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Waste of time

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

"Shadows of Sing Sing" director Phil Rosen's murder/mystery "I Killed That Man" boasts a provocative premise that the film doesn't live up to in the long run. Public officials, reporters, friends, and an Assistant District Attorney gather at the prison to witness the execution of a convicted murderer in the electric chair. The condemned killer, Nick Ross (Ralf Harolde of "Horror Island"), makes a public statement before his execution. According to Ross, the dastard who hired him to commit murder has double-crossed him by not helping him escape. Since the unknown man hasn't held up his end of the bargain for Ross, Ross plans to reveal the identity of the man who contracted him to commit murder. Before he can utter that name, a poison dart sinks into his neck, and he collapses stone dead beyond any chance of resuscitation before the room of witnesses. Obviously, this means that one of those witnesses pulled off the crime and killed Ross without alarming anybody else during the crime. Mind you, nobody has left the death chamber before the warden ushered Ross into the premises. Similarly, before anybody can leave the death chamber, Assistant District Attorney Roger Phillips (Ricardo Cortez of "The Walking Dead") intervenes and requests that the warden keep everybody confined until he has questioned them and arrested the guilty suspect. Initially, Phillips asks everybody remove their clothes. Naturally, this doesn't endear any of the witnesses to Phillips. Indeed, Phillips must be reminded that he must disrobe, too. Sadly, Rossen doesn't exploit this opportunity for comic relief. Afterward, Phillips quizzes each about what prompted them came to witness the execution. Ultimately, Phillips cannot make up his mind who killed Ross, but he finds a cigarette holder on the person of an older gentleman who knew Ross in his youth. Phillips suggests Lanning (Harry Holman of "Meet John Doe") is responsible for Ross' murder. The newspaper reporters disperse to type out their respective stories, while Phillips contemplates the mystery. Eventually, Phillips teams up with his girlfriend, reporter Geri Reynolds (Joan Woodbury of "Phantom Killer"), to trap the suspect that they initially least suspect. Rossen does wring considerable comic relief from the District Attorney's Office switchboard operator, T0mmy (George P. Breakston of "Oriental Evil"), who allows them to confirm the identity of the killer when they listen on a two-party telephone line. Once Phillips arrests Lanning, he remains off-screen. One of the suspects, Lowell King (George Pembroke of "Red Snow"), compliments Phillips on his sleuthing savvy but then has to convince the Assistant District Attorney that he isn't the guilty party. Phillips and his newspaper girlfriend think they have the drop on him when they trace a mysterious phone number to his home. Later, they learn that King's loyal butler, Thomas Gordon (Willy Castello of "Mad Youth"), had called Nick Ross from King's phone to place a wager on a horse. My chief complaint about "I Killed That Man" is that the resolution of the mystery isn't that compelling and it is rather complicated, too. You never get to see how the villain killed the condemned man without incriminating himself. Eventually, we are shown how he smuggled the poisoned dart into the room. Moreover, when he does demonstrate how easy it is to shoot the dart with a rubber band, it seems that somebody might have seen him. At least, when the culprit isn't exposed too early, although the film runs a mere 71 minutes. The big break that leads to his arrest occurs all because one of Geri's fellow reporters believes in female equality! Altogether, "I Killed That Man" is interesting, but it would have worked better had they reenacted the crime right after they catch the killer.

***SPOILERS*** While on his way to be executed for murder the tight lipped convicted murderer Nick Ross, Ralf Harolde,finally opens up his big mouth and goes on talking endlessly in how he was railroaded by his un-named boss into the electric chair and now he's going to tell the whole world who that man is! It's then that Ross suddenly goes into cardiac arrest and drops dead in front the some dozen hand picked witnesses who are there to withes his execution.Assistant D.A Roger Phillips, Ricardo Cortez, who prosecuted the case and was one of those who witness Ross' unexpected demise, with a poison dart shot in his neck, and is determined to find his murderer and goes about it by laying a number of red herrings as to draw Ross' murderer out into the open. it's Ross' girlfriend Verne Drake, Iris Adrian,who becomes the killer's next victim when driving her car as she honks her horn to avoid hitting someone and suddenly drops dead with crusader against the death penalty J. Reed, Gavin Gordon, as her passenger! It turns out that the murder weapon in both Ross & Verne Drake's deaths was a poison dart shot from close range at them!***SPOILERS***The movie lumbers along until some secret code is broken by woman reporter Geri Reynolds,Joan Woodbury, who after exposing the killer is left at his mercy until Assistant D.A Phillips and a squad of New York's Finest brake into his office and finally apprehend him.The killer himself had covered his tracks by having everyone working for him murdered but left a major clue, a library book on poisons, that finally exposed him to the police and D.A's office. P.S "I Killed That Man" was in fact the very first shown in the theaters movie to be broadcast, three years after it's release, on public TV being broadcast on New York's WNTB Channel 1 on August 7, 1944 at a time when there was less then 1,000 people in the US who owned a TV set!

I'm beginning to find that the poison dart must have been quite popular in early mystery films. This is at least the fourth such movie I've seen. This one involves one of these darts cheating the hangman. A convicted murderer is about to enter the death chamber when he collapses. There are news people and an array of characters in the room, so one of them must have done it. After that it's the usual stuff. There is the aggressive young female reporter who would rather be married than continue her career. She gets in a bit over he head, of course, and sets things on edge. This is better than most. The acting is fine, there are some famous character actors, and the movie has a sense of humor. You can tell the production value is pretty good. If you don't think too much you can sit back and enjoy this like a bad TV show.

This entertaining mystery is a remake of "The Devil's Mate" (1933) starring the delectable Peggy Shannon. While she had the main role in the earlier version, in this film the emphasis shifts to the versatile Ricardo Cortez.A number of people from different walks of life gather to see the execution of Nicholas Ross (Ralf Harolde), but pandemonium breaks loose when he is murdered on his way to the chair!!! Just moments before, he has delivered a speech in which he is about to name his partner in crime. Anyone of the group could be guilty - but who??? Roger Phillips (Ricardo Cortez), from the DA's office, is on the spot and starts to solve it by requesting that everyone remove their clothes!!! Roth was killed by a poisoned dart and Phillips thinks whoever killed him may have the weapon hidden on his person. After interviewing each person, he is still no closer to solving the crime so a re-enactment takes place. Laning (Harry Holman), an elderly grocer from Roth's home town, fondly remembers Nick as a boy when "the only racket he knew about then was a tennis raquet". In a scheme to find the real killer Phillips places Laning under arrest.Phillip's girlfriend, Geri (Joan Woodbury), is running her own investigation and tracks down Verne Drake (a particularly lovely Iris Adrian) - she remembers a phone conversation Nick had that he was particularly keen on keeping quiet. She also remembers part of the number -1313. Reed (Gavin Gordon) is the person he was talking to and Verne confronts him about a loan of $5,000 that he owes her. When Verne takes him to town to get the money, she dies under suspicious circumstances. Honking the horn to scatter some pedestrians, she collapses at the wheel, poisoned by a dart hidden in the horn. Reed pleads innocent!!!!As the hunt for the murderer narrows the film employs a three way split screen as Phillips realises who the real murderer is!!! You always knew what to expect from Ralf Harolde - villainy, and the slimier the better. Although never a big star, in 1937, he was involved in a car accident that resulted in the death of his friend, Monroe Owsley (another actor who excelled in oily villains). He left films and when he returned, gaunt and with his hair completely white, it was shown that the stress of the accident had taken it's toll. George Breakston is memorable as the young crime reading receptionist. George Pembroke continues his portrayal of sinister types (he was extremely scary in "The Last Alarm" (1940) He plays Lowell King. John Hamilton, who became familiar as Perry White in the TV series Superman, plays the D.A.Recommended.