Watch Curtain at Eight For Free

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This inconsequential mystery starts off intriguing and descends rapidly from there. Paul Cavanagh plays a Broadway playboy actor who has broken several hearts, tee'd off a few husbands and made other assorted enemies, so when he gets shot in the middle of a party (with the lights all of a sudden going out of course), who is really surprised? The focus goes off the human suspects and onto a trained chimpanzee when detective Jim Hanvey (an over the top C. Aubrey Smith) arrives, and for the next few reels, it's chimp and mouse as the pranksterous monkey even gains a front page headline. Former Warner Brothers ingénue Dorothy MacKaill descends to the skids, receiving only a few moments of screen time as the most vulnerable of all the suspects with the always tough Natalie Moorehead at her typical bitchiest as another predatory female.If there was a bit more focus on the human characters for at least ten minutes, this might have been a fair bottom of the barrel Z-grade programmer. Not enough detail, past the opening flashback of the sins of the soon to be murdered actor, keeps this from really providing an even remotely tense conclusion. While the idea of having a non-human suspect in a murder is an obviously original plot twist, the subtext of comedy behind it all makes the whole thing totally difficult to swallow.

This is the type of film that one might find listed in the old Forgotten Horrors book about forgotten chillers from independent studios. From Majestic Pictures during the golden age of mysteries, a rare film I had tried to hunt down many years back with no luck. I was pleasantly surprised to see the film listed for sale on Amazon and quickly made the purchase.For it's type, a 1930's independent studio release, it is quite good. An actor with many enemies is bumped off during a party at a theatre. The actor was a true rogue making it tough for the detectives probing the case. C. Aubrey Smith plays Hanvey, a cagey, methodical sleuth. While, Sam Hardy, plays Gallagher, a dim-witted police captain, played mostly for laughs. One of the running gags throughout the film is Gallagher arresting whomever is the top suspect at a certain time.Did I mention the monkey? Groan if you want to, that's what I did when I saw him. Yes, monkeys were certainly popular in films during the late 1920's and early 1930's and yes the monkey is a suspect in the case. Although the monkey is not really annoying, far too much screen time is wasted on him, especially when considering the talented actors on hand for this minor B picture. C. Aubrey Smith is always welcomed. Ruthelma Stevens was a treat whenever she made a rare appearance. Same for Paul Cavanagh and Hale Hamilton, all excellent performers.The finale is unique, in that Smith, like Sherlock Holmes was to do upon occasion, solves the mystery, but then lets the killer go free, feeling justice had been served. For collectors of rare films and the people like myself who enjoy the poverty row studios, warts and all.

Noted stage actor Wylie Thornton (Paul Cavanagh) has plenty of girlfriends, apparently. (Also a monkey friend who likes him a lot.) New co-star, old co-star, estranged wife—he doesn't seem to be playing any of them completely straight, and that's about all that we know for sure during the rather confusing opening portions of this classy if modest B mystery.Dorothy Mackaill is good as Lola, sister to Anice, one of Wylie's discarded romances; from our first meeting with Lola, we see she is angry with Wylie and frustrated in her attempts to make contact with him. Natalie Moorhead has only one full scene as Alma Thornton, the wife—but it's a goodie. Alma, too, is fed up with Wylie. She shows up in his room and answers the phone as his "secretary"; she mocks the way he speaks to his female phone callers ("Bye-ee!"); and she speaks to Wylie frankly and with a bite: "Your lips fairly brew honey when they want to. That's how you got me." (His reply: "I wish some of the same could get rid of you.") Doris Manning (Ruthelma Stevens) is Wylie's new co-star; she's a rich girl and neither her father nor her fiancé have any intention of allowing her to travel to New York with a married actor (of all things!) and will do whatever it takes to prevent her. –All in all, in the best murder mystery tradition, there is no shortage of characters who have it in for the cad, Wylie Thornton.Top-billed C. Aubrey Smith enters the picture around the midway point; he and Sam Hardy are a sort of smart cop/dumb cop pair. (Hardy does all the talking, Smith all the real detecting.) The chimp who lets himself in and out of his cage and has been known to swipe a handgun from the prop room is also a key player in this picture. A fair amount of comic relief keeps the action relatively light; the murder scene (on a stage darkened except for a candle-lighted birthday cake) is somewhat unique; and the plot's eventual resolution is a bit out of the ordinary, as well. Overall, although the exposition of the first half hour is a bit dense, once this story gets rolling it's a fast-paced show that's very easy to take.

C. Aubrey Smith is first billed in the movie credits (although Dorothy Mackaill precedes him in the advertising posters) and does a fine job too. Admittedly, he looks much older than we would expect, but he carries his detective role role with all his customary assurance, even though he is sometimes forced to play second fiddle to Sam Hardy's aggressively loud-mouthed but dim-witted policeman. The support cast is full of interesting faces, not the least of which is an amazingly well-trained chimp! Good to see reliables like villainous Paul Cavanagh and Syd Saylor plus comic relief Herman Bing and ego-bruising Russell Hopton in prominent roles. The girls are rather stylish too. I love their costumes! Despite an obvious "B" budget, director E. Mason Hopper infuses a reasonable amount of mystery and suspense into the movie's 61 minutes.