User Reviews

Mysteries are meant to keep you guessing, and perhaps the one fault of this final episode of Universal's "Crime Club" series as that it keeps you guessing way too much and has a conclusion that seems to just come out of nowhere even though it's clever in its own way. It is obvious that journalism is a cutthroat business, and for a journalist to escape from a mental institution and seek revenge on the four men who had him sent there, only to be aided by his long unseen daughter, the setup is pretty good. With a former Philo Vance (Edmund Lowe) top billed in the lead as the youngest of the four men, along with Wendy Barrie as a mysterious young lady whose identity is fairly obvious, this has the potential to be a bright combination of newspaper Intrigue and murder mystery. Walter Kingsford is memorable as a rather lecherous one of the four who makes shameless plays for the much younger Barrie with absolutely no qualms. The murders themselves are pretty gruesome and well staged, but the conclusion is quite disappointing simply because I couldn't believe it..

What is good about this film is the way it is set up, with character actors seemingly out of a horror film, giving creepy performances and holding your attention every time they are on screen. Particularly memorable are J.M. Kerrigan and Barlowe Borland who seem like they stepped out of "The Old Dark House". Little bits of sophisticated comedy thrown into the script help keep this entertaining, and there seems to be a bit of chemistry between Lowe and Barrie that sadly does not get to be developed. Bruce Lester, the young actor paired with Barrie, has absolutely no spark with her, which provides the romantic subplot with no real future. Still, it's a passable time-filler that well not quite perfect, isn't as bad as I had expected.

1939's "The Witness Vanishes" turned out to be a disappointing finale to Universal's Crime Club series, one of the three included in the famous SHOCK THEATER package issued to television in 1957. Lucius Marplay (Barlowe Borland) was the successful publisher of the London Sun until the birth of his beloved daughter Joan, after which his four partners began to take over the paper during his absence, eventually leading to his permanent ouster. Twenty years pass before Marplay makes his escape, vowing revenge against the quartet who put him away, each man's fate carefully scripted over the years. Ingeniously, the Sun publishes each man's obituary before they die, all just moments prior to their demise, until only publisher Mark Peters (Edmund Lowe) is left to face Marplay at his country estate. Wendy Barrie plays Marplay's adult daughter, who gets a secretarial job at the Sun, hoping to catch up with her missing father (other secretaries are played by Anne Nagel and Phyllis Barry). The intriguing premise is quickly undone by the increasingly improbable, split-second timing of events, and Lowe's somnambulistic performance in the central role (which also sank "Chandu the Magician") delivers the most fatal blow. The other Crime Club entries are all superior to this one, from the story "They Can't Hang Me," by Robertson White.

I hope the other comments about "The Witness Vanishes" being the weakest of the "Crime Club" films are accurate: it's the only one I have watched, so if the above is the case, the only way is up! It's an extremely slow-moving mystery, with Wendy Barrie trying to carry it but not getting much support from Edmund Lowe, who doesn't seem very engaged to the proceedings, or the bland Bruce Lester. There are a couple of eerie touches (each murder victim receives a written obituary announcing his murder before it happens, and the exact time it will happen), and the unusual piece of trivia that the action is set in England (not that you'll see any of it), but you'll forget you even saw this film a few hours later. *1/2 out of 4.