Sun 19 Jan 2020
Movie Review: THE GREAT HOTEL MURDER (1935).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[4] Comments
THE GREAT HOTEL MURDER. 1935). Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, Rosemary Ames, Mary Carlisle, Henry O’Neill, C. Henry Gordon, John Wray, Madge Bellamy. Based on the novel by Vincent Starrett. Director: Eugene Forde.
Edmond Lowe, the star of two mystery movies recently reviewed here by David Vineyard, plays detective once again in The Grand Hotel Murder. An amateur detective, I should add. In real life he’s a writer of mystery novels, but also one who’s able to make Sherlock Holmes-type deductions just by careful observation of a young girl sitting impatiently in a hotel lobby.
His counterpart in this film is a somewhat slower in the wits department hotel detective, played in good humorous fashion by Victor McLaglen. (This is not the only time that he and Lowe teamed up together, beginning with their Flagg and Quirt series, the first of which was What Price Glory?, a silent film released in 1926, with three or maybe four sequels.)
The dead man whose murder is reflected in the title of the film was a gentlemen who finagled the young girl’s uncle into switching rooms with him over night. The question immediately of course is, who was the actual target?
Lowe and McLaughlin do their best to one-up the other throughout the movie, and it comes as no surprise (without revealing anything) that it is Lowe’s character who almost always come out on top, to good comedic effect, as well as being a fairly decent detective story.
The opening scenes follow Vincent Starrett’s novel fairly closely, but from that point on, the two story lines diverge significantly. I remember reading somewhere, a reference now lost, that after seeing the movie himself, Starrett confessed that the killer’s identity surprised him as much as anyone else.
In conclusion, I will say that it surprised me too, even though I didn’t write the book.
January 19th, 2020 at 5:01 pm
A bit too much comic relief, but I liked that they used a bit of misdirection via the cast as a red herring of sorts.
For once the detective work by Lowe’s character is the real thing and not brilliant guesses or impossible leaps of logic.
January 20th, 2020 at 8:19 pm
Thank you for telling us about this. I’d never heard of it.
Just watched it.
Have mixed feelings.
The first half is better than the second.
And the mystery plot never gets interesting.
Plus features:
Edmond Lowe gives his usual good performance.
The set pieces are nicely done: the hotel opening, later the New Year’s Eve party.
Camera movement is not bad in the first half.
Lowe’s detective work is good in the film’s first half.
Royer’s costumes have plenty of glamour. They rise to a climax with the New Year’s Eve party.
January 20th, 2020 at 8:34 pm
Mike
I agree with all of the points you make, especially the fact that the first half is much more interesting than the second half. You’re right: that’s when all of the detective work is done.
I have a feeling that once they changed the story from the way it went in Starrett’s book, they lost theor way and didn’t really know what to do with what they found on their hands.
January 20th, 2020 at 10:52 pm
I agree with Mike and Steve although I enjoyed it a little less, but Edmund Lowe is nearly always a pleasure to be with. and while I don’t quite feel that way about McLaglen, pretty near.