Leofwine_draca WHO KILLED FRANK DANIELS? is an odd, stagy little film from the early days of talkie cinema. It plays out as a murder mystery with the emphasis on some very tame, almost unrecognisable comedy which no doubt delighted contemporary audiences, although modern viewers will be baffled rather than amused by the jokes and pratfalls evinced here. It's certainly not a timeless comedy like the works of Laurel and Hardy or Harold Lloyd.The film is very short but manages to fit quite a lot of plotting into its running time, half of which turns out to be rather irrelevant. The body of a man is discovered on a street and two suspects are sought by the exasperated cops; most of the action centres around a morgue allowing for plenty of ghoulish jokes surrounding corpses and the like. Lucien Littlefield's bizarro goof 'Snookie' is probably the best reason to watch this, although comedienne Zasu Pitts shows up late on in the proceedings to add some more humour to the thing.

Michael_Elliott Strangers in the Evening (1932)* 1/2 (out of 4)Really bad and really confusing murder/mystery has a body come up missing at the local morgue but one of the workers claims the dead man moved himself. At the same time there's a murder investigation going on for the morgue worker who got into an argument with a girl's father when he disapproved of their relationship. Mean while the local detective (Eugene Palette) is dealing with a man who can't remember anything except for one woman (Zasu Pitts).STRANGERS IN THE EVENING is a pretty bad movie on many levels but it's almost worth watching due to how bizarre and confusing it is. The film clocks in less than 65 minutes yet it headlining star Pitts doesn't show up until nearly thirty minutes into the movie. What makes matters even worse is that there are characters who come into the film and then disappear without any reason why and then reappear later. There are way too many characters in this short film and obviously something got lost in the writing because a lot happens that makes very little sense.At the very end a few of the characters take the cheap route and explain what we've just watched but that's really no help. Pitts really isn't given too much to do so I'm going to guess the low-budget meant they only had her for a few days. Palette is fun as the detective but he too is pretty much wasted with the bad screenplay. Harold Waldridge deserves special mention as he plays a sissy morgue worker who is constantly scared. To say the character is annoying would be an understatement.STRANGERS IN THE EVENING doesn't work as a mystery, a comedy or anything else for that matter.

mark.waltz This is a deadly dull thriller about corpses missing from a morgue and the investigation of possible murder of those AWOL stiffs. There's absolutely no action or intrigue concerning who these people are, how they died, and why they are missing in the first place. Pitts plays the girlfriend of one of the suspects (Lucien Littlefield) who is interviewed by the police. Her nervous mannerisms light up the film the minute she steps on screen, and from blinking to stay awake, I went to sudden laughter. Unfortunately, she doesn't come in until half way through the hour long film, and is only on sporadically, her presence the reason I give this a 4 (**) rather than a 1 or 2 (Bomb). Gravely voiced Eugene Palette also adds a little bit of humor, but that's simply because he plays the dumb detective so amusingly.

kidboots In 1932 this movie was called tasteless because it depicted some comical goings on at the morgue but now with films such as "Arsenic and Old Lace" and even "My Girl" it is now seen as quite restrained. For a Tiffany production, it not only boasted a book ("The Illustrious Corpse" ) by Tiffany Thayer, a popular novelist of the day ("Call Her Savage" and "Thirteen Women") but also an impeccable crew. Director H. Bruce Humberstone was given an early chance to make good and went on to have a great career ("Pin Up Girl" (1944), "Hello Frisco, Hello" (1945)). The cameraman Arthur Edeson had a list of credits that included "The Thief of Bagdad" (1924), "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1931), "Frankenstein" (1931), "The Old Dark House" (1932), "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and "Casablanca" (1942).Funny things are happening down at the morgue - Dr. Everett (Theodore Von Eltz) has a laboratory there and is also planning to elope with Ruth (Miriam Seegar). Ruth's father, Frank Daniels (Lucian Littlefield) is not impressed and the last time Ruth sees him, he's having a "heated" discussion with Everett. The next day a corpse is bought in who is identified as Frank Daniels and the nation's police are on the look out for Everett and Ruth (who are on their honeymoon) and also Tommy, the young assistant undertaker who has taken fright and ran. Detective Brubacher (Eugene Palette) is finding the investigation tough when a wild eyed amnesiac, known as Richard Roe, wanders in and says that a murder has been committed. He was found wandering around in an overcoat and taken in at a boarding house run by Sybil (Zasu Pitts) - his odd behaviour excites police suspicion.I won't spoil the plot but certainly Theodore Von Eltz, whose forte was oily villains, must have confused audiences of the day with his portrayal of the hero. Zasu Pitts and Lucien Littlefield were the highlights, with their very distinctive humour, especially Pitts, with her fluttery mannerisms that convulsed audiences at the time - although Erich Von Stroheim called her the "ablest dramatic actress on the screen". Miriam Seegar, who at this writing is still with us, played Ruth. She was a beautiful ingenue who, unfortunately, didn't appear in any more films after the intriguing "False Faces", filmed the same year as "Strangers of the Evening". She married director Tim Whelan in 1932 and they spent most of the 30s in England, where he directed "The Mill on the Floss" (1937), "The Divorce of Lady X" (1938) and "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940).