65min. seemed kinda short, and they never explained when the magician actually died an if he was actually dead then how did he leave the morgue when Mike was talking on the phone to the police the whole time
SCARFACE the greatest comedy ever made
I agree this one wasn't really totally explained.
I figure the magician was not really dead after the car accident of course) and played dead at the morgue. He then went back to the house to kill his wife (Dudly's young wife).
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I now have re-read your question and I think i now agree with you. The magician died in the car wreck and it must have been the private investigator who removed the body and then called the Chief to create the tension back at the house and force Dudley's new wife to confess.
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The problem not explained to me is how the dead magician got back in the house before his wife shot at him. Also who dug him up from where they buried him? Was he dug up by the caretaker who was in cahoots with him? This was never explained.
In the scene outside the house with the chief getting jumped from behind it never shows who grabbed him. At first I thought it was the private eye to clue him in on a plot to trap the magician, but that wasn't the case.
Then the whole scene in the bedroom at the end. It was just really a bad wrap up.
The length of this movie and the part about the doctor's lab downstairs which had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie, but must have cost as much to build as the rest of the house, makes me believe this was either an edited movie involving more to the plot than 64min. Or that this was somehow part of a multipart serial which might have been comprised of several shows and was later edited down to one 64 min plot. That may be the case seeing as this was during WWII. Were serials popular during the war?
It is a shame because the mixed up ending to me kind of wasted all of the good cool scenery and genuine mystery this movie held.
Also the real husband to the young bride coming in at the end really adds nothing either. Come to think of it the daughter's role which looked to be key, was just a plot point to bring in the singing private eye.
Wow, and the more I think about this movie, the more it seems to lack. They never did seem to explain what that "Senate investigation" was about. But seeing how quick Dudley was to bury a man he thought he accidentally killed makes me think it had a lot of merit!
Watching it again now on FMC, remember when Mike goes to see his magician friend and asks about the buried alive trick, he gets told about the shallow breathing to appear dead. So the guy was still alive the whole time and Mike realized it after talking with him, thats why he called the chief to get him to check on the body. So it never shows/tells when he actually dies, Mike is telling how it all went down but they cut to the chief coming in and we never hear Mike telling how he died or got to the house.
old MACs look cool but are pretty much useless these days