The Mystery of Mr Wong (1939)

Collector Brandon Edwards (Morgan Wallace) has returned home with a sapphire stolen from China, the gem is said to bring doom upon the holder. Edwards indeed is killed during a game of charades, Detective Wong (Boris Karloff) is present at the party and witnesses the death, and begins the investigation.

The sapphire meanwhile has also gone missing, or rather stolen. The maid (Lotus Long) seems involved in the theft, but in the murder too? It seems she knows who the murderer was and gets bumped off herself...

Karloff was always a good turn, and his Mr Wong character was very enjoyable. A complicated murder mystery with typical Golden Age touches (large house, motley crew of suspects). Edwards' wife Valerie (Dorothy Tree) overacts to a hilarious degree.

Johnny One-Eye (1950)

Years ago NY gangsters Martin (Pat O'Brien) and Dane (Wayne Morris) got away with killing a rival and now have legitimate businesses. However an ambitious DA has new evidence and has persuaded Dane to shop his old mate Martin in return for immunity. Martin confronts Dane and ends up injured and on the run after a shoot-out.

Hiding from the law Martin finds and befriends a one-eyed dog which he names Johnny. By coincidence the dog is the pet of Elsie (Gayle Reed) the daughter of Lily (Dolores Moran) who is Dane's current squeeze...

The film starts off very Noir indeed though when Elsie is introduced we nearly drown in sentimentality and little girl cuteness. Lose the Elsie sub-plot and the film would have been much better and a tough gangster tale, as it is it's rather uneven but worth persevering with.

Monte Carlo Nights (1934)

High society jockey/playboy Larry Sturgis (John Darrow) is preparing to marry Mary Vernon (Mary Brian) but then is wrongly convicted of murder on the eve of the wedding.

He manages to escape and sets off in pursuit of the real murderer... to Monte Carlo (of course!) There he befriends a French woman (Yola d'Avril) and seeks the murderer who he knows is a gambler who plays certain numbers on the roulette table...

Quite a lot of story to fit into a fairly short film them and it is rather break-neck at times, maybe a bit too fast at points of the film as it can become a bit confusing. Such as why exactly does the police inspector (George Hayes) think Larry is innocent and how does an escaped con manage to get to Monte Carlo with the police on high alert? Once the film gets going though its a winner, unlike Larry who fell off his horse at the start!

Piccadilly (1929)

Piccadilly is a silent movie classic, set in the stylish world of London night clubs in the late Jazz Age. Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) has a successful restaurant and night club at Piccadilly Circus with a star attraction of dance partners Vic (Cyril Ritchard) and Mable (Gilda Grey).

When Vic quits after disagreements with Wilmot and Mable the club hits trouble, then Wilmot finds in the kitchen the Chinese dishwasher Shosho (Anna May Wong) and falls for her exotic (though quite frankly a bit ridiculous) "oriental" dancing. Shosho becomes the club's new hit dance act but trouble comes when Wilmot falls in love with her, which is a problem for Shosho's lover Jim (King Ho Chang)...

It is stylish nonsense, Wong's "oriental style" dancing is ridiculously stereotyped but her charisma conquers the screen. The film has gorgeous cinematography. A late silent movie, soon talkies would take over but this film really showed what could be done.

Curtain at Eight (1933)

An average murder mystery, average in acting for sure though a chimpanzee and Natalie Moorhead in a brief role do quite well. Paul Cavanagh plays a theatre idol with as many enemies and debts as mistresses (and there seem to be a lot of those). Thus when he killed there are many possible suspects.

Especially as he was killed during a party when the lights were taken out. The investigation is handled by two detectives who have amusingly opposite characters: Aubury Smith plays an elderly laid back and thoughtful role and Sam Hardy is brash and frequently foolhardy.

It isn't a bad film once it gets started but it takes the first half of the film to get started. As a setting for a murder mystery a theatre with all its nooks and crannies is a good one. An interesting point in the film is where one of the characters calls another one "Hitler" as a mild/jokey insult. Of course this was 1933...