a5c7b9f00b Vacationing Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt (Adolph Menjou) slips out of News York City and picks a small New York state town for his rest and recreation (with Miss Kelly (Ruthelma Stevens) his secretary, in case he needs someone to take a note or make coffee. He soon becomes involved in murder and mayhem when a travelling circus comes to town and the circus queen, Josie La Tour (Greta Nissen) slips from a trapeze-perch when someone shoots a poisoned arrow in her back. Who plugged Josie La Tour? Eliminate Miss Kelly only. Suave, lip-reading DA Thatcher Colt plans to get away from the big city for a while. So he and his secretary, Miss Kelly hop on a train for an Upstate NY town called Gilead. They expect a calm oasis, but when a small time circus rolls into town they soon find themselves caught up in a sordid tale of marital infidelity, murder, cruelty to animals, and cannibalism. This is a highly entertaining B mystery movie. While a ton of these type of movies were made in the 1930s and 40s, this one is a bit different. First, Adolph Menjou who plays the lead is nothing like the typical leading man in such films. Like he usually was, he&#39;s debonair and exudes class–and is so different from folks like Charlie Chan and Sherlock Holmes and the Falcon. And, he also happens to be a cop on vacation who walks into the middle of crimes–not the typical &quot;dopey cop&quot; you&#39;d find in many Bs (especially the Boston Blackie films). Watching Menjou was always a pleasure and this film is no exception. An additional factor that made the film more entertaining was its begin set at a circus. There&#39;s a part of most viewers that is excited in seeing high wire acts, clowns and the like. And finally, it&#39;s interesting because the killer is just plain bonkers–and quite entertaining.<br/><br/>Well written and acted, this film is well worth seeing if, like me, you love B-movies. While not a great film, it is among the better examples of the genre. New York police commissioner Adolph Menjou heads out of town for a rest, and gets involved in the goings on behind a traveling circus. Spooky Dwight Frye (of &quot;Dracula&quot; fame) is the demented husband of carnival circus queen Greta Nissen, and is so insanely jealous of her and her obvious lover (Donald Cook) that he sets up a devious plan to knock all of them off (including himself!). Menjou and his pretty assistant Ruthelma Stevens must prevent Frye from going through with his evil plot, which includes cannibals, a chirping gorilla and Nissen&#39;s beloved dog. This is not really a mystery, since it is obvious from the start who the villain is, but simply a decent thriller of how Menjou deduces how to stop the killer from striking again. It is excellently photographed and moves along quickly enough to make it better than it could have been. Columbia pictures at this time was only noted for Frank Capra&#39;s &quot;A&quot; budget films, but occasionally, a nice surprise like this one comes along. Fortunately, some of them are cropping up at film festivals or revival houses (like New York&#39;s Film Forum or L.A.&#39;s Nuart), and now on TCM. Menjou and Frye get the acting honors here, and Nissen&#39;s character is slightly reminiscent of Olga Baclanova&#39;s character in the earlier &quot;Freaks&quot;. In fact, there are a few interesting similarities between this film and &quot;Freaks&quot;, although there are none of the supposedly &quot;grotestque&quot; characters here that &quot;Freaks&quot; stunned 1932 film-goers with. Frye, of course, does menacing very well, and evena cop, Menjou is still the elegant man about town. Keep an eye on the gorilla that Menjou observes screeching at him. It appears to be a plot development that somehow was deleted before the final print that made me think that one of the characters was somehow stuffed into a gorilla suit and was screaming &quot;help me!&quot; to get Menjou&#39;s attention.
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