Murder!
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Alfred Hitchcock, Walter Mycroft and Alma Reville from a play by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson
1930/UK
British International Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
Sir John Menier: I suppose you find the brandy helps steadying the nerves.
Handel Fane: Mine is very nervy work, you see, Sir John. You never know what may happen.
Hitchcock was still perfecting his craft but this movie, while not great, is growing on me.
As the story begins, we hear a woman scream. When the police arrive they find Diana Baring (Norah Baring) in her flat catatonic with a poker by her side and a dead woman on the floor. It develops that the two were actresses in the same play and had been feuding. Much brandy had apparently been consumed. Diana remembers nothing of incident.
She is arrested and tried for murder. The jury makes short work of its deliberations with fellow thespian Sir John Menier (Herbert Marshall) being the last hold out before giving in and joining the others in a guilty verdict. Diana is sentenced to the gallows.
It is not long before Sir John begins to have second thoughts so he starts his own investigation. This movie has an unforgettable ending which I shall not reveal.
This is not Hitchcock at his best but I gave it another try and found a lot of humor I had never seen in it before. There is a scene where Sir John is interviewing the cast and crew backstage during a performance and we see the various actors in the most outlandish costumes and entering the stage in the most outrageous. One is left to guess what the play could possibly be about! Marshall is also very good.
