This film gets my award for worst soundtrack in film history. I honestly feel that using no music at all would have been an improvement. Heck, just playing a baby crying throughout the film might just have been an improvement!! Instead of an orchestra, the cheapskates that made this film used an organ. While this is bad, I've heard this in a few other ultra-low budget films. But here it is so much worse because the music is so invasive--rarely silent, often ridiculously out of sync with the action and occasionally combined with moaning singers! In some ways, it was like old-time radio music for a drama or soap opera--but even worse!
Since this was a very, very low budget film, rotten music isn't the only problem. The biggest is the inclusion of Sid Melton--the king of irrelevant low-budget "comic relief" stars. He appeared in tons of low-budget films for such forgettable studios as PRC and Lippert. The problem is that Sid (most famous for playing "Alf Monroe" on GREEN ACRES) just wasn't funny--in fact, like the music he was distracting whenever he appeared--which was too often. I really liked it when Lyle Talbot called him "a brilliant idiot"--my sentiments exactly! What maniac thought a murder mystery needed comic relief?!? That's like giving a fish a bicycle!
Sid wasn't the only bad actor in the film. While a few did good jobs, many couldn't remember their lines or spoke over others as they gave their lines. However, my favorite part of the film is the "exciting confrontation scene" near the end. The acting was terrible but the best part was when the bad guy got shot. Instead of falling normally, he took a step and threw himself forward to go out the window--a completely unnatural and silly reaction indeed! He was apparently standing in the wrong place and instead of re-shooting it to get it right, you see an incredibly dumb death!
As for the plot, that really isn't bad at all--despite the rest of the film being so terrible. A man is easily convicted of murder because of fingerprint evidence. The convicted man's fiancée just can't believe he did it and convinces the state's expert to re-examine the evidence. At first he's not convinced--after all, you can't fake prints...or can you?!
Despite this being such a compelling plot and having occasionally decent acting, the film cannot be recommended because the music is that bad, some of the actors were very poor and Sid Melton is pretty much detestable--as he often was in these low budget films (though I liked him on GREEN ACRES). As a result, these factors manage to ruin the basis for what could have been a pretty fair movie.
Incidentally, if you look close at the radio at the 40 minute mark, it says "Packard Bell". I had no idea this company had been around this long or that they made anything other than cheap computers. Apparently they've been around since 1926.
Since this was a very, very low budget film, rotten music isn't the only problem. The biggest is the inclusion of Sid Melton--the king of irrelevant low-budget "comic relief" stars. He appeared in tons of low-budget films for such forgettable studios as PRC and Lippert. The problem is that Sid (most famous for playing "Alf Monroe" on GREEN ACRES) just wasn't funny--in fact, like the music he was distracting whenever he appeared--which was too often. I really liked it when Lyle Talbot called him "a brilliant idiot"--my sentiments exactly! What maniac thought a murder mystery needed comic relief?!? That's like giving a fish a bicycle!
Sid wasn't the only bad actor in the film. While a few did good jobs, many couldn't remember their lines or spoke over others as they gave their lines. However, my favorite part of the film is the "exciting confrontation scene" near the end. The acting was terrible but the best part was when the bad guy got shot. Instead of falling normally, he took a step and threw himself forward to go out the window--a completely unnatural and silly reaction indeed! He was apparently standing in the wrong place and instead of re-shooting it to get it right, you see an incredibly dumb death!
As for the plot, that really isn't bad at all--despite the rest of the film being so terrible. A man is easily convicted of murder because of fingerprint evidence. The convicted man's fiancée just can't believe he did it and convinces the state's expert to re-examine the evidence. At first he's not convinced--after all, you can't fake prints...or can you?!
Despite this being such a compelling plot and having occasionally decent acting, the film cannot be recommended because the music is that bad, some of the actors were very poor and Sid Melton is pretty much detestable--as he often was in these low budget films (though I liked him on GREEN ACRES). As a result, these factors manage to ruin the basis for what could have been a pretty fair movie.
Incidentally, if you look close at the radio at the 40 minute mark, it says "Packard Bell". I had no idea this company had been around this long or that they made anything other than cheap computers. Apparently they've been around since 1926.