The Phantom of 42nd Street

This is a creative cheapie from PRC. I like Dave O'Brien. He ought to have had a major career in films. He's good here, but I guess PRC was not the place to forge a career.

I think I saw this on local TV years ago. If not, I saw many mysteries like it.

This is about murders involving a theatrical family. Alan Mowbry, looking quite gone to seed, plays the patriarch. He gets to ham it up a little in "Julius Caesar." Forty-second Street! Wow, are there ever phantoms wandering around! At the time this was made, they were pining for the days of the Ziedgfeld Girl. Then there were legitimate theaters, where plays were performed. Next came years of decline: peep shows, etc. Now it is all cleaned up and is like a vast mall. It isn't much fun. The phantoms will go elsewhere.

From PRC, Producers Releasing Corp, comes the moidah of an actor. Dave OBrien is "Tony", mister suave reporter, who is trying to solve the case. Kay Aldridge is the actress Claudia, who may or may not be involved. lots of talking, talking with suspects, who may or may not be suspects. O'Brien certainly did it all; writer, actor, director. probably best known for "Reefer Madness", 1936. Met Harry Truman. died quite young at 57 from a heart attack. Keep an eye out for Cyril Delevanti... was the old guy in "Night of the Iguana". Directed by Al Herman; this was one of his last films. had started in silents, doing short films, and moved into the talkies. the sound and picture quality is pretty bad, but there ARE captions, so i guess we're lucky it's watchable at all, after eighty years. showing on FilmDetective streaming channel. it's okay. that about all.

After watching this poverty row mystery -- and re-running the climactic scene three or four times -- there's no need for a spoiler alert. I still have no idea who committed the murders nor why. Which sorta' takes the wind out of watching Dave O'Brien as the drama critic for the New York Record playing amateur sleuth, probing the slayings that are decimating the cast of a New York repertory theater. Then again, why was the film called "Phantom of 42nd Street" when live theater had long given way to grind movie houses on 42 Street by the time it was made in the 1940s? That's easy. While "Phantom of 47th Street Between Seventh and Eighth Avenues" would have been more accurate, it wouldn't have had nearly the cache. And fitting it on marquees -- especially at theaters that played PRC releases -- would have been a challenge.

THE PHANTOM OF 42ND STREET is one of those cheap and bland detective stories that bulked out cinema screens back in the 1940s. This one's about a murder at a theatre, and while the genuine cops appear perplexed, our plucky journalist hero turns out to display a surprisingly aptitude for sleuthing. There's a lightness of touch here at times which works well and allows the production to breathe, but the nuts and bolts of the plotting is very creaky and there's a dearth of interesting characters which makes it a struggle to sit through. If you like Shakespeare then the snippets we see of the era might interest you, but otherwise this is bland stuff.

The Phantom Of 42nd Street from PRC is a not too bad murder mystery of a group of people connected to a theatrical company. Theater critic Dave O'Brien is on the job reviewing a play when the first murder is committed. He gets drafted into the job of covering this and the other murders as they are committed. The ultimate target seems to be Alan Mowbray who is the actor/manager of the company and his daughter Kay Aldridge.

It all goes back to some dirt done the murderer many years ago by many members of the company both in front of and backstage. The culprit has gone quite nuts about it, no doubt fixating for many years on how he would do the job. It is a he, I'll give that much away.

Having a critic be a detective is an intriguing plot premise. Surprisingly the cops seem to warm up quickly to the outside help they're getting unlike in so many of these mysteries.

At a major studio this might have been a minor classic with a lot of the holes in the plot not existing. Still for a PRC film it's far from the worst I've seen.