The Criminal Within

Murder at Glen Athol is a neat little mystery with a bit of comedy, a bit of romance, a bit of gangster picture thrown in—not much of any of those other elements, just enough to keep the viewer slightly off-balance. John Miljan is vacationing detective Bill Holt, a man who keeps his own balance, deftly managing a variety of suspects, the usual dumb cops, and a quickly-developing love affair with Jane Maxwell (played by Irene Ware), who is given brief consideration as a suspect but obviously works better as a love interest.

John Miljan is more familiar as the scheming crook he played in so many movies, but here at the center of this story he gets a chance to show some strong qualities as a lead, and some versatility in the range of his relationships with the other characters. His banter with James Burtis, the requisite housekeeper/assistant/right-hand man, is light but amusing enough. (Miljan's attempt to take a vacation and write his memoirs is interrupted in the film's opening scene by Burtis's insistent vacuuming around the desk Miljan is typing at.) His interactions with the various suspects are cool and cautious, as he isn't (and we aren't) sure just who might take a shot at him, stick a knife in him, or whack him on the side of the head. (Those things do seem to happen in this particular house he's visiting.) He shows deference to the police investigators, but doesn't throw away any valuable clues by turning them over, either.

Miljan's romance with Irene Ware is perhaps the oddest of these relationships. I'm not overly picky, and I know things have to move fast in a 64-minute movie, but this detective drops some lines that are awfully sappy for as serious-minded a character as he otherwise seems. Entering the gambling room at the house party, she declines to play, but he thinks he'll take a whirl at the roulette table anyway: "No matter what happens, it'll still be the luckiest night of my life." "Why do you say that?" she wonders. "Oh," he replies, "I just happened to meet a girl named Jane Maxwell." --Even Jane Maxwell finds this a bit much, and laughingly answers, "Well, come on, Mr. Detective, we'll see how lucky you are."

The mystery elements are done well; the picture moves along at a splendid clip. Well worth a viewing.

A famous detective gets invited to a swanky party at an elegant mansion, but finds himself searching for a killer after a murder occurs at the mansion.

A few people are murdered, starting with gaily amoral Muriel Randall (Iris Adrian), who has divorced one elderly husband (he becomes corpse number two), driven a younger second husband to insanity (he ends up with Rigor Mortis, too) and advancing vampishly on his younger brother - apart from her flings, she is using her inside-knowledge of a gangland rub-out to extort booze and cash from local racketeer Gus Colleti (Noel Madison).

When Muriel turns up stabbed in bed, it's no wonder that everyone is suspect - and Bill is especially keen on proving that the pretty Jane Maxwell (Irene Ware), first wife of the second husband, didn't do it. Cause he fancies her ...

Murder at Glen Athol is a wellcrafted mystery with interesting suspects and a clever detective who is well played by John Miljan- his sidekick isn't too annoying as he provides some humour. This mystery can be taxing in a sense you have to pay close attention in terms of suspects or you get lost (I found myself rewinding a few times). However, it's an engaging film with good acting, breezy energy and a good finale that had my brain doing somersaults to keep up with the hero's explanation of who was the murderer, and his stiff "chicken" was the trigger.

The title is a misleading in that the location is never mentioned.

That said this is the story of a great detective on vacation and attempting to write his memoirs. His sidekick has alerted the neighbors that he is in neighborhood and so they show up to see the great detective in person. In short order he finds himself invited to a party where the dynamics of the people there make the dysfunctional families on soaps seem normal. That night after the party is over two shots are heard in the night, and three people are found dead...

This is a good little thriller that should have been longer than the 67 minutes it runs. Too much time is spent in the beginning being funny, although you do get to know and like the two detectives better then if you were just dropped into the middle of things. And the end is rushed just a tad.

The cast of characters is very interesting if a bit over loaded with names and faces, its too many in too short a time. The mystery is interesting simply because even if you get part of it you won't get it all.

This is the sort of movie thats hard to write about in that its neither fish nor fowl. Certainly its a murder mystery but there is so much else going on in it, comedy, soap opera, romance crime drama that its hard to know whats what and which is which. As I said its too short for its 67 minutes.

This is part of a series of films called The Crime Club, which were nominally based on a best selling mystery novel series and which, as a film series, bounced between two or three studios. My understanding is that this was a good series of films that never varied in quality, either good or bad, other than being very watchable. From this entry its certainly a series I would try to pick up if I could.

If you like good little thrillers, especially ones that try, but not always succeed at being more than run of the mill, then search this out. And even if you don't search it out, but run across it by all means do watch it since you will enjoy it.

In free tubi, it's called murder at glen athol, but in imdb and europe, it's the criminal within. Detective holt, on vacation, attends a party which gets out of control, ending with a couple murders. Muriel, the overly friendly next door neighbor, is caught up in all this. Now it's up to bill to see if he can solve it before the local cops. The gangsters are selling booze to the rich, and trying to make a profit. Who else is involved? The doctor? The police? This one is a pretty complicated plot... the story goes all over the place. The picture and sound quality are pretty bad. It does have subtitles, but because it was voice recognition, it frequently guesses the wrong words. They actually discuss fingerprints, but aren't able to get good prints that will help. And it has kind of an odd rushed ending. Bill miljan had started in the silent films. Was in tons of films, but usually in supporting roles. I recognize many of the titles where he participated, but played mostly background roles. Directed by frank strayer.... he had directed a bunch of the "blondie" films. Based on the novel by norm lippincott.

Before this film gets down to its real purpose as a standard Poverty Row low-budget who-done-it, there are a few scenes superbly acted and stolen by the young Iris Adrian as a mad cap society girl. Iris went on and on for years playing bit parts as a blowzy wise-cracking loud mouth in another 160 films but this film demonstrates what a first-rate actress she was. She might have gone on to a more brilliant career had anyone recognized how gifted she was. Irene Ware, the leading lady here, is very beautiful and very wooden. Just another face, but Iris is something else.