Murder by Invitation

Rating:
Summary: Murder by Invitation
Review: The young 'uns try to convince the court that Aunt Cassie (Sarah Padden) is mentally incompetent so they can get their greedy paws on her $3 million. They fail, and Aunt Cassie invites them to her estate so that she can "study them like rats" and see who deserves to inherit her fortune.
They get there, promptly at midnight, and soon begin dropping like ten pins.
MURDER BY INVITATION is NOT a neglected gem. It's a so-so quickie ripoff of THE CAT AND THE CANARY, which preceded this one by a couple of years and provided Bob Hope with his breakthrough movie, although instead of Hope and Paulette Goddard this one stars Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh.
Ford plays a columnist who somehow rates a walking secretary and a photographer. The movie is filled with sliding cabinets and bookcases set on lazy susans and dead bodies falling out of closets. None of it makes much sense, but the cast seems to be having a good time and it's all over in a little over an hour. And it comes as quite a surprise when we learn who's been killing everybody. Not because of a neat plot twist, but because the movie doesn't bother developing our suspicion in any of the characters.
MURDER BY INVITATION is fun in spots, but it's best to keep your expectations really really low.

Rating:
Summary: Murder by Invitation
Review: The young `uns try to convince the court that Aunt Cassie (Sarah Padden) is mentally incompetent so they can get their greedy paws on her $3 million. They fail, and Aunt Cassie invites them to her estate so that she can "study them like rats" and see who deserves to inherit her fortune.
They get there, promptly at midnight, and soon begin dropping like ten pins.
MURDER BY INVITATION is NOT a neglected gem. It's a so-so quickie ripoff of THE CAT AND THE CANARY, which preceded this one by a couple of years and provided Bob Hope with his breakthrough movie, although instead of Hope and Paulette Goddard this one stars Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh.
Ford plays a columnist who somehow rates a walking secretary and a photographer. The movie is filled with sliding cabinets and bookcases set on lazy susans and dead bodies falling out of closets. None of it makes much sense, but the cast seems to be having a good time and it's all over in a little over an hour. And it comes as quite a surprise when we learn who's been killing everybody. Not because of a neat plot twist, but because the movie doesn't bother developing our suspicion in any of the characters.
MURDER BY INVITATION is fun in spots, but it's best to keep your expectations really really low.

Rating:
Summary: A Mongogram Old Dark House Style Thriller
Review: This is an Old Dark House film in the style of Cat and the Canary. Of course being a monogram film its nowhere near that quality but it still does a pretty good job. It stars Wallace Ford of Mummy movie fame as reporter Bob White and Marian Marsh as Nora O' Brien, his girlfriend.

A rich, eccentric old lady has gathered her no-good relatives to her creepy estate, to tell them how she's distributing the money in her will. Before you know it, the relatives are being bumped off by a hooded maniac! Who's the knife-wielding madman? Ford and Marsh attempt to find out.

This is a full-fledged old dark house horror chiller with all the trimmings: a mysterious hooded killer, secret panels, screams in the night, faces leering in windows, sinister shadows, etc. Some chills mixed with a few laughs. One only wishes Boris or Bela were in it to lend it a bit of sinister star power.