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Errol Flynn shows here that he could excell at comedy as well as swashbuckling.Flynn plays an investment banker moonloghting by writing Mystery stories under a pen name, and in the process making such fun of his Wifes' and his mother in law's society friends that they want to find the author and Sue Him! When the truth comes out his wife is amused but his mother in law says"How can you be such a TRAITOR to your class !".Naturally Flynn gets involved in solving a REAL murder.This is a very underrated movie as far as I am concerned,with an excellent cast. Flynn and Brenda Marshall make a well matched team, and it is a pity that it didn't lead to a series of films.I understand that one called Ghosts Don't Leave Footsteps was planned but shelved due to poor box office of this film.Perhaps people just weren't used to Flynn inn this kind of film A great pity because I believe that a series of these films would have developed into serious competition for the Thin Man Series. But at least we have this overlooked Gem to enjoy.

Everyone who knows me knows my frustration with Gone With the Wind. I can never get past Rhett Butler's lack of a Southern accent, and I would have preferred Errol Flynn in the role. How does this relate to my review about the comedy Footsteps in the Dark? Because in this wacky mystery, Errol puts on a Southern drawl in a few scenes to hide his voice. While I loved hearing it, it also saddened me to see definite proof that he would have been a better Rhett Butler. Had he been just as incapable of a Southern accent as Clark Gable, I would have lost my case.

Now, let's get to the plot: Errol stars as a respectable suburban husband who attends dinner parties, bridge games, and lunches at the club. That kind of life isn't exciting enough for him (after all, he played Robin Hood three years ago!) and on the side, he moonlights as a trashy novelist. Sometimes, he draws from real life, and when clues about some of his neighbors make appearances in his books, his identity is threatened to be exposed.

This isn't the greatest comedy to come out of the 1940s, and if Errol Flynn weren't in it, it wouldn't have been nearly as good. His comic timing is impeccable, and his charm is irresistible. Rent this one if you loved him in Never Say Goodbye and you want to see him in another comedy.

It seems lots of people didn't like this film very much but I absolutely loved it. Flynn plays blue blood investment adviser Francis Monroe Warren II with blue blood clients, a blue blood wife, and a blue blood social life. All of this blue blood is making Francis feel tired and run down, so he leads a double life to spice things up. At night and at odd hours during the work day he concocts murder mysteries and covers his absences at home by telling his wife that he was at some board meeting. His most recent publication - under a pen name of course - has his wealthy friends aghast because he used them as characters in his book and only slightly changed their names. The town's whole social register is looking for the real name of this author so they can sue him for damages. Francis' antics begin to catch up with him when he is blackmailed by someone who knows about his double life.

Pretty soon Francis is involved in a real murder mystery involving stolen diamonds, a burlesque queen, threatening letters from an anonymous person, and clues that seem to point back to his own wife as a suspect. On top of everything, his wife and mother-in-law become suspicious of his behavior and have him followed, with the detective drawing all the wrong conclusions.

This is a very different kind of role for Flynn, but he brought to it all of the things that made his swashbuckling films such fun. As Robin Hood he was continually laughing in the face of danger, here he just grins at it, but he still seems to get the upper hand in every situation - always suave and in control. If you want to watch something that is just plain fun I highly recommend this one.

a hidden gem, shows the wide variety of skills errol flynn possessed but was not given credit for until much later. errol could really act, he had an excellent comedic touch and really makes this well written mystery a lot of fun. brenda marshall is her usual gorgeous self, shes a dream. the mystery is well crafted and this was good enough that they should have done a sequel. errol was type cast by the studio as a the prototype "super man" and "action hero", which he did better then anyone. what the studio prevented was errol doing comedy and other roles which he was marvelous at. the few comedy roles he was allowed to do in his career are superb. his star was brighter then most, but hidden by studio hacks were many of his varied talents.

Footsteps in the Dark is the title of a mystery novel that investment banker Errol Flynn wrote under a pseudonym that has become a best seller. Unfortunately he used as characters some of his wife Brenda Marshall and mother-in-law Lucille Watson's society friends and they'd like to sue the author if they can find him.

Errol while trying to see they don't find out what his double life is gets himself involved in another murder of Noel Madison who wanted Flynn to essentially launder the money from some stolen jewels in his banker self.

Flynn spends over 90 minutes struggling to keep his identities secret from those who know him in one guise or the other and solve the mystery at the same time. The only two who know about his masquerade are his chauffeur Allen Jenkins and his lawyer Grant Mitchell.

Flynn had a very good gift for comedy, he had already done The Perfect Specimen and Four's A Crowd and had gotten good reviews. Footsteps in the Dark was an effort by Warner Brothers to cash in on the popularity and success MGM was enjoying with The Thin Man series. Flynn and Marshall were good together though there was no further sequels.

Best in the film by far is William Frawley as one truly dumb detective that even his superior Alan Hale is frustrated with. Flynn bounces some great lines off Frawley.

It's a different Errol Flynn than normal and not a bad one.