Thu 22 Oct 2009
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[8] Comments
THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER. Columbia, 1933. Adolphe Menjou, Greta Nissen, Ruthelma Stevens, Dwight Frye, Donald Cook, Harry Holman, George Rosener. Based on the novel About the Murder of the Circus Queen (1932) by Anthony Abbot. Director: Roy William Neill.
More stylish than Dear Murderer [recently reviewed here ] but less intelligent, The Circus Queen Murder offers Adolphe Menjou as Anthony Abbott’s Thatcher Colt, crusading District Attorney essaying that pre-doomed enterprise, a vacation from crime.
Colt and his Gal Friday (An actress with the unlikely name Ruthelma Stevens, very good in a Glenda-Farrell-ish way.) quickly hook up with a traveling circus that just as quickly turns into one of those hotbeds of passion celebrated in cheap movies and paper-backs: threats, killing, more threats, murder and impersonating-a-cannibal ensue before things sort themselves out.
Under the sure hand of director Roy William Neill (he of Universal’s “Sherlock Holmes” series) this moves along quickly and with a certain amount of class, filled with catchy camera angles and some surprisingly subtle touches.
I particularly liked Stevens reporting a conversation to the investigators: “He called her a lying little [micro-pause] cheat,” and a few minutes later, Menjou looks at her knowingly and says, “So he called her a lying little [same micro-pause] cheat, did he?” leaving our fertile minds to conjecture just what he really called her.
Unfortunately, there’s more style than sense here. I kept waiting for the legendary Thatcher Colt to come up with some brilliant deduction, surprise us with some clever twist or maybe just shoot something, but (WARNING!) there are no bombshells here: no surprise about the killer, the victim, none of that, and we pretty much just watch Adolphe Menjou watch things turn out the way they would have if he’d never stepped in.
Something does finally lift Circus Queen out of its rut, though, and that’s Dwight Frye, the spiritual progenitor of Elisha Cook Jr. and a cult actor if ever there was one, here cast perfectly as the maniacal cuckold.
Frye was perhaps a limited actor, but he was unforgettable in Dracula and Frankenstein, and here, given a meaty part, he takes it in his teeth and runs with it, turning this into a pretty satisfying time.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I think I’m jinxed. Every time TCM shows this movie, I forget to set the timer on the VCR, or I do set the timer but for the wrong time, or Cox my cable company decides to go off the air for a minute or so in the middle of it.
It’ll be on again, I presume, and I’ll be waiting!
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Oddly while the film treats the whole cannibal thing with the typical racist take of the period in the novel the whole business is handled rather sensitively. Still, while the film doesn’t offer much in the tec area it is fairly entertaining thanks to some bright and brittle dialogue.
This on the cusp of the film code kicking in so there are a few touches a bit racier than you might see in a similar film later on, Great Nissen’s cleavage in the early scenes being one of them — or two of them.
Some of the byplay by Colt and his secretary is racy and playful as well.
Steve
I don’t know what it is with this picture. I had the same problems recording it off of TCM. Sounds like a sequel to me — The Curse of the Circus Queen. Luckily I did finally get a decent copy of the thing.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Forgot to mention that in the book the murder takes place in Madison Square Garden, not a small town in upper New York state as in the film. Ellery Queen’s American Gun Mystery also uses a rodeo in the Garden for a its background.
I grew up in Gainesville, Texas, a circus town whose Gainesville Community Circus was discovered by Billy Rose at the 1936 Texas State Centennial and played the Garden every year from ’36 to the mid 1950’s. Gainesville was the home town of Frank Buck who donated the animals for a zoo there which became the basis of the local circus.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Great Nissen’s cleavage?
Now there’s a typo for you.
It was a typo, right, David?
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Freudian typo, there’s a new one for you. Maybe I should have said Nissen’s Great cleavage. it is fairly impressive in that first scene.
Kudos to Roy William Neill for his direction here. For all it’s flaws it is very stylishly shot. Even that ‘Great’ cleavage.
October 24th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Steve
Knew I had a pic of Greta’s Great cleavage from The Circus Queen Murders. At least we define what we mean by great.
David
October 24th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Yes, definitions are always good. Thank you! This was a pleasant surprise.
October 24th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Thanks for pointing out that Roy William Neill was such a letch!