CinemaSerf

Do you know what - if the cast had just been a shade better, this could have been really quite a gripping little whodunnit, but neither Shirley Grey ("Jean") nor Charles Starrett ("Michael") really shine as they investigate the brutal murder of their party host, and her grandfather (Claude Gillingwater). Richard Thorpe certainly has plenty to work with adapting Harriette Ashbrook's quickly paced and frequently pithy novel, and the plot does have a few twists that keep us guessing for much of it, but the performances don't really gel and but for a few timely scenes with the charming Dorothy Revier and Aggie Herring & Elmer Ballard as the dead man's gossiping domestic staff, the thing just falls a bit flat. Pity, it's a good story and the production standards are high.