With some of the best opening credits ever seen on film, this spooky looking but amusing and funny mystery is a quick glimpse into the world of a mind reader/fortune teller (Akim Tamiroff as the titled character) and is highly recommended. It starts off with a darkly lit mind-reading act by Tamiroff where bride to be Marian Marsh finds out that her wedding to be will not be to which true love John Trent begins to applaud, putting him on the top of the suspect list when Marsh's fiancée Ronald Drew is found dead in his apartment. While all of the suspects are questioned, Tamiroff arrives as the man who predicted the wedding would not go off, and everything the detectives try to do is turned upside down.
William Demarest is very funny as the grumpy head detective on the case, telling underling Edward Brophy, "I hope one day on a case we don't find your finger prints on everything". Tamiroff pretty much takes over the case, proving the detective to be total fools, as well as some of the others present. "You don't look as foolish as you are", Reginald Denny (as Marsh's father) tells his Billie Burke like second wife Genevieve Tobin who expresses herself with one stupid statement after another. In fact, Demarest indicates his frustration with the case by saying, "This is beginning to look like a job for a mind reader", forgetting that he's in the presence of one.
While a series of "Great Gambini" films seems like it would have been successful, unfortunately, only one was made, and it is quite good, with an unforgettable performance by the unique Tamiroff. Superb photography makes this appear to be almost a horror movie, and I was very surprised to find out that Tamiroff never starred in one. He has a very unforgettable profile and certainly could have been a rival to both Karloff and Lugosi. Others in the cast get great dialog, and the rapport between Demarest and Brophy (towards each other and the other suspects) is very funny. "If you're going to insult me, you've got to do it in English!", Brophy tells Tamiroff's assistant as she screams at him in Russian. Another great little find in the historical vaults of Hollywood cinema!
William Demarest is very funny as the grumpy head detective on the case, telling underling Edward Brophy, "I hope one day on a case we don't find your finger prints on everything". Tamiroff pretty much takes over the case, proving the detective to be total fools, as well as some of the others present. "You don't look as foolish as you are", Reginald Denny (as Marsh's father) tells his Billie Burke like second wife Genevieve Tobin who expresses herself with one stupid statement after another. In fact, Demarest indicates his frustration with the case by saying, "This is beginning to look like a job for a mind reader", forgetting that he's in the presence of one.
While a series of "Great Gambini" films seems like it would have been successful, unfortunately, only one was made, and it is quite good, with an unforgettable performance by the unique Tamiroff. Superb photography makes this appear to be almost a horror movie, and I was very surprised to find out that Tamiroff never starred in one. He has a very unforgettable profile and certainly could have been a rival to both Karloff and Lugosi. Others in the cast get great dialog, and the rapport between Demarest and Brophy (towards each other and the other suspects) is very funny. "If you're going to insult me, you've got to do it in English!", Brophy tells Tamiroff's assistant as she screams at him in Russian. Another great little find in the historical vaults of Hollywood cinema!