Murder by Television (1935)

I came here after watching Bowery At Midnight and being thoroughly entertained, I wanted to know what else I missed from Lugosi after all these years of the standard 30 or so of his films that are wildly known of. I also didn't want to watch something too good in case I wanted to watch something with my wife later, so Murder By Television was chosen as my next film to watch. It's readily available online along with 90% of Lugosi's films since those are public domain material. I'm surprised at all the positive reviews as this is one of his worst films I've ever watched. I guess those are from die hard Lugosi fans? It's not that Lugosi is all that bad, although his accent is horribly thick in this one and he's supposed to be playing a federal agent, yeah OK, but the rest of the cast is horrendous. What really struck me was that for a film made in 1935 it really plays like a film from 1929 or 30. I know it's only a difference of 5 or 6 years but the quality of the film products greatly improved in that time frame even for poverty row productions, just not here. I was thinking it was made earlier and not released until 1935 but Hattie McDaniel dates it to around 1935 I guess. BTW, her role is terrible as a stereotype black maid, oh my god, this film is bad all around, with one exception; it shows actual television equipment from the 30's! So if you are a tech geek into that it's worth viewing for that. I don't think the actual television pictures are real but I'm pretty sure the camera with the rotating sphere is as I read that was one of the methods used to achieve a frame rate. The trivia on this film says it is real equipment from the University of Los Angeles and worth twice the price of the film's cost! Watch it to see Lugosi I guess and for the very early Television equipment and expect to be underwhelmed by the rest. BTW, what was the running gag about the guy who kept getting thrown out? I never caught the punchline to that and the guy was in at least 3 scenes! I was thinking he was a reporter but there had to be some kind of punch line there that is gone from the prints available, although as bad as this film is even with it's jokes maybe that was the only joke. 2 stars (out of 10) for the TV history alone. Ranks as one of my least favorite Lugosi films along with Vampire Over London (1952) which is also unwatchable after 1 time. The Ed Wood Lugosi stuff is much better then this, that's how bad we are talking.

Bela Lugosi appeared in two films in the Thirties where television was an important element of the plot. One was the fabulous International House produced by Paramount, one of the great fantasy films of all time let alone that decade. At the time television was in an experimental stage and you could fantasize about it. The second was Murder By Television made for a fly by night Poverty Row outfit called Cameo Pictures. It was a bit more serious and not quite as good. In fact the lion's share of its failure might well be the editing. Some seven minutes were left out of the version I saw which seems to be what's out there. Not that the story was all that intelligible to begin with. Bela is one of several suspects in the death of an inventor who was making an experimental broadcast. The only other name people will recognize out of this cast will be Hattie McDaniel, playing what else, a maid.Bela was on the road to Ed Woodom with this film.

Bela usually gave so much more of himself than the script required. That's what made him so good. I laughed at one of the reviewers comments "Bela would appear in anything - as long as the cheque cleared". That's why I like Bela - he gave his all - from the most prestigious A film to the worst poverty row production. It also gave him the chance to play a diversity of roles - it was only later in his career that bad health and the need for money made him accept parts that were lampoons of his horror roles. Early in his career he alternated between chillers and quite normal people (the head of a film studio in "The Death Kiss" (1932), a really excellent programmer).Houghland (Charles Hill Mailes) has been offered $5 million for the rights to his invention - a television station that can pick up transmissions from all over the world - but he refuses!! Richard Grayson (George Meeker) fiancée of June Houghland (June Collyer) is asked to keep a lookout for trouble. Arthur Perry ???(Bela Lugosi) has been bribed with a fee of $100,000, to be the man on the inside and to try to find out Houghland's secret television blueprint. Houghland is preparing to give a short wave presentation. Just before it begins he is threatened by a shifty looking foreigner - Mendoza (Larry Francis), who threatens that if Houghland is not going to sell his invention the demonstration should not go ahead. It does go ahead - with a pretty boring song "I Had the Right Idea" - then Houghland gives a speech and shows that the demonstration is being shown similtaneously in Paris, London and China - then tragedy strikes as Houghland is killed via the television!!! The suspects are rounded up, suddenly everyone has a motive for killing the guy - the investigation is hampered by a Chinese houseboy, Charlie Chan's number one fan, and Isabella the maid (Hattie McDaniell). Perry is then found murdered, but June is convinced, along with Isabella that she had just seen Perry. She has - it seems the man who was murdered was Perry's twin but was using his name falsely. The real Arthur Perry is an F.B.I. agent and has an explanation for everything that has gone on. There are flashbacks used as Perry explains everything. It was hard to figure out which was the twin (you realized they were twins very early on, at the news-stand) as they both had to act suspiciously.Claire MacDowall look very good as Mrs. Houghland. She had been in films from the earliest days and was a Griffith actress. This was one of June Collyer's last films. She was one of the most beautiful ingenues and had a career that began in 1927 with such prestigious films as "Four Sons" and "Me, Gangster".

Although the crime feature "Murder By Television" has a couple of good points, it is really only fair (at best) overall. Bela Lugosi makes the best of a somewhat atypical role for him, and at times the thoughts and speculations about early television are of some interest. Otherwise, the production, the characters, and most of the cast are all nondescript. The story just never fits together very well, and it also never really hits full gear.Lugosi plays the assistant to an inventor who is supposed to have pioneered a form of early television that is full of valuable possibilities. The invention is coveted by a number of outside interests, and the murder mystery that results is caught up with the intrigue surrounding the invention. It sounds like an intriguing setup, and it could have been, but the script doesn't make very good use of it. Both the dialogue and the story could easily have been much better.Lugosi adds presence to any role, and his is easily the most interesting of the characters for that reason, but he is still limited by the material. Besides Lugosi, the most talented performer in the cast is Hattie McDaniel, and she also is severely limited by her character, who is there only to provide some slight comic relief, which comes at the unfortunate character's expense.This won't have any appeal at all for anyone who is not a fan of its genre, and even for those of us who usually enjoy these old B-features regardless of their quality, it is, unfortunately, only barely worth watching.