Green Eyes (1934)

Cast:

Shirley Grey is Jean Kester
Charles Starrett is Michael Tracy
Claude Gillingwater is Steven Kester
John Wray is Inspector Crofton

What the IMDB says:

The owner of a large mansion in the country throws a costume party for some of his friends. However, the party turns sour when he is found stabbed to death in a closet. The police and a guest try to discover who committed the murder.

Plot:

At a mansion costume party, folk are searching around and find the owner, Stephen Kessler(millionaire), dead. A couple, Jean Kessler(granddaughter) and her boyfriend head out after cutting the house telephone wires and severing everyone else's transmission wires before leaving. The cops catch them and bring them back.

The police detectives start questioning everyone in the mansion from the employees to all the guests. Michael Tracy, the mystery writer, is doing the typical intellectually superior investigator attitude about Kessler and Jean's alibi.

Flashback shows Stephen cutting Jean's credit accounts because she's not falling his orders to his perfect degree. He even calls the family attorney to cut her from the will...But that happens before the murder...

The cops continue questioning Jean and everyone else in the house.

That night, Jean, Michael, and Hall are snacking...Later, they hear a shot and find Hall dead...

The next day, Michael heads to town and researches Kessler's recent stock investments. Jean receives a late letter from Hall, who was a mining engineer, in love with Jean's mother, Sylvia, who's husband died. Apparently, Kessler killed his daughter. Hall wanted to get revenge on Kessler. However, someone got to Kessler before Hall.

Michael questions the accountant, Prichart, about Kessler's stock. Apparently, Prichart has been embezzling to finance his wife on top of everything...

Michael tries to explain his plan to the police who ignore it...That night, Prichart tries to stab Michael who catches him and makes him confess for Kessler's murder. In the morning, the cops find Prichart and his wife dead.

Michael watches Jean and her boyfriend drive off to get married...He starts writing this story as the credits roll.

What I say:

The mystery writer is more the gumshoe detective trying to solve the case than the police. These detective movies always tend to make the gumshoe swimming all over the case avoiding the incompetent police who can't see the evidence. Plenty of mysteries only tend to have 1 person who has a thought in their head and looks down on everyone else. Current day, this is almost a mishmash of Castle and Mentalist stories.

Normally, the director only gets mentioned in this area if he's directed some of the big-named movies. Well, Richard Thorp directed several of the Johnny Weisemuller Tarzan movies: Tarzan Escapes, Tarzan Finds a Son, Tarzan's New York Adventure, and Tarzan's Secret Treasure. From those movies and Green Eyes to even Elvis in the 1950s Jailhouse Rock, that's quite a range...

This is almost like a play with the murder mystery in a mansion. That kind of story could almost be solved as generically with main characters as Perry Mason, Charlie Chan, Thin Man, etc...The letter explaining the Kesslers is almost as convoluted and hard to follow as the explanation of a Scooby Doo episode... "It was old man, Terrwilliger, scaring everyone around so he could find the pirate treasure..."

Quotable Dialogue
"After all, death isn't so terrible to the one it strikes. It's those of us who live on, safe and protected in body and spirit who suffer. Don't you think? "
"I'm afraid he's dead."
"Well, I'll be dog-gonned!"
"This is no book murder."
"I won't have trash like them mollycoddling around you!"
Morals of the Story
Police love to question suspects without mentioning Miranda rights
Mutton and rice pudding are the perfect midnight snacks.
Blood seems to be easier for police to find here than in a C.S.I. episode.