Not quite as good as I remembered it – it takes a while to get going, and the central concept isn’t quite believable today (a crime magazine editor who solves crimes before the police do and has a massive staff of reporters to do investigating – did such people exist which such jobs?) – but there is a lot going for it.
There are some excellent performances from Charles Laughton, George Macready, and Elsa Lanchester; top notch direction from John Farrow; beautiful photography; crisp dialogue. Ray Milland is ok as the hero and Maureen O’Sullivan bland as the nagging “why are you never home” wife – was this autobiographical casting from Farrow? Laughton has a memorable death.
And of course the central concept is business - someone asked to investigate a murder by the person who committed it, the murdered hoping the investigator will get evidence to pin it on a man hanging out with the dead girl... who happens to be the investigator.
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