MikeMagi The real mystery here is how -- and why -- this movie got made. At a mythical college where most of the students have apparently been flunking for years -- since they're all in their thirties -- a body is found hanging outside a dorm window. Suicide? Nah! That'd only be a short subject. The poor lad was bumped off, a murder followed by two more. And if you haven't figured out who the culprit is about five minutes in, it's time to brush up on your 1930s grade-C thrillers. Charles Starrett in the days before he rode the range, can obviously act. His girl friend (whose name I'll omit out of respect) struggles to say a few lines. Hopefully, she moved on to a more suitable career. One last question. Can anyone who's seen the movie tell me why the killings were committed? If so, you're way ahead of the screenwriter.

MartinHafer The summary of this film isn't quite right. It is NOT about an old mansion but students at a college are killed--the first in the dorm, another at an assembly. Will there be a third?! When a student is found hung outside his room, the coroner rules it's a murder--as the body was already dead before he was hung. It seems some sort of deadly needle was shot into the base of the victim's skull! Surely this is a VERY sophisticated murder, so it seems odd that they'd use the clumsy ruse of a hanging to hide the killing. It seems even odder that they'd ask one of the student's fathers to help investigate the crime--especially since he's not a detective but a corporate lawyer! Non-police investigating crimes was common in 1930s and 40s films, but usually they are amateur detectives or adventurers such as the Saint or Bulldog Drummond--here, he's just some lawyer who has had dreams of becoming a gumshoe! This weird plot isn't helped any by the crime itself. While it's supposed to be a mystery, I figured out who the murderer was about halfway through the film. It also was silly how complicated the murders were--they just weren't very practical or believable--more like a B-movie murder than one that could really happen. Overall, a somewhat competent movie that isn't completely bad---it just isn't all that good, either. And, I had to laugh at the old cliché where EVERY TIME A PERSON WAS ABOUT TO TALK, they were soon killed!! Gimme a break! You could do a lot better than this one by watching any of the Charlie Chan films!

csteidler Midway through this Chesterfield mystery, I found myself wondering: Is this plot awfully complex, or just awfully muddled? A suicide that is a murder; a stolen letter; an old photo in an album; odd family relations and relationships….Various characters guard strange secrets of the past and present. But I'm still not sure how much sense it makes.Three male leads are at the center of the story. Charles Starrett is of course the rather upright and dashing young student whose roommate is bumped off in the film's opening moments. Starrett immediately calls for assistance from his criminologist father, played by Robert Warwick in the best Holmesian style. It seems like a promising setup—a father-son team parsing clues, nabbing bad guys. But, for me at least, Starrett's character came across as overly deferential and Warwick's as annoyingly smug. Third-billed is the great Edward Van Sloan as a professor (naturally) interested in the parties involved; his character is darkly appealing but, alas, not on screen often enough.Overall, it's not a bad film, exactly, but I just couldn't feel it gain any momentum. The comic relief supplied by the moronic sheriff and his deputy is rather lame, and the rest of the cast seem to take things altogether too seriously. And there's one large red herring that would have added intrigue had it been a "real" clue....Anyway, early practice, I guess, for director Charles Lamont, who would go on to bigger and better and less serious things.

kidboots An excellent cast and a very intriguing finish lift this film out of the usual poverty row sludge. It was a Chesterfield production but was filmed at Universal studio so it had a more polished look. Edward Van Sloan's imposing presence was put to good use in many a programmer mystery. While often a kindly doctor (or professor) he also popped up as a surprise villain in quite a few who done its.Student Ken Harris (Charles Starrett) gets a call from his father (Robert Warwick) to meet up with him in a nearby town. Ken is at a Victory party for Cornwall College Football team. Jean (Marion Shilling) wants to go with him but her chaperone, Miss Lottie Case (Helen Jerome Eddy) declines the invitation, as does Jean's brother, Byron. On the trip back his father voices his disapproval of his friendship with Byron. The next morning Ken awakens to find Byron has committed suicide - or so everyone thinks. Ken's father is an amateur criminologist and quickly discounts that theory. The doctor's examination finds that he was dead before the rope went around his neck. Jean is then questioned about her movements that night - she says she went to bed early but Ken's dad saw her at his hotel about 2 am. Sam, another boy, knows who visited Byron's room that night but before he can talk to Ken he, too, is murdered. Byron's murder was committed for money - he was due to come into a large inheritance on his birthday which is today!!! A third boy is then killed, John Mesereux, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Byron (they are both played by the same actor - James Bush). The script, was quite complex and the ending was a surprise. Ken's father found the solution had to do with a family scandal that only Byron's mother (Doris Lloyd) knew about. John was Byron's half brother, who the mother placed with a French family, hoping to put the shame behind her.Charles Starrett had a mammoth career - as a cowboy!! At the start he was often in society dramas but in 1936 he signed with Columbia and found everlasting fame as the Durango Kid. Marion Shilling was a lovely actress who started out in an early musical ("Lord Byron of Broadway" (1930)) but by the time she made "A Shot in the Dark" she was well entrenched in westerns. Eddie Tamblyn, who was the father of Russ Tamblyn, played one of the college boys.Recommended.