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.

Enterprising "Times Herald" reporter John Harron (as Jerry Ross) investigates "The Murder in the Museum " of a city councilman. This "Museum" isn't what you may be expecting; although there appear to be a few paintings on display, it's really a traveling freak show - "The World's Largest Collection of Natural and Unnatural Wonders". Among the attractions: an armless man, a bodiless woman, and the mysterious Henry B. Walthall (as "Professor Mysto" aka Bernard Latham Wayne). Patrons seem more interested in scantily-clad dancing women; unfortunately, they are told to keep it "tame it down plenty" when "the law" is spotted.

The "Sphere Museum" is also a front for drug-runners (which has attracted police and politicians). Just before the murder, Mr. Harron meets shapely blonde Phyllis Barrington (as Lois Brandon); and, the two fall in love. Mr. Walthall is appropriately mystic; his casting, alongside the brother of frequent co-star Robert Harron, is inspired. Unfortunately, this production is very poor. The cast and crew manage to get through the picture smoothly enough, considering the obvious lack of rehearsals and re-takes.

**** The Murder in the Museum (1934) Melville Shyer ~ John Harron, Henry B. Walthall, Phyllis Barrington

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.

I've always loved this curio, a z-grade murder mystery from producer Willis Kent (Cocaine Fiends; Reb Russell westerns) set in a seedy sideshow arcade with a cavalcade of odd and interesting carny performers worked into the plot. As a murder mystery, it supplies a number of good red herrings, and the cheap sets and downbeat atmosphere and hard-boiled dialogue give the film a raw, exciting feel... The cast is full of reliable veterans, many from the silent era (former silent actors filled the z-grade independent films of the early 30s), so that even the smallest role is colorfully played. And star Henry B. Walthall, of Birth of A Nation fame and a major star in the mid-to-late teens and early twenties (superb in Ibsen's Ghosts and also The Scarlet Letter), gives a

moving performance as a one-time college professor who has been reduced by tragedy to performing magic tricks in a sideshow. He gets a number of featured scenes and, as always, has an understated grace and elegance as an actor (see also the serial The Whispering Shadow and the feature The Flaming Signal for other films of his from this period). This was, I believe, his last film, and his name isn't even spelled correctly in the credits (his name is above the title!). By the way, trainspotters should note that there are three versions of this in circulation--a mail order outlet from Oregon recently released a crisp looking copy,but it is missing a scene at the beginning and has different canned music over the opening credits from an old copy I have from a worn 16mm--and the AFI catalog lists another version with later-filmed exotic dancing footage spliced into the dancing girl scenes. Today's "bad boys" of the post-Pulp Fiction cinema world could take a lesson in understatement and atmosphere from this film. Hats off to director Melville Shyer for another solid piece of work!