In his essay "The Simple Art of Murder", Raymond Chandler is dismissive of mystery novels that depend on overly complex schemes, and indicates that a murder where someone tries to get clever in how to pull it off is fundamentally easier to solve than one planned a moments before the fatal event.
"The boys with their feet on the desks know that the easiest murder case in the world to break is the one somebody tried to get very cute with; the one that really bothers them is the murder somebody thought of only two minutes before he pulled it off. But if the writers of this fiction wrote about the kind of murders that happen, they would also have to write about the authentic flavor of life as it is lived. And since they cannot do that, they pretend that what they do is what should be done. Which is begging the question—and the best of them know it."
There is nothing "authentic" in Rogue's Tavern (1936), but it is a bit of fun to watch, and Chandler would be rolling his eyes at the convoluted murder mystery in this cheap little program filler. In fact, it checks off about all the boxes he lists in that essay for how NOT to write a mystery.
We start off with Joan Woodbury, looking beautiful and exotic as mystic Gloria Robloff is telling the fortune of another guest at the hotel they are staying at with a deck of cards. A plain, ordinary, deck of cards, with the ace of spades as the "death card", naturally. I found this a nice little touch. Tarot wasn;'t terribly popular at the time, and standard card decks often stood in for them among fortune tellers. This changed over time, as the iconography of Tarot became more familiar, but here, it is a nice little "down to earth" touch.
I love Joan Woodbury... she is one of my favorite B-list actresses of the time, and shows up in unexpected places in the 30s and 40s. She was uncredited as Dr. Praetorius' miniature Queen in The Bride of Frankenstein and shows up as the under-utilized love interest in a film previously covered in this blog, King of the Zombies. Sadly, she is under utilized here as well, and spends most of the film wringing her hands and making pronouncements of inevitable doom and death.
Our leads are introduced shortly thereafter.... Jimmy Kelly and Marjorie Burns, played by Wallace Ford and Barbara Pepper. They are engaged and trying to get married through the whole film. Both are detectives... Jimmy being a police detective and Majorie being a Department Store detective, which leads the clerk giving them their wedding license to quip "Well, at least the two of you should be able to keep track of each other..." Which I have to admit is one of the funnier lines in the film.
Marjorie is played as smart, pretty, and charismatic... and I spent most of the movie wishing should would just slap the heck out of Jimmy, because he is played as smart, arrogant, and patronizing. Seriously, she could do better. Often she comes across an important clue or reaches an important conclusion JUST BEFORE Jimmy does.... but he finds out or is told by someone else before she can relay the information to him... so he just sort of verbally pats her on the head when she tells him and sends her away. Or worse, mocks her.
Marjorie.... you can do better than this.
The two of them have arranged to meet a Justice of the Peace at The Red River Tavern so they can marry, which happens to be where Miss Robloff is staying, along with a large and unlikely group of other suspects.
Suspects?
Yes, because they start dropping like flies pretty quickly, with many seemingly killed by a wild dog, or wolf, or something. And you've got the standard assortment of murder fodder, red herrings, and "colorful" characters to choose from. Miss Robloff and the other men are awaiting a mysterious final visitor, we have the endearingly grandmotherly tavern keeper Mrs Jamison and her wheelchair bound husband, you have the slow-witted handyman... you know the tropes.
And there are tropes a plenty. As the bodies pile up, we get storms, lights going out, cut phone lines, strange murder weapons, jewel smuggling, revenge, and some of the most hilariously over the top and outrageous plot elements you're likely to find. Seriously, the denoument of the film comes out of left field, and seems hysterically overcomplicated for its intentions... not to mention HIGHLY improbable, and our final murderer turns out to be the one person it really shouldn't have been... because they were on screen when several of the murders took place OFF screen.
Its NOT a great film, but it entertaining provided you expect NOTHING from it, and don't look too carefully at whats going on. Just enjoy the ride.
And the literal closing scene will make you want to punch Jimmy in the face again.... as when he and Marjorie FINALLY manage to get married, Jimmy will not even allow her to say her OWN "I do" AT HER OWN WEDDING.....
Marjorie, Marjorie.... you could have done so much better....
