BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Rainey Dawn Myles Brent is actually killed on the set while filming "The Death Kiss". Almost everyone is suspected but Marcia Lane is arrested for the murder. Franklyn Drew will do what he can to prove Marcia innocent of murder but can he find out who the real murderer is? This is one of the better crime-mysteries I've seen from the 1930s. It has atmosphere, a good cast, interesting story, and really fun to guess "whodunit" while following the film. The movie is actually better than I was guessing it would be.This movie would be great to watch with another Lugosi crime-mystery The Whispering Shadow (1933) for a double dose of Lugosi.8/10

mukava991 "The Death Kiss," a humor-laced murder mystery set in a Hollywood movie studio, unspools at a snappy pace offering one delight after another: a striking opening, followed by the introduction of a succession of colorful characters played by Everett Van Sloan, Bela Lugosi, Harold Minjir, Alexander Carr, the photogenic Adrienne Ames and David Manners as a studio writer who tries to figure out whodunit. There is a loose, breezy feel, with the camera tracking and panning freely not only around the movie studio but into its nooks and crannies as the dialogue zings with amusing exchanges and wisecracks. There are even hand-tinted flames, gunshots and flashlight beams during various action sequences.

Case Even though this early talkie has its flaws it is still an above average little mystery, where the strong points are the interesting supporting characters and the great script. The story opens with a bang... and a pretty interesting gimmick: a well-dressed gentleman in a top hat is shot to death on the street, right at front of his hotel, but we quickly learn that he is just an actor and it all happened on-set. However just as the director asks for a retake, telling the actor to die in a less theatrical way, they realize to their horror that he is really dead.So, the story kicks in pretty quick and keeps up the pace all the way. The police gets on the scene fast, but of course it is not them who really takes the case in their hands, but one of the writers working for the studio, who also happens to be the boyfriend of the lead actress, who in turn happens to be one of the main suspects.At first they have to figure out if it was just an accident or the actor was deliberately murdered (guess which one!) and then the hunt for the killer begins with a lot of suspects, action, misleading clues scattered around and with one plot twist after the other. The film keeps you guessing until the end, the murders are committed in pretty clever ways and the overall great story is only marred a bit by the totally careless handling of important evidence both by the police and our hero.Who is also a bit of a problem: his character is quite antipathetic, together with the lead actress, however the supporting cast makes up for their shortcomings. The producer who keeps on complaining about the loss the whole case causes him, the sullen police inspector and the studio's own clumsy little officer are probably the highlights, but the rest of the characters are quite great as well, while the film's movie studio background gives us a pretty interesting behind-the-scenes look. And at last, even if just as a minor character, we can see Bela Lugosi, back in his days when he was still getting roles in non-horror movies.I only picked this movie randomly from a big stack of old mysteries I got from archive.org recently (as this one is in public domain), but it turned out to be a quite pleasant surprise and a film that can be recommended for anyone, not just die hard murder mystery fans.

capkronos One of the most novel aspects of this low-budget murder-mystery is the opening sequence. It starts with a man being shot near the front entrance of a building before the camera pans around to reveal it's simply a scene being shot in a movie studio. I've seen this same set-up numerous times in other mysteries, thrillers and horror films and don't recall seeing any films predating this one using this film-within-a-film trick at the beginning. But what is supposed to be a simulated murder turns out to be a real one when a member of the cast or crew actually does shoot the actor from somewhere off-screen. The question is, who did it and why? That's what Lt. Sheehan (John Wray) hopes to find out. Usually beating him to the punch though is studio writer Franklyn Drew (David Manners), who decides to play amateur sleuth when the killer tries to implicate his girlfriend - film star Marcia Lane (Adrienne Ames) - in not only the first murder, but also a second one involving a drunk getting battery acid snuck into his liquor.Horror fans will note that three of the leads from Tod Browning's classic Dracula, made just one year earlier, round out the cast, including Manners in the lead role and Bela Lugosi (playing studio president Joseph Steiner) and Edward Van Sloan (playing director Tom Avery) in supporting roles, both as just a couple of the potential suspects. It's also nice to get a look at a 1930s film studio, including sets and camera and sound equipment. The screenplay depends a bit too much on coincidence, with Manners finding many clumsily-left clues just lying around at various locations and the killer conveniently popping in long enough to conk someone over the head so he/she can destroy evidence, for the mystery aspects to be fully satisfactory. And the comedy elements, primarily the ones involving a dim-witted set security guard (Vince Barnett) are a bit strained at times. Despite that, the film is still pretty entertaining and worth watching.