Tonight's Movie: The Preview Murder Mystery (1936)

Last month Turner Classic Movies featured a wonderful series on "B" movies, with film historian Jeremy Arnold joining TCM's Ben Mankiewicz to host the series.

My DVR is still packed with hour-long movies! The number one title I wanted to see was THE PREVIEW MURDER MYSTERY, starring favorites Reginald Denny and Gail Patrick. It's a Paramount Pictures film which was a TCM premiere.

THE PREVIEW MURDER MYSTERY was as enjoyable as hoped, with a good cast in an interesting setting, the "Worldwide Attractions" movie studio.

As the movie begins, E. Gordon Smith (Ian Keith) is directing the final scene of SONG OF THE TOREADOR starring his wife, Claire Woodward (Patrick), and Neil Du Beck (Rod La Rocque).

Du Beck has been receiving threatening notes, and when the cast attends a sneak preview of the movie, Du Beck suddenly dies.

Additional unfortunate events lead Police Detective McKane (Thomas E. Jackson) to lock down the entire studio -- no one gets in or out until the murderer is caught!

When he's not courting his astrology-obsessed secretary (Frances Drake, LADIES SHOULD LISTEN), studio publicity man Johnny Morgan (Denny) tries to solve the growing mystery as well.

THE PREVIEW MURDER MYSTERY is a zippy, action-packed film which clocks in at exactly one hour.

The movie is great fun for a film buff, with its fairly realistic depictions of the business of making movies. As Jeremy Arnold noted in his TCM intro, one thing the movie does well is capture movie-making as a job for a wide variety of people -- we watch the sound man, script girl, gaffers, and set still photographer at work.

We also get to enjoy following characters around the studio -- which was actually Paramount -- and take peeks into a couple of soundstages; in one stage Henry Brandon (THE SEARCHERS) is starring in a film as "The Bat Man."

While most of the movie was filmed on the Paramount lot, the preview sequence includes a cameo by another favorite, Charlie Ruggles. I also really loved a back projection of The Broadway Hollywood building when Denny and Drake go for a drive; the building and sign still exist today!

The movie was well-directed by Robert Florey, who manages a large cast with ease. Denny adds a light touch to the goings-on, and the gorgeous Patrick is elegant as always. Drake's character is a bit over the top, but she's cute.

The cast also includes George Barbier, Conway Tearle, Franklin Farnum, Jack Mulhall, and Lee Shumway.

The movie was effectively filmed by Karl Struss (SUNRISE), who utilizes interesting angles and shadows. It feels as though considerable thought went into making what could have been an average "B" film quite a bit more than that.

This film has never had a release for home viewing. Hopefully it will return to TCM in the future. (I dream of boxed sets of "B" movies...Kino Lorber's recent releases of Anna May Wong movies and Mr. Wong detective films are great examples of what's possible, and I'd love to see more releases along those lines.)

Look for more reviews of last month's "B" film series here in the future, including IDENTITY UNKNOWN (1945) with Richard Arlen and LIGHTHOUSE (1947) with Don Castle.

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