Murder! (1930)

A juror in a murder trial, after voting to convict, has second thoughts and begins to investigate on his own before the execution.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Clemence Dane (from: "Enter Sir John"), Helen Simpson (from: "Enter Sir John"),

Stars:

Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring, Phyllis Konstam

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Herbert Marshall	...	Sir John Menier
Norah Baring	...	Diana Baring
Phyllis Konstam	...	Doucie Markham
Edward Chapman	...	Ted Markham
Miles Mander	...	Gordon Druce
Esme Percy	...	Handel Fane
Donald Calthrop	...	Ion Stewart
Esme V. Chaplin	...	Prosecuting Counsel
Amy Brandon Thomas	...	Defending Counsel (as Amy Brandon-Thomas)
Joynson Powell	...	Judge
S.J. Warmington	...	Bennett
Marie Wright	...	Miss Mitcham
Hannah Jones	...	Mrs. Didsome
Una O'Connor	...	Mrs. Grogram
R.E. Jeffrey	...	Foreman of the Jury

Storyline

The police find the actress, Diana Baring, near the body of her friend. All the circumstantial proofs seems to point to her and, at the end of the trial, she is condemned. Sir John Menier, a jury member, suspects Diana's boyfriend, who works as an acrobat wearing a dresses.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | theater | actress | actor | jury | 

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 November 1930 (USA)

Also Known As:

A gyilkos

Filming Locations:

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British International Pictures (BIP)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 100 min (TCM print: British)

Sound Mix:

Mono (R.C.A. Photo Phone)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the first movie where a person's thoughts are presented on the soundtrack of the film.

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Goofs

During Handel Fane's interview with Sir John, Fane's cigarette reappears in his hand after he has put it out, and then disappears.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Old Woman: People ought to be ashamed of themselves, kicking up all that racket at this time of night.

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Connections

Spoofed in Elstree Calling (1930)

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Soundtracks

"Prelude"
(1865) (uncredited)
from "Tristan und Isolde"
Music by Richard Wagner
Heard on the radio

User Reviews

"We use life to create art and art to criticise life"

This was only Hitchcock's second talkie, and ought to have been part of an awkward transition phase. Instead, it's one of his better pictures from the period, as experimental as his first sound feature, Blackmail, and further cementing his style as a master of the crime genre.

Unusually for Hitchcock, it also happens to be a whodunit. Typically his stories reveal the culprit straight away, and the suspense is created from wondering when and how they are going to strike. However, Murder! still more or less fits that Hitchcock pattern. We never really get too drawn in to any kind of mystery – when the murderer is revealed it seems merely incidental to the main plot. Hitchcock instead focuses more on one of his most prolific motifs – the wrong man, or in this case wrong woman.

As in Blackmail, Hitchcock embraces sound wholeheartedly, not to mention inventively. Murder! is known for containing the first ever use of a voice-over giving us a character's inner monologue. I'm much more impressed though by the end of the jury room scene, where we hear the jury's verdict read out off screen, while the camera remains in the jury room, now empty except for an elderly official clearing away the paperwork – it adds incredible weight to the moment.

Speaking of the camera, the movement of it in this picture is incredibly fluid in this supposed era of the static camera. A good example – and one very typical of Hitchcock – is towards the beginning, when the camera literally discovers the crime scene, panning from one startled face to another, finally settling on the body itself. Another scene of great quality is Sir John's prison interview with Diana Baring, which makes excellent use of framing and editing in a confined space. The expressionist, melodramatic finale, which was by now becoming a Hitchcock standard, is one of his best from this period, helped along by a brooding musical score.

Murder! however suffers from the same problem as a great deal of early Hitchcock features. Although it is well directed and highly innovative, it is rather weak as far as story and structure go. Some parts drag unnecessarily, the characters are either stereotypes or totally bland, and many of the dialogue scenes are just badly written. The jury scene, which today seems like a miniature prototype of Twelve Angry Men, is too full of clichés and psychobabble. Still, it holds up well when considered with all Hitchcock's British pictures, some of which are terrible, and it's an essential point in the development of his more domestic murder-orientated thrillers, which he would not really return to until his arrival in Hollywood.