. "Confessions of a Vice Baron" then switches to clips from another movie.

It is very clear from comparing the two DVDs that the entire Carmelita dance, with accompanying music, plus the gag with the girls in the audience, came from the original, uncut version of "Murder in the Museum," but i have my doubts that the Fateema dance sequence was originally part of this movie. Given the ease with which digital film can be edited, i hope that Steve Caplan at Alpha Video can be persuaded to restore the lost footage (with or without the possibly extraneous Fateema dance), making Alpha's version of "Murder in the Museum" even better than it already is.

Social reformers and political enemies Joseph Girard and Sam Flint are at a dime museum, as are reporter John Harron, and Girard's niece, Phyllis Barrington. It's a thoroughly sleazy affair, promising all sorts of thrills for an additional dime, and delivering very little. Besides the girls in gauzy costumes, there's an armless man, fortune-teller Symona Boniface, stage magician Henry B. Walthall, knife thrower Steve Clemente, and similar acts. Suddenly a shot rings out and Flint is dead. Eventually the police show up and arrest Flint for havinga .45 revolver. When he says he lent the gun to the armless man for an act he was working on, they discovering a toe print on it and arrest the second man. But then it turns out the bullet was a .32 smoothbore. Meanwhile, Harron and Miss Barrington investigate.

It's a Poverty Row movie produced by Willis Kent. The director is Melville Shyer, who spend most of his career as an AD and production manager. I don't think he held any rehearsals, because the lines don't sound very convincing. Still, it's always good to see top-billed Walthall, and Bobby Harron's younger brother.

Among the many 'little' B mysteries from the 30s with the hugely popular pattern 'reporter plays detective', "Murder in the Museum" stands out in several ways. First, it stars the famous and distinguished silent actor Henry B. Walthall as a former professor of philosophy - and now turned a magician in a rather shady carnival show. Then, there are quite a lot of various people and ongoings involved in the plot that revolves around this infamous show: the same day that the show's 'manager' receives a drug delivery from his gangster friends, the two candidates running for mayor visit the show in order to check out if there's a reason to close it down, because they both try to show to their voters that they want to 'clear up' the town. And in the middle of the show, one of the two is shot - and a young reporter is, of course, also on the spot, ready, willing and able (much more than the police) to solve the crime...

There would be a LOT to write about this pretty convulsed plot; but I don't want to spoil it for the friends who haven't watched this movie yet - because they absolutely should do so. There's definitely something more to it than to an average B crime movie: the direction is imaginative and well timed, the plot is REALLY unusual, the actors are doing a fine job (not only Walthall, but also John Harron as the clever young news hound and Phyllis Barrington as the fearless girl who assists him despite his warnings); I highly recommend it!