Grief Street

This second feature directed by jack-of-all-trades director Richard Thorpe -- he would go to Metro as a B movie director and graduate to big spectacles, based on his ability to get a cheap performance out of actors like Robert Taylor -- shows Thorpe with warts and details of care.

This locked room mystery has its major weak points, like stagily-read performances from all hands involved, but it also has its strengths, rocking, as it does, between a comedy drama in which the cops spend their time playing craps, and an early police procedural, as one cop uses routine and careful deduction to crack the case. And while Thorpe can't raise a good performance, he does take care of his visuals, as in the scene set in an alley, where he sets the wind machines to gently blowing Barbara Kent's hair.

Although not a particularly good movie, it is interesting as a transitional piece, as silent stars try their hands at talkies, and a style of mystery different from the usual Sherlock Holmes or Philo Vance pointing out what is obvious after the fact.