Now, "Murder at Dawn" perhaps may not suit the tastes of a highbrow who demands a perfect production and direction and an answer to everything - but it's a very stunning, atmospheric and VERY much underrated B movie, with all the elements of a classic 'isolated mansion' mystery: complete with a thunderstorm, shady types creeping through the garden at night and peeping into windows, a mysterious housekeeper (Martha Mattox, well known to fans of the genre from "The Cat and the Canary" and "Murder by the Clock"), turning fireplaces, bodies in the closet, and so on...
It's also got its 'scientific' element (which constitutes the reason for all the murderous ongoings): an inventor is working in the seclusion of this old house on a device for producing electricity, which could of course be very important for the future of mankind, but also very dangerous...
But the entertainment isn't neglected either in this charmingly old-fashioned 'cheapie': there's romance in the shape of the inventor's daughter (Josephine Dunn) and her fiancé, played by Jack Mulhall - and also a comical side, which is handled very nicely by the 'old' married couple Marjorie Beebe and Eddie Boland. And a very special surprise: Mischa Auer in a VERY unusual role as the strange and sinister caretaker - you'll have to look twice to recognize him!
For friends of the good old 30s' mysteries, an absolute 'must' - it catches the mood and atmosphere just as well as the much more famous classics of the same time, like "The Old Dark House" or "The Bat Whispers"!
