Murder!

Murder! (1930) 

Notable cast/crew: Herbert Marshall as Sir John Menier.  Norah Baring as Diana Baring.  Phyllis Konstam as Doucie Markham, making her third of four Hitchcock films.  Edward Chapman as Ted Markham.  He was previously in Juno and the Paycock.  Donald Calthrop as Ion Stewart, making his third of four Hitchcock films.  Hannah Jones as Mrs Didsome, making her fourth of five Hitchcock films.  Clare Greet as Jury Member, making her third of six appearances.

Running time: 102 minutes

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Plot: A scream shatters the night waking everyone in town.  Edna Druce lies dead at the feet of Diana Baring who has amnesia about what happened.  Both are actresses in a travelling theater group.  The jury is initially split, but all quickly come to a guilty verdict.  Sir John Menier, a famous actor, is the last holdout, but with no proof to prove her innocence, he goes along with the others.  Diana is sentenced to death.

The shadow knows

Sir John doubts her guilt and feels guilty himself for his vote.  He begins to investigate the crime himself.  He employs two of the acting troupe to assist him.  They narrow it down to one suspect: Handel Fane.

Handel Fane has returned to his old job as a trapeze artist in a circus.  They try to goad a confession from him but are unsuccessful.  They do discover that he is half-East Indian and homosexual, and he murdered Edna to keep it secret.  Fane hangs himself from his trapeze perch and leaves a confession in a note to Sir John.

MacGuffin: None

Hitchcock cameo: Walking past the house where the murder was committed with a female companion after Sir John's visit to the scene with Markham and Doucie.

Hitchcock themes: 

• Murder
• Hero wrongfully accused
• False identity

Verdict: Murder! is an early attempt at some themes Hitchcock would later develop more fully in Psycho and other films.  The murderer is a social outcast, and there is a parallel drawn between his life as an actor and the role he plays in life passing himself off as a straight, White man.  The movie moves quickly, but the plot is a little thin.  The sound mix greatly detracts from the film as several scenes are drowned out by background noise.  It doesn't appear to be a problem with the copy of the film but rather is a problem with the sound technology of the time.

This was filmed simultaneously in German using the same sets with different actors and released as Mary.  The scene where Sir John thinks out loud in front of a mirror had to be filmed with a recording of the lines and a thirty piece orchestra hidden behind the set as it was not possible to post-dub the soundtrack later.  This is the first movie where a person's thoughts are presented on the soundtrack of the film. .

Out of five bananas, I give it:

Next review: The Skin Game