Wed 15 Mar 2017
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: MURDER AT THE VANITIES (1934).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Mystery movies , Reviews[15] Comments
MURDER AT THE VANITIES. Paramount, 1934. Carl Brisson, Victor McLaglin, Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle, Jessie Ralph, Charles Middleton. Written by Carey Wilson and Joseph Gollomb. Directed by Mitchell Leisen.
A backstage Musical/Mystery so strikingly off-beat and off-color one can quickly forget how dreadful it really is.
Charles Middleton plays Homer Boothby, a hammy actor who may have gunned down Gertrude Michael, who was blackmailing young lovers Carl Brisson and Kitty Carlisle (two romantic leads who seem singularly colorless even in a black & white movie) threatening to deport sweet old Jessie Ralph, abusing flighty maid Beryl Wallace, and threatening distaff detective Gail Patrick, who had the goods on her.
Got that? Well pay it no mind because the real leads here are Victor McLaglen and Jack Oakie, who play Bluff Lust and Brainless Cupidity to perfection, as a tough cop and a harried stage manager trying to solve the murder while the show goes on — as it must, you know.
Vanities offers a plethora of suspects, a tiresome plot and some impressive proscenium-bound production numbers, of which the most memorable is the musical ode to Marijuana, capped off when a cute young thing emerging nude from a Marijuana blossom (!) finds blood dripping from the catwalk down over her bare shoulders.
With all this going for it, one can almost overlook the fact that you don’t really give a damn about the bland young lovers or the cardboard suspects. Just sit back and enjoy the show, folks.
March 15th, 2017 at 7:55 pm
If it is off beat, off color and enjoyable enough to sit back and enjoy, what makes it dreadful?
March 15th, 2017 at 8:01 pm
It sounds like my kind of movie!
March 15th, 2017 at 8:43 pm
The movie is great fun if you let go and run with it.
March 16th, 2017 at 4:06 am
Barry, the jokes aren’t funny, the story meanders and the romantic leads are insufferably dull. It’s redeemed by the sheer panache of M<cLaglin, Oakie and Leisen.
March 16th, 2017 at 1:24 pm
Dan, good response. Thanks.
March 16th, 2017 at 8:49 pm
Were any of the musical numbers in this originally filmed in color?
March 16th, 2017 at 10:21 pm
Fun Facts:
Merv Griffin did one of his 90-minute tributes to Andrew V. McLaglen, son of Victor.
There was some talk of the father, whose final acting appearances were a couple of TV episodes directed by the son: Have Gun – Will Travel and Rawhide, both in 1959.
MeTV ran the Rawhide not long ago: “Incident Of The Shambling Man”, with the senior McLaglen as a bare-knuckle prizefighter now living with his late son’s rotten daughter (Anne Francis). McLaglen’s performance as an early victim of sports concussion is a stunner; had he lived to see it air, he might have been at least mentioned for an Emmy (my opinion, of course).
By the way, Andrew McLaglen was firm about the pronunciation of his family name.
The a in McLaglen is short and flat, like the one in bag or flag.
As I recall, Merv was surprised to learn that Victor McLaglen’s father was an Anglican vicar, not exactly who’d you expect to find in Hollywood’s Irish Mafia.
March 17th, 2017 at 4:26 am
MATTHEW: To the best my knowledge, this was strictly B&W.
March 17th, 2017 at 9:37 pm
It includes an …. interesting?…. number with Duke Ellington and his orchestra taking over the stage from a white ensemble (and some very bare pre-code costumes).
April 29th, 2017 at 4:51 pm
A True Consumer Report:
After reading the review and comments, I decided to obtain the DVD edition of Murder At The Vanities, available from most Internet outlets.
When I recieved the DVD, I popped it into one of my players, for a preview check-out.
About a minute and a half into the picture, at the end of the opening credits, the picture froze, and I couldn’t get it to unfreeze.
Taking it in stride (or so I thought), I tried again, on one of my other players.
Same result as the first attempt.
I own four different DVD players; one’s a Blu-Ray, one’s a region-free, the other two are ordinary run-of-the-laser.
On all four, players – freeze at a minute and a half, followed by Stop and sometimes Eject.
Undaunted, I took the path of least resistance and ordered the Murder At The Vanities DVD, from a different source this time.
Some result: freeze and stop at 1:30.
The exact same flaw.
On all four machines.
Now slightly daunted (and perhaps a bit foolish),
I went to a third source, and ordered yet again.
And again – freeze and stop at 1:30.
Exactly the same spot in the movie on all three DVDs.
On all four players.
My question:
Are any of you who might have ordered this DVD having the same problem?
Any suggestions for me?
Just askin’, is all …
April 29th, 2017 at 8:56 pm
It sounds as though there is one originator for this movie, but it’s defective at the source, and everyone else is sending out copies of the dud.
April 29th, 2017 at 11:47 pm
Apologies for not making this clear at the outset:
This is the Universal Vault Series MOD of Murder At The Vanities; not a bootleg.
The freeze happens on all three copies – at the exact same moment.
Maybe my luck is just bad …
April 29th, 2017 at 11:56 pm
Yes, I misunderstood. But something is going on other than coincidence. The problem is with the manufacturer, if not with their master copy, then with whatever “machine” is used to “press” the discs. Sorry, don’t know the right words!
Any complaints on record at Amazon?
April 30th, 2017 at 2:28 am
I just looked on Amazon. Someone has given the movie one star because the disc won’t play. This “review” was left at the end of March.
December 27th, 2017 at 12:18 am
And here I thought it was me – same problem with two copies of the disc. Rented on Amazon afterwards for 99 cents (decent print), but how was this disc problem allowed to continue?