REVIEWED BY WALTER ALBERT:         


GUILTY AS HELL 1932

GUILTY AS HELL. Paramount, 1932. Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, Richard Arlen, Adrienne Ames, Henry Stephenson, Elizabeth Patterson. Screenplay by Arthur Kober and Frank Partos, based on the play Riddle Me This by Daniel N. Rubin; photography by Karl Struss. Director: Erie C. Kenton. Shown at Cinevent 40, Columbus OH, May 2008.

   Perennial battling comrades in What Price Glory and its several sequels, Lowe and McLaglen are once again costarred, with Lowe as as a McLaglen-baiting, brash reporter, undercutting police Lt. McLaglen’s murder investigation in an attempt to prove that Richard Arlen did not kill his mistress, wife of a prominent physician played by the cultivated, unflappable Henry Stephenson.

GUILTY AS HELL 1932

   Richard Arlen is the convicted murderer and Adrienne Ames his sister who believes in his innocence. We see the murder and the framing set-up at the beginning of the film, so there’s no mystery for the audience to solve. Just the pleasure of watching an intricate cat-and-mouse game, with the murderer one step ahead of his pursuers until the final, tense confrontation.

   A fine little crime drama, with the two stars lighting up the screen, with strong contributions by the supporting players, with the possible exception of Richard Arlen, whose lethargic performance Jim Goodrich attributed to miscasting.

GUILTY AS HELL 1932