There is a bit of truth in the utilization of that famous Noel Coward song in describing this odd murder mystery comedy that like Coward's old pal Elaine Stritch once responded to, "All those marvelous parties really weren't so marvelous", especially since much of it you couldn't remember. I've been to a few of those not so marvelous parties in my time, fun during the first 3/4 of them, but a blank slate for that last half where nobody remembered much of the last quarter, and if they did, they weren't talking about it. In the hands of the very flashy James Whale, this Universal film is a bizarre post code classic that seems to have somehow bypassed the Hays code in certain aspects.
The opening flash of the party invitation indicates a five course meal at various locations, embellished with the promise of lots of cocktails, and a recovery breakfast to finish it all off. The idle rich become drunken fools, turning each location into an elaborate but decadent setting for all sorts of idiotic behavior, including a musical production number like sequence where they all of a sudden end up in blackface, complete with the big lips and stereotypical dialects, as the staff (lead by butler Arthur Treacher, minus his fish n' chips) looks on in disgust. The two leading members of this celestial event are Robert Young and Constance Cummings, and they are the ones who find a dead body among their partyers the very next morning.
The arrival of Young's detective acquaintance Edward Arnold and his bumbling assistant Edward Brophy gets the investigation underway, and while nothing that follows the party itself can compare to the events of the intoxicating evening, the film itself becomes an unforgettable mix of bitchy humor and insinuations of guilt, with a rhythmic sense to its dialog that reminded me of "Love Me Tonight". The party sequence has each of the guests (which include Sally Eilers, Robert Armstrong and Reginald Denny) sparring with each other in passive/aggressive hateful undertones, making it clear that in spite of their being a part of the elite upper crust, they really can barely stand each other. Young and Cummings are fantastic in their parts, and seeing Ms. Cummings here makes me wonder why she never became a bigger film star. She was an able comedienne, charming and beautiful, yet many of her other film parts cast her in bland heroine roles. Treacher gets some of the very best lines in the film, and his exit in the final seconds of the film (along with a brilliantly written construction set car accident sequence) are the two funniest moments of the film which had me chortling hysterically. Through Whale's gorgeous eyes to detail, this film becomes an unforgettable romp in the high society hay, a far cry from his horror films, but near to the mark of his landmark 1936 version of "Show Boat".
The opening flash of the party invitation indicates a five course meal at various locations, embellished with the promise of lots of cocktails, and a recovery breakfast to finish it all off. The idle rich become drunken fools, turning each location into an elaborate but decadent setting for all sorts of idiotic behavior, including a musical production number like sequence where they all of a sudden end up in blackface, complete with the big lips and stereotypical dialects, as the staff (lead by butler Arthur Treacher, minus his fish n' chips) looks on in disgust. The two leading members of this celestial event are Robert Young and Constance Cummings, and they are the ones who find a dead body among their partyers the very next morning.
The arrival of Young's detective acquaintance Edward Arnold and his bumbling assistant Edward Brophy gets the investigation underway, and while nothing that follows the party itself can compare to the events of the intoxicating evening, the film itself becomes an unforgettable mix of bitchy humor and insinuations of guilt, with a rhythmic sense to its dialog that reminded me of "Love Me Tonight". The party sequence has each of the guests (which include Sally Eilers, Robert Armstrong and Reginald Denny) sparring with each other in passive/aggressive hateful undertones, making it clear that in spite of their being a part of the elite upper crust, they really can barely stand each other. Young and Cummings are fantastic in their parts, and seeing Ms. Cummings here makes me wonder why she never became a bigger film star. She was an able comedienne, charming and beautiful, yet many of her other film parts cast her in bland heroine roles. Treacher gets some of the very best lines in the film, and his exit in the final seconds of the film (along with a brilliantly written construction set car accident sequence) are the two funniest moments of the film which had me chortling hysterically. Through Whale's gorgeous eyes to detail, this film becomes an unforgettable romp in the high society hay, a far cry from his horror films, but near to the mark of his landmark 1936 version of "Show Boat".