qmtv
Rating is a B/B+, about 8 stars. 10 stars given to balance out the loser reviews. Current 5.4 rating is a joke. Here's the deal. We have a convoluted mystery, which was a bit tough to follow. Beyond that we have some decent acting all around. Good humor. The best was when the black maid didn't was sitting in a convertible outside the morgue, and she asked why they were there. The cop said, you're here to identify a dead person. She said no she won't go. The copy says it's either that or I'll put you in jail. She says, I'd rather be in jail with live people than in the morgue with dead people. Then, the boss cop comes in and says we have someone else to identify the dead person and that you can go. The maid hightails it out of the car and runs back up the street and almost gets run over by another car. This scene alone is worth watching this film. There are tons of intelligent dialogue here. The terror element comes from the Janitor as the killer. We see him bring Ginger Rodgers to the basement to the basement and to put her in the furnace. This is all great stuff. The movie is slow in parts. And as mentioned the mystery is a bit convoluted with different murders. But it all works well. It's entertaining. It is a comedy thriller mystery. It works. They could have made this full on thriller mystery without the convoluted story by just concentrating on a psycho janitor. That could have worked too. But this is what we have.
gridoon2018
In "A Shriek In The Night" a young (22 at the time) Ginger Rogers shows some of the star quality that would, only a few years later, make her one of Hollywood's most beloved "golden age" stars. She is magnetic, and you can't take your eyes off her. To be fair, if you DID take your eyes off her in this movie, you wouldn't have much else worth looking at! The film has a captivating start, but the comedy is not particularly funny, the mystery cheats shamelessly, there is a dated "a woman's place is in the home" message, and the film drags so much it makes the running time of one hour feel like two. A couple of atmospheric scenes, the not-so-clueless-after-all inspector's assistant, and of course Ginger herself are the saving graces. Beware of some DVD covers which give away the secret of who the killer is! ** out of 4.
mark.waltz
The opening seconds of this Z-Grade melodrama promise more than the rest of the film delivers. A body flies out of a window. Suicide or murder? That's what two friendly reporters on rival newspapers want to know. They are Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot whose initial sparring (that predictably leads to romance) is one of the only amusing things in this creaky crime drama that needed to be oiled, even back in 1933. Frequent lulls of no dialogue or action slow this down to a turtle race. Sudden uses of shadows to show a murderer in a gas mask or darkly lit scenes of mayhem can't help this rise past mediocrity. Rogers, fresh from another Z-Grade melodrama ("The Thirteenth Guest") must have either been bored or broke, or waiting for dance rehearsals to start so she could learn "The Carioca" for "Flying Down to Rio".Louise Beavers adds a bit of amusement as the feisty maid who declares, "Yes, I ain't going' in!" (to a morgue), insisting that she's seen enough dead bodies in one day to last her a lifetime, and agreeing to go to jail, preferring to be with live people than dead ones in a freezer. This seems like one of those slow-moving melodramatic plays that toured around the United States and England's smaller communities prior to the invention of movies.
Scarecrow-88
A dummy falls from a balcony(..actually it's supposed to represent a man, but many will giggle a little at how unrealistic it is with the flailing arms as the body impacts with pavement)and detectives consider it possible homicide. The man who fell to his doom, a Mr Harker, had a temporary secretary, Patricia Morgan(Giner Rogers)working in his apartment who in fact is a reporter infiltrating the man's privacy trying to uncover his ties to a gangster, Joe Martini(Maurice Black). It's soon discovered by Inspector Russell(Purnell Pratt)that Harker was perhaps thrown off a balcony in his lover's room. The female lover was found strangled(..but we see a person's silhouette with a mask cutting off the gas, telling us that it's in fact a mystery assassin attempting to throw detectives off the scent)and later her husband, Mr. Colby, police's number one suspect, is found dead, potentially of suicide. Patricia has the scoop, but her current(..well, sort of)boyfriend, Ted Ford(Lyle Talbot)steals her story, having her believe that he's from her newspaper. Losing her job when the big story turns up on the front page, almost word for word the way she had intended, of Ted's newspaper, Patricia will coordinate a relationship with Russell, remaining in Harker's Penthouse sweet, attempting to discover any possible evidence that might provide a link to the killer's identity. Meanwhile, Ted tries to make nice, forging a team with Patricia to solve the mystery. A letter from the killer(..to Harker, found hidden in a small compartment in a dresser drawer) is discovered by his always-hysterical housekeeper, Augusta(Lillian Harmer, in a hideous performance, as the comedy relief but it's excruciatingly forced and over the top to a ridiculous degree)which relates to an innocent cabbie sent to the chair for a murder of someone who was rivals with Harker. Acting suspiciously is the apartment's janitor, Peterson(Harvey Clark)who we see feeding a recording of a shrieking woman's voice into the ventilation to mask the sound of another killing. The janitor also has skeleton keys to every room and sneaks around like a mouse, not to mention that he listens on conversations made between Patricia and Ted..why would he be so interested? It's only a matter of time, despite Ted's efforts to keep her safe, until Patricia's life will be threatened as she gets too close to the truth.Okay little murder mystery designed as a star vehicle for the always charming and illuminating Ginger Rogers. She re-teams with Lyle Talbot(..they worked beautifully together in THE THIRTEENTH GUEST)and they have great chemistry which certainly helps rise this above it's rather decent, but unremarkable, presentation. Pratt comes off a jackass as the detective, always insulting somebody, never listening to his partner, Wilfred(Arthur Hoyt), for whom he considers an idiot. Actually, Wilfred, a very timid, meek, quiet little fellow, helps out a great deal when Russell gives him a chance to talk. Wilfred's bravery at the end resulting in a scuffle with the killer is a nice scene that allows him to be the hero as others are upstairs looking for clues. The plot is rather complex even though the killer's identity could be guessed relatively soon through obvious clues.. the finger in pointed in one direction early and never relinquishes it, so I think that's a failure in Albert Ray's work as director, not to produce effective red herrings that would keep us guessing. As a Ginger Rogers movie, I do think it succeeds, but that could be because I personally love her in practically everything. And, the unflappable, extremely likable Talbot lends great support. Some of the comedy bits with the housekeeper(..and another black stereotype, played by Louise Beavers, the maid frightened of morgues and dead people, is provided for African-Americans to cringe)are really irritating, though. Those accustomed with cinema at this time can probably adjust to the dead air that often exists making scenes between characters seem like lengthly affairs.
