Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie''s plot.
A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT opens with the death of millionaire philanthropist Mr. Harker (played by a dummy thrown off a ledge just out of camera range) who falls from his penthouse balcony. Police suspect suicide, but as evidence is collected and a few more bodies turn up, the suspicion begins to fall on outside sources. The focus of the manhunt is narrowed when a letter connects Harker to the executed brother of a former mob hitman. And all the while reporter Pat Morgan (Ginger Rogers) who had been posing as Harker’s secretary, is trying to uncover the culprit and save her job. Along the way she makes a friend in Inspector Russell (Purnell Pratt) and reconnects with former flame and rival reporter Ted Rand (Lyle Talbot). In the end, the danger comes from a not-very-surprising source as Morgan is stuffed into a incinerator and nearly burned alive.
This movie wasn’t all that bad. It wasn’t great by any means, but I’ve seen worse. The plot keeps its secrets just long enough to get you interested, and when the reveal comes it’s with a shrug and a “big deal”, but the interaction between Rogers and Talbot is frenetic enough to keep even the most ho-hum viewer watching.
Performances from the rest of the cast, namely Lillian Harmer as Harker’s maid Augusta and Harvey Clark as Peterson the Janitor, were pretty rough, both delivering their lines with all the emotion and conviction of a 5-year-old on speed and an 80-year-old on Valium, respectively. These were balanced by Pratt’s Inspector Russell who stole every scene he was in.
Released in 1933, A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT runs 66 minutes, and while billed as a horror, it’s really just another mystery. I wonder if there’s a separate genre for these mysteries in which the plucky reporter saves the day, but then I realize just about every mystery I’ve seen has been solved by the plucky reporter, so maybe that’s just the rule of that particular kind of movie. I also wonder if any of these types of character may have had any influence on Siegel and Schuster’s Lois Lane at the end of that decade. But that’s just me wondering out loud.
A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT is a decent movie, nothing special about it. I didn’t find anything in there that might prompt the “classic” label and I’m sure that, a month from now, I’ll have forgotten most of the details of the movie, but for the hour and six minutes I spent watching it, I enjoyed it overall. If pressed, I’d say there’s a chance I might choose to watch it again just for the interactions between Rogers and Talbot, but it’ll never be in my top 50 favorite movies. This is a straightforward middle ground movie, and that’s about all there is to say about that.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.