...then this is a James Whale movie that you will like! Riding high after Bride of Frankenstein (a film mentioned in the dialogue) James Whale chose to make this bizarre mating of The Thin Man with The Old Dark House, partly so he could get out of directing Dracula's Daughter (also mentioned here - did any other director so love in-jokes?).
Rich, spoiled, and zany socialites Robert Young and Constance Cummings attend a drinking party with their equally alcoholic Long Island friends (Whale lovingly shows them cavorting among some mind-boggling art-deco sets) and perform such charming antics as destroying expensive furniture, driving drunk, and firing a cannon at a passing ship. The next morning the party goers wake up to find one of them has been murdered, but they were so drunk they can't remember what happened (the film is based on a novel called The Hangover Murders, but the Hays Office would not permit that title to be used).
Cummings and Young remind me as much of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald as Nick and Nora Charles, and the wild party seems like a nostalgic holdover from the 1920s. It's hard to be believe depression audiences would be entertained by such aimless and destructive shenanigans. Perhaps Whale identified with the characters' self indulgence.
Cummings and Young aren't even the main sleuths - that role belongs to Edward Arnold, who storms into the film after the party section and proceeds to bellow and bark his way through the role. Arnold could show charm even as a heavy in films like Diamond Jim and The Toast Of New York, so I choose to blame his misjudged performance on Whale.
Aside from Whale, this film's main interest comes from its sets, its alcoholism, and the presence of the under-appreciated Constance Cummings, who might have been a major star if she had not left the US for the UK with her British husband, screenwriter Benn Levy. This and Harold Lloyd's Movie Crazy were her best Hollywood roles.
Rich, spoiled, and zany socialites Robert Young and Constance Cummings attend a drinking party with their equally alcoholic Long Island friends (Whale lovingly shows them cavorting among some mind-boggling art-deco sets) and perform such charming antics as destroying expensive furniture, driving drunk, and firing a cannon at a passing ship. The next morning the party goers wake up to find one of them has been murdered, but they were so drunk they can't remember what happened (the film is based on a novel called The Hangover Murders, but the Hays Office would not permit that title to be used).
Cummings and Young remind me as much of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald as Nick and Nora Charles, and the wild party seems like a nostalgic holdover from the 1920s. It's hard to be believe depression audiences would be entertained by such aimless and destructive shenanigans. Perhaps Whale identified with the characters' self indulgence.
Cummings and Young aren't even the main sleuths - that role belongs to Edward Arnold, who storms into the film after the party section and proceeds to bellow and bark his way through the role. Arnold could show charm even as a heavy in films like Diamond Jim and The Toast Of New York, so I choose to blame his misjudged performance on Whale.
Aside from Whale, this film's main interest comes from its sets, its alcoholism, and the presence of the under-appreciated Constance Cummings, who might have been a major star if she had not left the US for the UK with her British husband, screenwriter Benn Levy. This and Harold Lloyd's Movie Crazy were her best Hollywood roles.