Murder with Pictures

Routine mystery programmer from Paramount. The mystery part –- who killed lawyer Redfield —is too scattered to immerse viewers. (But I have to admit that like others the sound quality of my DVD was fuzzy. So I may have missed some important threads.) Anyway, instead of the whodunnit, interest for me lies with an energetic cast of B-list players. Ayers plays a fast-talking reporter (are there any other kinds) who becomes an amateur sleuth while cops stumble around in the popular manner of the day. Ayers' career later suffered from his conscientious objector's status during early WWII, which he managed to convert to medical corpsman for the remainder. Perhaps the movie's biggest focal point is the statuesque Gail Jackson-- later executive producer of the highly popular Perry Mason series (1957- 66). Check out her bio; she's every bit the brains that her regal appearance implies. Here, she tends to rivet viewer attention. Also, watch for Paul Kelly as a reporter. He was briefly jailed in real life for killing his lover's husband. If I'm going on about the cast, it's probably because the movie itself amounts to little more than a routine time-passer, fuzzy sound or no. There's one amusing moment when Ayers and Patrick share a shower with, guess what, their clothes on. Thanks, Production Code.

Part of the Treeline/Reel Media 50-Movie Mystery Classics Collection from 2003, the sound quality is a little shaky, which probably explains why we NEVER see this one on Turner Classic Movies. Director Charles Barton had helped on a couple of silent movies, but had only been directing for 2 years when he did "Murder with Pictures". Given some quick one- liners by the writers, Lew Ayres stars as photographer Kent Murdock, trying to navigate around everyone involved with the trial he is covering. The part is quite generic, and anyone, like Bogey or William Powell could have played it. Co-stars Gail Patrick and Paul Kelly. Pretty short, at 69 minutes, it was probably considered quality at the time, since Edith Head did the costumes. Lots of cops- and- gangster type threats, guesses, and intrigue, and the bodies start piling up. Lots of car chases and the usual murder mystery antics, but pretty good. Liked Ayres better in "Holiday", which he would make two years later with K Hepburn and C Grant.

I wound up with this movie on one of those dubious £3.99 four-packs full of 'films you've never heard of'. And, well, on a slow Sunday, I treated myself to the experience...

And, frankly, I was more than pleasantly surprised. Snappy banter plus strong performance from the leads made up for a transparent plot and lackluster 'action' sequences.

Gangsters, reporters, dames in distress (and even a particularly dismal 'car chase scene') - all the traditional trappings of the 'noir' genre, but given a slightly humorous edge by Ayres' enjoyable performance as a wise-cracking reporter.

After racketeer Onslow Stevens is acquitted on murder, Gail Patrick pops up amidst a bunch of reporters, with a perfect motive for killing Onslow's putative victim...and other people start dying. News photographer Lew Ayres doesn't believe she did it, even though she keeps lying to him.

It's not a Universal picture, it's from Paramount, but it's definitely not one of their better ones. It's very watchable, but it depends mostly on Ayres playing the snappy-pattering reporter, and his rivalry with news writer Paul Kelly, who is very good. Other than that, it's a matter of standard cinematography by Ted Tetzlaff, a murder method that I figured out from the get-go and a murderer whom I identified at the 40-minute mark, by the way he behaved, even though there was no sign of why he had done it for another fifteen minutes.

It looks like B director Charles Barton was given a mediocre script, and did a job that didn't much exceed his undoubted competence. It's worth watching for the actors, but not much else.

Murder With Pictures finds Lew Ayres and Paul Kelly as a pair of breezy reporters who are tracking the same story, namely the acquittal of murder by gangster Onslow Stevens. It seems as though a key witness Gail Patrick is located and arrives too late to testify. Stevens is giving a bash and he invites the press to the party.

Where his high priced defense attorney Ernest Cossart is shot to death after apparently recognizing someone in the room. Suspicion falls on Patrick, but Ayres shields her and starts his own investigation with Kelly dogging his every move. A couple of murders later and it's all solved.

Ayres gives a nice account of himself in a film which if done at Warner Brothers would have starred James Cagney with Kelly in the Pat O'Brien part. The how is not terribly original, this particular murder gambit was used before and after still it is done with style. As for the motives, Murder With Pictures is a story of greed and revenge.

One cliché seems to be present a lot in these kind of films. The cops are always wrong and the hero always sorts it out. I've seen it in God knows how many films, but in real life I've seen it to be true. Not that the police are dumb, but what people have a problem being is flexible. More than cops will get wedded to a certain notion and then just won't change no matter how the facts are explained to them. In solving cases that's a natural barrier. In my former job with New York State Crime Victims Board I've seen it happen more than once.

It was also nice to see Gail Patrick for once not playing the second lead or the other woman. Murder With Pictures is a nice, fast moving and entertaining film and it's a pity it seems to have dropped into obscurity. The fact that it also has dropped into the public domain may gain it new viewers and fans who've not seen it as of yet.