An excellent cast and a very intriguing finish lift this film out of the usual poverty row sludge. It was a Chesterfield production but was filmed at Universal studio so it had a more polished look. Edward Van Sloan's imposing presence was put to good use in many a programmer mystery. While often a kindly doctor (or professor) he also popped up as a surprise villain in quite a few who done its.
Student Ken Harris (Charles Starrett) gets a call from his father (Robert Warwick) to meet up with him in a nearby town. Ken is at a Victory party for Cornwall College Football team. Jean (Marion Shilling) wants to go with him but her chaperone, Miss Lottie Case (Helen Jerome Eddy) declines the invitation, as does Jean's brother, Byron. On the trip back his father voices his disapproval of his friendship with Byron.
The next morning Ken awakens to find Byron has committed suicide - or so everyone thinks. Ken's father is an amateur criminologist and quickly discounts that theory. The doctor's examination finds that he was dead before the rope went around his neck. Jean is then questioned about her movements that night - she says she went to bed early but Ken's dad saw her at his hotel about 2 am. Sam, another boy, knows who visited Byron's room that night but before he can talk to Ken he, too, is murdered. Byron's murder was committed for money - he was due to come into a large inheritance on his birthday which is today!!! A third boy is then killed, John Mesereux, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Byron (they are both played by the same actor - James Bush).
The script, was quite complex and the ending was a surprise. Ken's father found the solution had to do with a family scandal that only Byron's mother (Doris Lloyd) knew about. John was Byron's half brother, who the mother placed with a French family, hoping to put the shame behind her.
Charles Starrett had a mammoth career - as a cowboy!! At the start he was often in society dramas but in 1936 he signed with Columbia and found everlasting fame as the Durango Kid. Marion Shilling was a lovely actress who started out in an early musical ("Lord Byron of Broadway" (1930)) but by the time she made "A Shot in the Dark" she was well entrenched in westerns. Eddie Tamblyn, who was the father of Russ Tamblyn, played one of the college boys.
Recommended.
Student Ken Harris (Charles Starrett) gets a call from his father (Robert Warwick) to meet up with him in a nearby town. Ken is at a Victory party for Cornwall College Football team. Jean (Marion Shilling) wants to go with him but her chaperone, Miss Lottie Case (Helen Jerome Eddy) declines the invitation, as does Jean's brother, Byron. On the trip back his father voices his disapproval of his friendship with Byron.
The next morning Ken awakens to find Byron has committed suicide - or so everyone thinks. Ken's father is an amateur criminologist and quickly discounts that theory. The doctor's examination finds that he was dead before the rope went around his neck. Jean is then questioned about her movements that night - she says she went to bed early but Ken's dad saw her at his hotel about 2 am. Sam, another boy, knows who visited Byron's room that night but before he can talk to Ken he, too, is murdered. Byron's murder was committed for money - he was due to come into a large inheritance on his birthday which is today!!! A third boy is then killed, John Mesereux, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Byron (they are both played by the same actor - James Bush).
The script, was quite complex and the ending was a surprise. Ken's father found the solution had to do with a family scandal that only Byron's mother (Doris Lloyd) knew about. John was Byron's half brother, who the mother placed with a French family, hoping to put the shame behind her.
Charles Starrett had a mammoth career - as a cowboy!! At the start he was often in society dramas but in 1936 he signed with Columbia and found everlasting fame as the Durango Kid. Marion Shilling was a lovely actress who started out in an early musical ("Lord Byron of Broadway" (1930)) but by the time she made "A Shot in the Dark" she was well entrenched in westerns. Eddie Tamblyn, who was the father of Russ Tamblyn, played one of the college boys.
Recommended.