The Criminal Within

"Murder at Glen Athol" is a B-movie with a limited budget and mostly no-name stars. John Miljan stars in the film and he has a face you might recognize--he played bad guys in quite a few Bs. He was a pretty good actor and his lovely voice sounded a lot like a combination of Otto Kruger's and Charles Butterworth's--but he never became a big star. Instead, he found steady work in lower-budget films. Here in this film, however, it's one of those times where he actually got to play the hero--and he did a nice job of it.

Miljan plays a famous detective who is on vacation. And, like most famous factional detectives (such as Charlie Chan and Jessica Fletcher), a vacation means someone will get murdered and this cop will get called in to help the locals solve the crime. This is just one of those screen clichés you'll just need to accept without questioning.

So why did I like it enough to give it a 7 (which is a very high score for a B)? Well, the acting and production values were surprisingly good, the murder mystery and how Miljan's character dealt with the murders was unique and I liked the sidekick--who, though a bit dumb, wasn't THAT dumb and often was quite handy--something that you couldn't say about most detective sidekicks (such as Birmingham Brown or Dr. Watson). All in all, an enjoyable film that managed to be a bit better than you'd expect. And, considering you can download it free from the link on IMDb, that's plenty of reason to see it.

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.

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.

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.

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.