kevinolzak Review of A Shot in the Dark

A Shot in the Dark (1935)

A Chesterfield indie filmed at Universal

[6/10 · 30 December 2013]

For another Chesterfield indie produced at Universal (like 1933's "Strange People"), 1935's "A Shot in the Dark" benefits from the presence of studio veteran Edward Van Sloan, here reunited with his "Dracula" co-star, Herbert Bunston (who died a month after completion). Based on a popular serial of the day, "The Dartmouth Murders," top billing goes to former gridiron athlete Charles Starrett, now 31 and soon to shift into Westerns, where he would play The Durango Kid until 1952 (he had co-starred opposite Boris Karloff in MGM's "The Mask of Fu Manchu" three years earlier). The actual sleuthing is done by dependable Robert Warwick, as Starrett's deductive father, who is quickly aiding the local sheriff when a student, Byron Coates, believed to have hanged himself, is revealed to have already been murdered before he was hung. Another student drops dead at the memorial service for Coates, who turns out to have a lookalike fellow classmate whom he despised, John Meseraux (both roles essayed by James Bush). The interesting supporting cast includes another Universal regular, Doris Lloyd ("Waterloo Bridge," "The Wolf Man"), as Byron's mother, and Eddie Tamblyn, father of Russ, grandfather of Amber, soon to retire from pictures (he died in 1957 at age 50). The killer might have been more difficult to spot were it not for a certain cast member's disappearance from the film halfway through.