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Simply Perfect

hyped garbage

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Or, at least, the story's the thing, and this is a murder mystery - and the story is pretty good. At 65 minutes it goes by quickly, so the viewer must pay attention or something will be lost. Nowadays, we have DVR's and can rewind if needed - and it's needed. The solution hinges on a specific time frame and several characters give the times of their alibi, and it's hard to keep them straight.The plot is a good one, but much is made of the fact that Anna May Wong's character is an astrologist, which was very popular around the time this was produced. She has a habit of giving people the pros and cons of their zodiac sign after asking the title question, and it becomes tiresome. Her acting seems stilted, as though reciting from memory and not natural. In any case, you won't guess the murderer; as I said, the story is a good one. Two things; it is told at breakneck speed, and the time frames of the alibis are crucial to solving the murder. As I said in the beginning, pay attention, especially towards the end.

Love this time period especially the murder mysteries. Caught this movie recently and watch it over and over. It's addicting!! It's fascinating. I really love it!! Mei Ling is a wonderful character & so interesting. I don't believe in Astology but this is just a fun and intriguing movie! It has a good cast of characters and keeps you guessing until the very end about who committed the crime. The pieces of evidence as presented keep you fascinated as the police attempt to solve the crime. I loved the Mei Ling character and wish there were many more movies made like this. A series like they did with Charlie Chan would have been nice!! I highly recommend it for a good flick.

I agree with the first reviewer that it's a bit much to believe the astrologer can be so accurate with every utterance, but the movie is light fun, and Anna May Wong gets a lot of good screen time. She doesn't just recite star charts; she also helps the police ferret out legitimate clues and solve puzzle or two. Don't take it too seriously.

Since I've always felt that astrology can be described at best as fraudulent, the goings on here annoyed me very much. Tell Anna May Wong your birthday and she can look up your chart and tell you everything about you. She tells James Stephenson he has two days to live; Jeffrey Lynn that his wife will have twins; Inspector Charles Wilson that there will be two more murders, etc. It goes on and on and she's never wrong! Mind you, she says these predictions are only generalizations, because she doesn't have the exact time of your birth. The opening scenes has Manley P. Hall (the one who concocted the original story) on-screen telling how astrology enables you to predict the future and he cites laughable examples of it. He also explains the 12 signs of the zodiac and the characteristics of the people born under those signs. To me it was all nonsense. You might note that the character of each of the 12 credited actors was born under a different zodiac sign which was specified on-screen.The film is well directed by William McGann, who sets a nice pace for the 65 minute length of the film, and it was somewhat fun to watch the mystery unfold. But I cringed every time Wong opened her mouth with some item seemingly picked out of the air. If you believe in astrology, you may like this film. I didn't.