'The Mystic Hour' is an uneven mess

The Mystic Hour (aka "At Twelve Midnight") (1933)
Starring: Charles Hutchison, Lucille Powers, Charles Middleton, Montagu Love, and Edith Thornton

Director:  Melville Delay

Rating: Five of Ten Stars

When the heroic Robert Randall (Hutchison) is chasing down a thief, he meets the beautiful Mary Marshall (Powers), and it's love at first sight. Their future together is threatened not only by Mary's corrupt ward (Middleton) who wants to cover up the fact he's stolen her inheritance, but also by the vengeful criminal mastermind, The Fox (Love).

"The Mystic Hour" opens with a really nicely done, moody and soundless sequence of a burglary... but it's all downhill from there. There's a nice idea at the heart of this film--with family intrigues crossing with the criminal underworld--but it's boring and muddled in the way it's executed and performed by a cast that seems to be suffering under poor direction or maybe just bad at ad-libbing. On more than one occasion, the actors and actresses seem confused as to what they are even doing in a particular scene.

One interesting aspect of the film is the choice of actor to play it's hero--Charles Hutchison may be the least attractive romantic lead in a film we're supposed to take seriously that I've ever come across. I can't decide if this a head-scratching move or a piece of brilliant casting. Perhaps he was cast for his ability as a stuntman (assuming he did his own stunts), because the action scenes of this film are by far its best moments, even if they are almost ruined and made ridiculous by the undercranking.

Aside from the too-brief action sequences, there's not a whole lot to recommend "The Mystic Hour" and it barely managed to earn the lowest possible Five of Ten rating. I think even the director knew he had a film that was in trouble--exciting action bits but boooooooring everything else--and an effort was made to liven things up with scenes of a pretty lady wearing  varying degrees of very little. (It's a time-honored tradition that one, which has been the fallback position of B-movies since the invention of the camera up to the present day.)

'Sucker Money' shows dark side of psychics

Sucker Money (1933)
Starring: Earl McCarthy, Mischa Auer, Phyllis Barrington and Mae Busch
Directors: Dorothy Davenport and Melville Shyer
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When Jimmy (McCarthy), an actor-turned-newspaper reporter, infiltrates a group of confidence artists who are running an elaborate phony psychic operation, he gets more than just the material for a great expose: He finds romance in the form of beautiful Ms. Walton (Barrington), one of the targets of the bad guys, and he finds danger at the hands of the murderous leader of the gang, Swami Yomurda (Auer) when his cover is blown.

"Sucker Money" is a fine, fast-paced little reporter-saves-the-day-and-the-girl and self-declared "expose" film of the phony psychic racket (which, given the number of movies that were made with this theme during the 1930s and 1940s, I can only assume was quite widespread). The set-up is a bit weak--a criminal enterprise as elaborate and organized as the one presented in this film wouldn't turn to the want ads when it came to hiring new help--but that bit of nonsense aside, the film is engaging, well-acted, and well-filmed... even if it feels and looks a bit too much like a silent movie at times. (There's also the minor issue with the reporter wearing more lipstick and eyeliner than any of the women characters in the film when he's in his "acting mode". Perhaps that's to remind the audience that he's a ACTOR? Or maybe that was part of his disguise--"if they think I'm one of THOSE actors, the women won't come onto handsome ole me, and I'll get my story quicker"?

The weaknesses of the film are more than made up for by the evil Swami Yomurda (whose name is never said in the film, thank God.) Auer portrays a truly sinister and evil character, with strongly scripted actions to support him. He may be a fake psychic, but he has Svengali-like hypnotic powers, and he has no compulsion about ordering those under them to dispatch themselves by drinking poison. He does just this in the film's most startling scene. The scene alone makes the film worth watching, although the strong climax also makes it well worth your time, if you're a lover of old-fashioned crime dramas.




(Trivia: This is the second movie in which Mischa Auer played a crooked spiritualist named "Sawmi Yomurda." The first was 1932's "Sinister Hands," in which is also co-starred with Phyllis Barrington (her character in that film was a different one, however).

'The Woman Condemned' hasn't aged well

The Woman Condemned (1934)
Starring: Richard Hemingway, Claudia Dell, Lola Lane, Paul Ellis, and Mischa Auer
Director: Mrs. Wallace Reid
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

When a radio station's star attraction (Lane) takes a mysterious leave of absence, the station manager becomes concerned that the largest sponsor of her show may pull out. He hires a private detective (Dell) to locate her and to find out why she needed the break... but when the P.I. is arrested for the murder of the singer, things start to get desperate on all fronts.

"The Woman Condemned" is a film that straddles the line between the mystery and comedy genres. The weird way through which Dell's lady P.I. Barbara Hammond and skirt-chasing gossip reporter Jerry Beall (Hemingway) meet and get married is absurd and hilarious, but the plot surrounding the murder of the singer and Beall's attempts to uncover proof of Hammond's innocence is a pretty serious (if a bit far-fetched, once all the details come to light) mystery tale.

This is one of those films that time has passed by. The camerawork and acting is more reminiscent of a silent movie than is healthy for the film (I had the same complaint about the other film from this director that I've seen, "Sucker Money") and the third act twists have become more eye-rolling than shocking with the 70+ years of mystery films that have been made since its release. However, the pace is fast enough and the set-up odd enough that the film will keep the attention of viewers who enjoy 1930s cinema. (The plot is also engaging enough that with some updating and rewriting of the ending, it would make a better remake candidate than all those 1980s movies everyone in Hollywood seems intent on revisiting.)


Trivia: The person behind the odd director's credit of "Mrs. Wallace Reid" was the one-time hugely celebrated silent movie star Dorothy Davenport. She turned to writing and directed later in her career, using her husband's name as her byline. She continued this habit until 1935.