When movies began to talk, seance mysteries were all the rage - they were gripping and had the advantage of only needing one indoor sound stage. Willis Kent Prod. was an outdoor quickie outfit specialising in westerns who turned it's hand to this oddball thriller that made much use of Mischa Auer's exoticism. The director, Armand Schaefer, had worked for Mack Sennett and Mary Pickford as well as bottom of the barrell Action Pictures before finding himself at Willis Kent where he was assigned to Lane Chandler westerns.
Mr Lang (Phillips Smalley) has many enemies - Mrs. Lang is sending him broke handing over 1,000's of dollars to a charlatan fortune teller, Swami Yormurda (Auer), his daughter, Betty, (Gertrude Messinger from Fox Kid pictures) is involved with a gangster, a neighbour has threatened Lang because of Lang's interest in his wife, Lang's secretary (the perennial Bess Flowers) has been stealing from him and even his loyal butler is an ex-con called Lefty Lewis. And they all just happened to be gathered for a seance that night so when Lang is found dead, everyone is a suspect.
Jack Mulhall really lifts the film with his breezy and glib portrayal of Detective Devlin, who along with his dumb-bell associate Watkins ("don't call me Watson") establishes that the murderer is not only a male but also left handed. Phyllis Barrington is the female star but in this sea of bleached blondes she doesn't really stand out. Another actress playing a flirtatious neighbour was Helen Foster who only a couple of years before had been one of the stars in "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" but, like Barrington, in this movie didn't get a chance to shine.
Audiences at the time would have no doubt about who the killer was - being used to these sort of cheap mysteries. Suspecting the only person with no motive and as Devlin observed a couple of times through the movie he was an athletic man "above suspicion"!!!
Mr Lang (Phillips Smalley) has many enemies - Mrs. Lang is sending him broke handing over 1,000's of dollars to a charlatan fortune teller, Swami Yormurda (Auer), his daughter, Betty, (Gertrude Messinger from Fox Kid pictures) is involved with a gangster, a neighbour has threatened Lang because of Lang's interest in his wife, Lang's secretary (the perennial Bess Flowers) has been stealing from him and even his loyal butler is an ex-con called Lefty Lewis. And they all just happened to be gathered for a seance that night so when Lang is found dead, everyone is a suspect.
Jack Mulhall really lifts the film with his breezy and glib portrayal of Detective Devlin, who along with his dumb-bell associate Watkins ("don't call me Watson") establishes that the murderer is not only a male but also left handed. Phyllis Barrington is the female star but in this sea of bleached blondes she doesn't really stand out. Another actress playing a flirtatious neighbour was Helen Foster who only a couple of years before had been one of the stars in "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" but, like Barrington, in this movie didn't get a chance to shine.
Audiences at the time would have no doubt about who the killer was - being used to these sort of cheap mysteries. Suspecting the only person with no motive and as Devlin observed a couple of times through the movie he was an athletic man "above suspicion"!!!