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Welcome to William Schoell's GREAT OLD MOVIES blog. Feel free to leave a comment regardless of the date the review was posted -- I read 'em all. Or if you prefer -- and especially if you have any questions directly for me -- email me at tawses67424@mypacks.net and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Click on a label link (labels can be found at the bottom of each post) to find other movies from that year, the star, that director or genre and so on. Or enter a title, director, genre, star or supporting player in the small Blogger "search blog" box at the far left up above and click search blog. [NOTE: While this blog mostly reviews films -- and TV shows -- that are at least twenty-five years old, we do cover films up until the present day.] HAVE FUN AND THANKS FOR DROPPING BY. William.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER


THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933). Director: Roy William Neill.
New York police commissioner Thatcher Colt (Adolphe Menjou) takes his efficient secretary off for a quiet, restful vacation in the bucolic town of Gilliad, but instead of balm he finds murder. There are sexy circus queens, angry husbands, illicit affairs, a troupe of cannibals, not to mention the usual lions, tigers and gorillas, but none of it saves the movie from being dull, dull, dull. Dwight Frye is his usual intense self as the jealous hubby of the high-wire circus queen (Greta Nissen). Ruthelma Stevens is Colt's lip-reading secretary, Miss Kelly. Colt has an admirably modern attitude toward women and even thinks that Miss Kelly would make a great police commissioner when he retires. Alas, the movie has no real snap to it and the plot isn't terribly interesting. The pic only runs 63 minutes but seems much longer. Menjou is fine, however. He played the same role in one other movie.
Verdict: Not as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.

2 comments:

operator_99 said...

True, but Greta looks great throughout :-)

William said...

Yeah, she does. Thanks for your comment.