Murder By Television!

This 1935 Bela Lugosi mystery movie has a great title. But aside from Bela, it has little else. I found it tucked away in the back of a mammoth mystery movie collection I've been enjoying recently. It was one of the Bela movies I haven't seen, so I was quick to drop it in and give it glimpse.

The story is pretty simple. An inventor named Houghland has a breakthrough technology that will allow instantaneous worldwide television broadcast and during the debut of this new sensational equipment, he is murdered literally in the middle of his transmission.

Bela plays a man who seemingly works for the inventor and to say much more would smash what little suspense is in this one. Bela is fine in his role, one that tries to capitalize on his infamous charm. But the movie as a whole is downright stagnant. It becomes a whodunnit in classic form with all the suspects isolated in a penthouse by the police. There is much questioning by the police chief, but precious little else in the way of action. Lots of scenes of people just standing and staring alas.

There are some keen bits of comedy and more than a smidge of vintage stereotyping typical for the era. But overall the payoff to the mystery let me down a bit, though I will confess they set it up neatly enough.

This one is for Bela fans only.

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