Flat-Foots and Chorus Girls

What's more exciting than a big, glittery, 1930s revue? A revue with murder! 1934's Murder at the Vanities combines big production, fabulous stage numbers with the backstage menace of a serial killer. They truly are some fabulous numbers and the murder mystery is interesting but the best part of this movie is the rapport between Victor McLaglen's police lieutenant and the theatre press agent (and temporary director) played by Jack Oakie.

Murdock (McLaglen) was expecting Ellery (Oakie) to save seats for him and his girl at the new show but Ellery failed to deliver. "Just try and ask me for a favour!" says Murdock and, wouldn't know it? A dame, a private detective, no less, turns up dead in the rafters.

The drama here revolves around the the wardrobe woman (Jessie Ralph), who's secretly the mother of the show's star, Eric Lander (Carl Brisson), and also secretly a former European opera star of thirty years ago. An opera star who may already be guilty of one murder back in her home country.

No-one's sure the girl's been murdered yet so Ellery calls the police. And who shows up?

ELLERY: Ah, old Croc Head. So it's you.

MURDOCK: Yeah, me.

ELLERY: I sent to the police station and look what I get. I thought this was your night off.

MURDOCK: So it is. But I'll do anything to do an old pal a favour. Especially after all the trouble you went through for those tickets.

ELLERY: Oh, now, listen--

MURDOCK: Oh, you can't square yourself! What are we here for? Somebody disturbing your peace?

ELLERY: Not mine, somebody else's.

MURDOCK: Uh-huh.

ELLERY: Seems somebody around here's dropping sandbags on a leading lady's dome. Trying to cut her up with broken glass.

MURDOCK: Hey, boy. Go back to your bootleg. This legal stuff ain't agreeing with you.

ELLERY: Listen, Mallet Head, we got comedians in this show, they get paid to be funny.

MURDOCK: Hey, what do you want me to do? Make a pinch for, for . . .

Several scantily clad chorus girls walk by

ELLERY: Judas H. Priest, thirty thousand cops in New York, I gotta pick out a big. flat-footed Romeo like you. Why don't you take your lamps off those dames and do a little police work, huh?

MURDOCK: This is police work. Them babies look like they got clues or somethin'.

ELLERY: Oh, be serious, will you, Bill? Somebody around here's committing merry mayhem, maybe murder, why don't you kind of peep around a little, huh?

MURDOCK: Sure, I'll peek around. Now there's a baby over there that looks suspicious! And oughta be followed!

ELLERY: Don't get too close to her, she'll mistake you for King Kong!

King Kong came out the previous year so that's some timely humour.

The film's romantic leads, including Kitty Carlisle, are kind of dull but the musical numbers are great thanks to those same pre-Code chorus girls Murdock was making eyes at. The movie's maybe best known now for the song about marijuana. The movie came out a few years before marijuana was made illegal throughout the U.S. It's not a bad song but there's a much better performance from Duke Ellington later in the film. However, by far, the best number is a desert island set up where the sea is simulated by great big feather fans in the hands of chorus girls.

There's no clip on YouTube (and I don't have time to get one myself) and screenshots just don't cut it. So I highly recommend checking the movie out yourself. It's on The Criterion Channel on the pre-Code playlist.

Beasts and the Monster

Just how brutal can things get when all the animals are in cages? 1933's Murders in the Zoo shows it can get quite brutal indeed. Starring Lionel Atwill in an astonishing performance as a serial killer, this pre-Code film definitely lives up to the reputation of the era.

I watched it last night on The Criterion Channel's new pre-Code playlist. It's one of the few I hadn't already seen. It's amazing to think how long some movies have waited for me to see them. I've seen Lionel Atwill in other films but I'm going to appreciate him a lot more from now on.

He plays Eric Gorman, a man who hunts and captures exotic animals for the zoo. The film begins in French Indochina where he's just finished sewing a man's mouth shut.

This man had committed the crime of speaking flirtatiously with Gorman's wife, Evelyn, played by smoky eyed vamp Kathleen Burke. She's wonderfully elegant and a perfect contrast to the refined but looming bull in her life.

Atwill's performance when he confronts her on another man who's been sweet to her is truly chilling. The zeal in his eyes as he grips her shoulders shows us a man focused on someone else yet clearly more consumed with the mad world in his brain.

There are a lot of things in this movie that would have been impossible after the enforcement of the Hays Code. Even the simple fact that Evelyn is clearly justified in wanting a divorce would be forbidden. Then, of course, there's the free for all of live leopards, lions, and pumas at the end.

Animals were harmed in the making of this film. I feel bad about that, though it's not quite as bad as Cannibal Holocaust. At least these animals could defend themselves.

Murders in the Zoo is available on The Criterion Channel.