MovieChat Forums > The Bishop Murder Case (1930) Discussion > Detective Fiddles While An Entire Househ...

Detective Fiddles While An Entire Household Dies

posted 17 years ago by dmh7-1
6 replies | jump to latest

Although Basil is (as usual) fine in this film, as is Roland Young in a very limited part, the rest of the cast is made up of melodramatic performers, offering a sort of "acting" that - on screen - often makes their character seem impossibly odd. The huinchback and John the chess player are the most egregious examples of this.

But the main awfulness of this sort of film lies in the almost total ineffectiveness of the "genius" detectivd, who goes on ruminating and ruminating as one person after another is murdered, only to finally solve the case at the very last intended victim. It strains even my flexible credulity to think that either Vance or the police wouldn't have assigned bodyguards to the household after - at least - the second murder. Yet the slaughter continues, while Philo makes vague stabs at analysis.

This is not a dramatic flaw confinedf to just this film of course; several of the later Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films meander through the blood much the same way. I think this makes for a usually dull film, unless some other aspect of the movie compensates for it: several stand-out performamces, snappy dialogue, etc. This film is bereft of much of that.

Any other films anyone can think of that might have the same sort of "clueless detective" in them?

[–] cinema_universe 15 years ago

I believe that the melodramatic performances seen in this 1929 film are the understandably hammy characterizations by those actors who's history is made up of silent films, where such florid gestures and posturing, were commonplace.
After all, this was VERY early talkie-fare, made in 1929-- the first 'full' year of talking pictures.

The stage experience of many old-timers often consisted of heavy-handed melodramas-- the kind of which, had "Snidely Whiplash" characters, twirling their mustaches and leering at young maidens.

--D.--

[–] dmh7-1 15 years ago

Although I understand your response, I simply do not agree that such "stage-bound" acting is a consistent enough feature of the era's films to excuse it in this case. Even in the silent era, there were many subtle actors, who knew how to use "expressionistic" (as opposed to melodramatic) gestures. I enjoyed this film (and the many other similar films of the time), but both the acting and the other - more innate - problem of what I might call "the inefficient detective" (a detective who dawdles along - with their supposed "genius" - while one after another of the characters if dispatched, until the solution could be solved by an illiterate newsboy. That's simply bad/cliche writing, which certainly cannot be explained away by the "era". Of course, one can't expect too much from such fare, and I go into them looking for the stand-out performances, the fashions, the sets, cultural signs, and whatever trivial joys that exist there. But I have seen plenty of films of this year and previous that are NOT as full of the "broad" acting seen here, although (compared to the rather dull and plodding plots) this is a minor concern to me.

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 14 years ago

So what?

Hell is the truth learned too late.

[–] dmh7-1 14 years ago

"So what?"

Quite an intellectual brain teaser that...Did you just come up with it (and all its intricate subtleties) in a burst of intuition, or did you research long and hard before crafting such an exquisite riposte?

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 14 years ago

Actually, extensive study among the Urasian Laplanders visiting the restrooms of Disneyworld.

Hell is the truth learned too late.

[–] cyninbend-149-610489 8 years ago

Those overly dramatic acting gestures are what make me LOVE these movies. I first fell in love with them in 1931's Dracula with Bela Lugosi. They are fabulous. They probably gave rise to the later "hams" of comedy. Go watch some statues acting in the 50s if you don't want to have fun with these characters.