Director:
Edwin L. Marin
Year: 1932
Rating: 7.0
Audiences who were lured into a film with this
title and starring Bela Lugosi and two other actors from the 1932 Dracula
must have been more than a bit surprised to discover that it wasn't a horror
film - no vampires, no necks to be drained of blood. I know I was. But this
isn't from Universal and is in fact produced by Tiffany Pictures (whoever
they were) who I expect got these actors on loan out. But instead of knocking
off a horror script which you would expect, they deliver a very tidy fast
moving murder mystery based on a book by Madelon St. Dennis (whoever she
might be). It is quite good. A minor gem among the dross of low budget films
coming in at 70 minutes.
A gentleman is leaving a club and is waylaid by a kiss from an attractive
lady (Adrienne Ames) who then walks away. This is a signal to a bunch of
gangsters in a car who then gun him down. But then the camera pulls back
and you realize it is a movie set making a film titled . . . you got it .
. The Death Kiss. But someone used a real bullet and the star of the studio
is dead. The studio mogul (who is clearly from Eastern Europe and mangles
English and is probably modeled on a real life mogul but not sure which one
as this fits a bunch of them at the time) is immediately concerned about
the bottom line, another person in publicity says upon hearing the news "On
general principle that's a good thing". The script writer played by David
Manners exclaims "It should have been done years ago".
Clearly not a well loved character and the suspects are plenty. Though Lugosi
gets spread all over the posters that also falsely shout out to the unknowing
- this is a horror film - his role is probably 5th or 6th in terms of screen
time and he disappears for much of the middle of the film. He is the studio
publicity man who tries to control the story. As it is Lugosi you expect
somehow he pulled off the murder but he wasn't on the stage. Still it is
Lugosi. The cops are as usual not up to the task and so Manners does his
own investigation to save his girl who is the prime suspect. And the killings
(more are to come) are fairly clever as is the solution. One murder that
interested me was when poison was put into a bottle in the refrigerator through
the hatch to the outside that the ice men used to deliver ice directly into
the ice box. I wonder how common this was back then because this was what
my grandfather did - deliver ice house to house in Worcester Mass, back in
the 1930's. This sure made it convenient. And for killing as well.
The other actor from Dracula was Edward van Sloan who plays the director.
He has the honor of having appeared in the great Universal trifecta - Dracula,
Frankenstein and The Mummy. Throw in his role as Van Helsing in Dracula's
Daughter as he was in Dracula and you have yourself some status. Also on
hand proving some comic relief as the studio security is Vince Barnett, you
would recognize him if you saw him - he showed up in hundreds of films as
the comic relief. I don't want to over blow this film but it was unexpectedly
good from the writing to the directing from Edwin Marin in his debut. He
would go on to direct some very solid B films. This is up on YouTube in rather
bad shape but apparently Kino thought enough of the film to restore it and
put it out.
