mark.waltz Review of The King Murder

The King Murder (1932)

Interest wanes fast in this real life Broadway scandal.

[4/10 · 24 August 2016]

Perhaps with a better script and a higher budget, this could have been a fun melodrama of how a blackmailed blackmailing chorus girl is bumped off and how her case progresses. Dorothy Reveier is only on screen for a few minutes as the victim, so there isn't enough time to set up interest in her story. She is described later in the film having been a little nobody when picked up and put in jewels and furs, the apparent cause of her turning bad. Several suspects come in and out of the story with little detail of what lead to them wanting her dead. Vampish Natalie Moorehead plays against type as a victim for a change rather than a calculating perpetrator of mischief. This creaks along with a lot of talk and long pauses in dialog which makes it on occasion unbearable. Conway Teale headlines as the detective. The conclusion and cause of the victim's death is pretty clever, but much of the remainder of the film lacks in interest.