Murder on the Campus

I guess college isn't quite the way it was in my day. Young men and women living in extravagant suites, in the lap of luxury. They also looked a bit old for college students. This is a bit soporific. It involves a woman who works at a nightclub who is studying for her law degree. Once again, people are kept in the dark about the realities of things. I've seen so many movies where the characters keep things a secret, even when they don't have to. A man has been murdered in a bell tower and there is an investigation. I can see no reason whey the principles in the movie are even suspects, but they are. The detectives and a reporter continually coming in contact as the body count rises. I'm still not sure of the motives and the cover-up. Reputation? Fear? Love? Not sure. It also ends a bit suddenly. I suppose the young woman is going to marry the hunk and give up that nonsense about having a career. It's the thirties; it's the depression. Oh, well.

This film essentially begins with a gunshot being heard by a number of people that appears to be coming from the top of the local college bell tower. Sure enough, when the police get there, they find the body of a college student who died from a bullet wound to the head. Interestingly enough, they not only fail to find a gun, but they also soon discover that nobody was seen leaving the tower after the gunshot was heard. So, with very little else to go on, the police then begin to question everyone who either knew the college student or had any relationship with him. And it's during this time that they find what appears to be the murder weapon in the bedroom of a young college student named "Lillian Voyne" (Shirley Grey) who has no solid alibi on where she was when the murder occurred. What she does have, fortunately, is a boyfriend by the name of "Bill Bartlett" (Charles Starrett) who just happens to be an investigative reporter for the local newspaper and is very skilled in his job. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I honestly wasn't expecting too much from this film due in large part to the time period in which it was made and the rather mediocre rating on IMDb. That being said, while I will admit that this movie is rather dated and it suffers in that regard, I still found it to be rather entertaining--with the numerous twists and turns along with the dogged persistence of Bill Bartlett being particularly enjoyable. On the other hand, considering the date this film was produced, there are a couple of inherent flaws here and there with the rather abrupt ending being particularly noticeable. But even so, all things being considered, I enjoyed this film, for the most part, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I love these Thirties movies. Everyone reviewed the mystery but what interested me was the college life. Clearly, this was an expensive eastern private school, home of the Gentleman's C. In the Depression there were basically two types of college students--the rich and those on scholarships and/or just getting by on various part time jobs, often having to stop for a semester or year when the money ran out. As Johnny Carson used to say, you buy the premise, you buy the bit. So I think these rich kids were kept here by their parents because they were totally useless in the real world and there weren't any jobs in the Depression for people who couldn't do anything but hang out with their friends. It was cheaper to keep them in school than let them ruin the slim profit margin of their parents' businesses. They were perpetual students and perpetual slackers. I imagine they were in this college until they all had PhDs or they got sent abroad, whichever cost their parents less. The men would be old enough when WWII came along to get cushy war jobs via the old boys' network, and the women would marry, divorce, and remarry within the same network.

Now, our heroine was obviously the other type of student. She was taking forever to get through school because it was taking her forever to earn the money. And since nobody was shown in a class, one has to assume that slowed down her progress, too. She won't "marry well" because the reporter got in the way and reporters were notoriously poorly paid. I hope she dropped out and married him right away because if she wasn't going to marry a rich student, she was wasting her money at this institution of learning nothing.

The dead fellow in the bell tower seemed to have been someone's project. I didn't understand why he was at the school but if he only had two years of high school he would have fit right in, academically. He seemed to have been enough of a slacker to concentrate on athletics instead of his bell tower job or school so if he had lived he might have done well in the culture of the place but alas, his quest for the old school tie was cut short. Another five or six years of frat life and he probably would have been indistinguishable from his wealthy brothers.

The professors at this college seemed to have as little interest in education as the students, to judge by the small sample we are shown. Apparently the perks of being employed by the college of "couldn't care less" included having time for extracurricular activities.

Because much of the wealth in the Depression era came through illegal or marginally legal activity, there was plenty of that going on with the students and their associates. Because superficiality and wealth were valued, snobbery, pettiness, and revenge were rife.

Prohibition was just ending, so no more bootleg booze, but there was the excitement of dead bodies littering up the campus so that was diverting. These people were such dullards it didn't even cross their minds to be afraid in the middle of a crime wave! The leaders of tomorrow--which accounts for a lot of things....

Veteran police captain J. Farrell MacDonald and young newspaper reporter Charles Starrett: Why are they such good friends? MacDonald is, as usual, the crusty police captain who suspects everyone and trusts no one...except, apparently, this cub reporter who follows him around on this case and is readily admitted to all interviews and interrogations, even though Starrett's character is quite frankly in love with the main suspect MacDonald is after. In any case, the two actors play well off of each other, and together they keep the story moving fast.

There's been a murder up in the campus bell tower; the murdered character was apparently something of an uncultured impostor who was only in the school because of his athletic prowess. (Little else is known about him except that he had been brought out to the college from some godforsaken outpost called Minnesota.) Chemistry student Lillian Voyne (Shirley Grey) had had an appointment to meet the victim right at the time of the murder. Did she do it? How could she have—the body was locked alone at the top of the tower! What about her friend, the suspiciously behaving Ann (played by Ruth Hall in a too small part)? And what is the part in all of this of the mysterious gambler Blackie Atwater? Can noted criminologist Prof. Hawley (Edward Van Sloan, looking very at home in the role) assist in solving the crime?

It's a pretty slick 70 minutes that doesn't hold a lot of surprises but does pack in some suspense. Well worthwhile for us fans of these B mysteries.

N.B. Those looking for a realistic depiction of college life in the 1930s are advised to stick with the Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers.

A student is killed at the top of a tower on a college campus. No one saw anyone come down from the tower and there was no place for the killer to hide. Charles Starrett plays Bill Bartlett a reporter who just happened to be on the scene of the crime. He's interested in a girl who becomes one of the suspects in the murder.She is working her way through college as a singer in a night club run by a gambler known as Blackie. As more deaths occur the reasons for the murder become less clear, especially as we learn about some of the suspects.

This is one of those movies thats just okay and under normal circumstances you'd turn off the TV and go to bed but because things manage to be just interesting enough you find you're staying up well past your bed time. Don't get me wrong its a good movie, but its nothing special, but once the first body is found and you realize short of flying no one could have killed him you end up pretty much hooked. I sat there trying to go to bed, yawning, and unwilling to turn off the DVD because I had to see how it was done and why (I knew who the killer was the instant the actor/actress appeared on screen). Don't watch this too late or you'll end up up 70 minutes past your bedtime.

Worth a rental, an hour of your time and a bag of popcorn. You won't remember it but you will enjoy it.