oscaralbert Review of The Garden Murder Case

The Garden Murder Case (1936)

Now that horse and dog tracks are closing all across America . . .

[6/10 · 6 December 2018]

. . . how can anyone care about dead jockeys, most of Today's viewers will ask themselves toward the beginning of THE GARDEN MURDER CASE. (Tip to movie producers: When you wish to name your flick about a FICTIONAL slaying after one of the victims, do NOT try to confuse movie fans by selecting a surname that doubles as a common noun! Legions of "Miss Marple" devotees queued up this flick in the hopes that it would stretch out the canon with corpses potted between rows of cabbage and rutabaga, only to be sorely disappointed!) Furthermore, it's hard to imagine the world of the early 1930s, when globe-trotting Brit ex-pats were bringing home all kinds of exotic killing methods from the far corners of their so-called "Empire." The characters of "Lowe Hammle" and "Maj. Fenwicke-Ralston" seem doubly contrived, since their hidden talents for mimicry and mesmerism, respectively, emerge so late in the story. I, for one, would have like to see more of the servant filching caviar, and a lot less of Major Ralston at the end.