Lola Lane was a very versatile actress. She was one of the Lane sisters and came to films in the first rush of early sound musicals. Unfortunately the next year musicals were out but Lola stayed and started her acting apprenticeship in programmers. Before she was "discovered" again as one of the "Four Daughters" (1939)(the wise- cracking one) she had spent the 30s building up a respectable career in films like "Death From a Distance", in which she played sassy reporter Kay Palmer (curiously devoid of much make-up). I, also like another reviewer, felt the plot was too complicated.
A renowned scientist, Professor Ernst Einfield (Lee Kohlmar) an eccentric genius, is delivering a lecture to a select audience at the Forest Park Planetarium (props were borrowed from the set of "The Invisible Ray"). A gunshot is heard in the darkness and when the lights go on, Dr. Stone, a drugs manufacturer, is found dead. At first no one can agree where the shot was fired from but it is decided it had come from the back of the room.
"OK sister -what's your name" - "If I'm your sister, you know it already"!!! Kay Palmer (Lola Lane), a reporter who is covering the lecture, goes rushing from the room hoping to get a scoop. Because of an altercation with Detective Mallory (Russell Hopton), when she is finally able to phone in her story, she blasts the police's (and Mallory's) inefficiency. There are many suspects - Langsdale (Wheeler Oakman) was the doctor's personal secretary but he confesses he has been in prison for assault and was only released a week ago. Ahmed (John Davidson) a suspicious type who claims he didn't know Dr. Stone but in reality came there to kill him. There is also John Gray (George Marion Snr, who was quite good as the trusting father in Greta Garbo's "Anna Christie" (1930)) a watchman who has been employed there over 10 years.
"Well, well, well, together again. It must be old home - icide week". Meanwhile relations between the press and the police are at an all time low. There have been a few editorials by Kay ridiculing the police. When she finds out that Professor Einfield is going to go into a trance and name the killer, she gets a front page story, realising only too late that the killer will also read it. The film is wrapped up in a novel way. Einfield is found murdered - only he isn't!!! When everyone is out of the room Mallory explains to Kay (they are now friends) that the hoax was done to shake up the real killer. Later on, to everyone's amazement, walking out of the darkness, the "corpse" makes a surprise re-appearance. The killer then breaks down and confesses ("it's lies, it's all lies I tell you") -his histrionics at the end are all explained.
There is quite a lot of witty dialogue going back and forth between Kay and Mallory.
A renowned scientist, Professor Ernst Einfield (Lee Kohlmar) an eccentric genius, is delivering a lecture to a select audience at the Forest Park Planetarium (props were borrowed from the set of "The Invisible Ray"). A gunshot is heard in the darkness and when the lights go on, Dr. Stone, a drugs manufacturer, is found dead. At first no one can agree where the shot was fired from but it is decided it had come from the back of the room.
"OK sister -what's your name" - "If I'm your sister, you know it already"!!! Kay Palmer (Lola Lane), a reporter who is covering the lecture, goes rushing from the room hoping to get a scoop. Because of an altercation with Detective Mallory (Russell Hopton), when she is finally able to phone in her story, she blasts the police's (and Mallory's) inefficiency. There are many suspects - Langsdale (Wheeler Oakman) was the doctor's personal secretary but he confesses he has been in prison for assault and was only released a week ago. Ahmed (John Davidson) a suspicious type who claims he didn't know Dr. Stone but in reality came there to kill him. There is also John Gray (George Marion Snr, who was quite good as the trusting father in Greta Garbo's "Anna Christie" (1930)) a watchman who has been employed there over 10 years.
"Well, well, well, together again. It must be old home - icide week". Meanwhile relations between the press and the police are at an all time low. There have been a few editorials by Kay ridiculing the police. When she finds out that Professor Einfield is going to go into a trance and name the killer, she gets a front page story, realising only too late that the killer will also read it. The film is wrapped up in a novel way. Einfield is found murdered - only he isn't!!! When everyone is out of the room Mallory explains to Kay (they are now friends) that the hoax was done to shake up the real killer. Later on, to everyone's amazement, walking out of the darkness, the "corpse" makes a surprise re-appearance. The killer then breaks down and confesses ("it's lies, it's all lies I tell you") -his histrionics at the end are all explained.
There is quite a lot of witty dialogue going back and forth between Kay and Mallory.