Director:
Lloyd Bacon
Year: 1932
Rating: 6.0
Year: 1932
Rating: 6.0
A well-constructed suspense movie for a B film starring Joan Blondel and
George Brent. It is based on the novel from Mary Roberts Rinehart who wrote
from 1908 to 1952. My mother was a fan of hers so I recall these being in
the bookshelves of our home among lots of other mystery and spy novels. Rinehart
is another female mystery writer from the Golden Age who is basically forgotten
now but had many best sellers at one time. Most of her mysteries were stand-alone
but Miss Pinkerton was part of a series of books with a nurse, Hilda Adams,
getting involved in murders. At least this film is very similar to the Mignon
Eberhart series with nurse Sarah Keate that were turned into films. Rinehart
is given credit for being the first to write "The butler did it".
With very little other than an old mansion, dim lighting, creepy servants, staircases, people listening at the keyhole or spying through half open doors, director Lloyd Bacon instills a decent amount of tension and thrills in the film. And of course Joan Blondell at her wide-eyed best. At one point I thought her eyes were going to literally pop out. She also gets to give fill-throated screams three times which could have been heard in Peoria. In fact, she is a total delight. She is half cartoon and half human and all mouth with wisecracks always ready to be delivered like the milk.
A man is either murdered or has committed suicide and the cops (Brent) are called. The old lady (Elizabeth Patterson) of the house has a fainting spell so they ask the local hospital for a nurse, Blondell who was down to her underthings and is resting her eyes is selected to go. Oh, and the head nurse tells her - you have to solve the crime. The cops want your help. Sure. It was getting boring around here anyways. So off she goes to this creepy house with the old lady up to something, the servants keeping secrets and other people sneaking around in the dead of night. And Blondell of course has to solve it - she tells Brent - "You have arrested everyone in the house at one point except me". He would not mind being in handcuffs with her for sure. This was remade in 1941 as The Nurse’s Secret.
With very little other than an old mansion, dim lighting, creepy servants, staircases, people listening at the keyhole or spying through half open doors, director Lloyd Bacon instills a decent amount of tension and thrills in the film. And of course Joan Blondell at her wide-eyed best. At one point I thought her eyes were going to literally pop out. She also gets to give fill-throated screams three times which could have been heard in Peoria. In fact, she is a total delight. She is half cartoon and half human and all mouth with wisecracks always ready to be delivered like the milk.
A man is either murdered or has committed suicide and the cops (Brent) are called. The old lady (Elizabeth Patterson) of the house has a fainting spell so they ask the local hospital for a nurse, Blondell who was down to her underthings and is resting her eyes is selected to go. Oh, and the head nurse tells her - you have to solve the crime. The cops want your help. Sure. It was getting boring around here anyways. So off she goes to this creepy house with the old lady up to something, the servants keeping secrets and other people sneaking around in the dead of night. And Blondell of course has to solve it - she tells Brent - "You have arrested everyone in the house at one point except me". He would not mind being in handcuffs with her for sure. This was remade in 1941 as The Nurse’s Secret.