classicsoncall Someday I'm going to go back and watch this again because it's a neat little murder mystery given the era. There's more than your usual amount of false leads, suspicious characters and red herrings wrapped around a double murder, with young detective Jim Landis (Ray Walker) teaming up with a retired Paul Bernard (Berton Churchill) to almost solve the mystery. I say almost because even though the resolution is spelled out at the finale by Landis, it's just as quickly thrown in doubt by the Tallman dame (Hedda Hopper) negating Bernard's confession. It's all very strange because when the picture's over, you're not really sure who killed who because of the multiple possibilities. In fact, old Henry Carson (William V. Mong) got a knife in the back after he was already dead! Individually, none of the players are particularly effective, but the fact that they all play off each other quite well makes the story interesting. As the girlfriend of detective Landis and the niece of the murdered Henry Carson, Elsa Carson (Irene Ware) makes one suspicious of her guilt by being just a bit too secretive. At one point when the Chinese servant made his appearance, I thought that Charlie Chan might have been just around the corner to help make some sense out of the proceedings and identify the killer in his own inimitable style.Anyway, if you don't mind being left clueless at the end of the story, this one is fairly entertaining and goes by quickly at just over an hour in length. The presence of Miss Ware is a bonus, as the former Miss United States is quite appealing, though I couldn't quite figure out the attraction to her fiancé Landis.

csteidler "But I didn't do it." "What! Then who the heck did?" The Dark Hour keeps viewers—and detectives—guessing until the final moment. A truly puzzling mystery combined with some juicy performances make this quite a nifty little hour of fun.Berton Churchill as the retired detective—respectfully requested by his younger counterpart Ray Walker to assist on the case—is wonderfully nimble-minded and yet perhaps suspicious. Irene Ware is earnest and intelligent as the niece of rich old uncles in whose house the mystery develops—but she's obviously hiding something. Hedda Hopper bustles in occasionally with energy and smarts as an aunt who seems to know plenty but isn't saying just what.Not a fancy movie, but one that's paced just about right: The action certainly moves along quickly, but care is taken to allow us time to notice which characters are thinking a bit more than they're saying. Irene Ware's character, for example, is given an extra moment of screen time here and there—just enough of an extra glance for us in the audience to see quite clearly that she's holding something back. Again, it's not fancy or subtle—but it does show that director Charles Lamont was paying attention.The dialog is crisp enough; the actors move with energy. Hopper and Churchill, in particular, appear to enjoy themselves immensely in their roles.My only complaint is that the sound is badly chopped up in the version I saw. Lines are dropped and cut into pieces (including in a couple of key moments!). I can only assume that the print from which this came had been shown about a hundred times and broken and been spliced in about that many places. Oh, well—I can live with that. Otherwise: a top-notch B mystery.

Ralph Michael Stein Some genuinely inspired bad acting doesn't prevent 1936's "The Dark House" from showering a few sparks of real originality. Two elderly brothers and their niece reside in a mansion. They're fearful something bad will happen and they're right. Two murders take place, neither appearing to have occurred as first thought.This is a good house murder mystery. Elsa (the very beautiful and former Miss United States, Irene Ware) is falling in love with a detective, Jim Landis (Ray Walker). Elsa regularly meets Jim at retired detective Paul Bernard's house (he's played by Burton Churchill). Elsa's putative guardians, her uncles, don't like this developing match one bit. Of course their time together is as chaste as many moviegoers (and the moralistic censor-type folks) demanded.One death having led to another, the two sleuths wisely combine forces to find the killer and figure out why the murders occurred in the first place. The plot is a bit tricky. Adding to the mystery is the possible role of Elsa's aunt, Mrs. Tallman. Here is a real treat-she's Hedda Hopper, once dubbed the "Queen of the Quickies," a woman who made a number of forgettable features before discovering that the printed word was mightier than fleeting celluloid images. For decades she and Louella Parsons battled for scoops as Hollywood's prime, incendiary gossip columnists.Walker is the really weak actor here. He performs with a deadening numbness that made me wish he was the killer who would be executed on-screen. But his interaction with the retired senior cop is both interesting and dramatically effective.Charles Lamont, born in Russia, was a veteran director who turned out many "B" flicks and some better comedies during a very long career (he did a number of the Abbott and Costello and Ma and Pa Kettle flicks). He's famously forgotten today for such films as the deservedly rarely viewed "I Was a Shoplifter" that brought young Tony Curtis to the screen. In "The Dark Hour" he crafted an interesting murder mystery. If you can get it as I did for $4.99 on DVD (thanks again, Alpha Video) it's worth your time just to see Hedda Hopper disporting herself as a grand dame but maybe I'm just dating myself.6/10

wrbtu This mystery film is unusual is that there are two quite different (old & retired vs. young & active on the police force) detectives on the case, & they are both competent & work well together. Usually, Hollywood would be expected to have at least one of them take the comic element, but here they are both serious & both effective! Aside from trying to guess "who done it?," the viewer also finds him/herself wondering which of the two detectives will solve the case first, & this aspect adds to the excitement. There are plenty of suspects here, & the film moves along briskly. Berton Churchill is especially good as the older detective, & reminds me of a smaller version of the great Sydney Greenstreet. I rate this 8/10.