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.

I almost gave up on this no-budget whodunit in the first 10 minutes. It was dull, flat, blandly staged and indifferently acted. Then Iris Adrian breezed into the room as a flirtatious gold digger who might as well have been wearing a neon sign saying "trouble."

Adrian's scenes were genuinely engaging, and if she'd had more screen time that alone could have made this movie worth watching. But she doesn't have that many scenes, and the dull script and convoluted, shapeless mystery had nothing else to recommend it.

By the way - this movie has two titles "Murder at Glen Athol" and "The Criminal Within" and neither makes much sense. No one ever talks about glen Athol and the criminal within doesn't make any sense in the context of the movie - they were clearly just trying to come up with a title that would intrigue people.

Anyway, in spite of Adrian's performance I can't recommend this movie.

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.

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.