Snappy 60 minute Clue Club mystery featuring blackmail and the elimination of the aristocratic Thatcher family. Based upon the 1932 novel of the same name by Mignon Good Eberhart, a nurse heroine is able to put together the pieces of a mystery that confound the local district attorney. Pretty difficult to keep up with myriad of clues and figure out "who done it" ahead of the nurse-detective who seems even "psychic" in her ability to divine the murderer. The movie title says it all -- the murderer is an aristocrat. It would have been nice for the property department to actually supply the cast with a revolver instead of an automatic -- but it really does not matter to the plot. In many Eberhart mysteries, Sarah Keate is the nurse-detective, but in Murder by an Aristocrat, the name used is Sally Keating. Directed by Frank McDonald. Cast includes Marguerite Churchill, John Eldredge, Lyle Talbot, Claire Dodd, Virginia Brissac, William Davidson. Orry-Kelley costume design. About as good as these 1930s-era formula mysteries get. Good viewing on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
10 Reviews
You need a rewind/forward button and a page of notes to figure this one out...
AlsExGal5 September 2016
... and even then, the nurse who figures out the murder mystery is doing everything by memory and even jumping to some wild conclusions. The guilty party would need a lawyer as bad as my sister's divorce attorney to allow the guilty party to confess, because there really is no solid evidence.
The set-up is this. Portly and distasteful Bayard Thatcher threatens the other Thatchers with exposure and scandal - there are many in this prominent family - if they do not give him 25K by the following night. Then he actually has the nerve to spend the night at the family mansion. An attempt is made on his life, but he survives, although for some reason he is never transferred to the hospital. The family tells the doctor that Bayard was shot cleaning his revolver, so the police are not called. Plus it turns out the D.A. is a Thatcher too. The gun is left behind and Bayard puts it under his pillow. Sometime during the night the gun is stolen. The next afternoon the job is finished, a bullet is shot through Bayard's heart except this time the gun is not left behind.
The only outsiders are Doctor Allen Carrick (Lyle Talbot) and the nurse that is assigned to watch over the patient, Sally Keating (Marguerite Churchill), also a love interest of Dr. Carrick. She is witness to lots of goings on, but I could never figure out how she could piece together what she saw - including a dog merely leaving the house - and spin it into a tale of murder and who the guilty party was.
This film is only one hour long and lots of fun with lots of action. And old Bayard is so unpleasant to everybody that just about anybody he speaks to, including the servants, could have done it. Watch and see if you can figure it out. It certainly is not boring and much better than the current mediocre rating implies.
The set-up is this. Portly and distasteful Bayard Thatcher threatens the other Thatchers with exposure and scandal - there are many in this prominent family - if they do not give him 25K by the following night. Then he actually has the nerve to spend the night at the family mansion. An attempt is made on his life, but he survives, although for some reason he is never transferred to the hospital. The family tells the doctor that Bayard was shot cleaning his revolver, so the police are not called. Plus it turns out the D.A. is a Thatcher too. The gun is left behind and Bayard puts it under his pillow. Sometime during the night the gun is stolen. The next afternoon the job is finished, a bullet is shot through Bayard's heart except this time the gun is not left behind.
The only outsiders are Doctor Allen Carrick (Lyle Talbot) and the nurse that is assigned to watch over the patient, Sally Keating (Marguerite Churchill), also a love interest of Dr. Carrick. She is witness to lots of goings on, but I could never figure out how she could piece together what she saw - including a dog merely leaving the house - and spin it into a tale of murder and who the guilty party was.
This film is only one hour long and lots of fun with lots of action. And old Bayard is so unpleasant to everybody that just about anybody he speaks to, including the servants, could have done it. Watch and see if you can figure it out. It certainly is not boring and much better than the current mediocre rating implies.
First-rate "B" thriller!
JohnHowardReid17 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Lyle Talbot (Dr Allen Carrick), Marguerite Churchill (Sally Keating), Claire Dodd (Janice Thatcher), John Eldredge (District Attorney Tweed), Bill Elliott (Dave Thatcher), Virginia Brissac (Adela Thatcher), William B. Davidson (Bayard Thatcher), Joseph Crehan (Hilary Thatcher), Florence Fair (Evelyn Thatcher), Stuart Holmes (Higby, the butler), Lottie Williams (Emeline), Mary Treen (Florrie), Henry Otho (Sheriff Whiting), Milton Kibbee (cab driver), Tom McGuire (Speers, the druggist).
Director: FRANK McDONALD. Screenplay: Roy Chanslor, Luci Ward. Based on the 1932 novel by Mignon G. Eberhart. Photography: Arthur L. Todd. Film editor: Louis Hesse. Art director: Hugh Reticker. Costumes designed by Orry-Kelly. Music: Bernhard Kaun. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Dialogue director: Irving Rapper. Assistant director: Wilbur McGaugh. Producer: Bryan Foy.
Copyright 15 June 1936 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 12 June 1936. Australian release: 5 August 1936. 7 reels. 60 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The black sheep of the Thatcher family is murdered, but all likely suspects have cast-iron alibis.
NOTES: Number three of the six-picture "Nurse Keating" series, all but the fourth released by Warner Bros from 1935 through 1938.
COMMENT: An odd series in that throughout its brief run of six pictures, the heroine was enacted by no less than five different actresses. Aline MacMahon played the nurse in the first entry, While the Patient Slept (1935); Kay Linaker essayed the role in the second, The Murder of Dr Harrigan (1936); Jane Darwell played Nurse Keating in the fourth, The Great Hospital Mystery (1937), for 20th Century-Fox; Anne Sheridan was cast in the fifth and sixth, The Patient in Room 18 and Mystery House (both 1938).
Although Marguerite Churchill is probably the least interesting of the five actresses involved, and Lyle Talbot is merely okay as the hero (he has little to do anyway), this third entry is a superior one. William B. Davidson has a sizable role for once and Bill Elliott gives a really fine performance in a character role. He obviously wasted his talent in the "Wild Bill" westerns, but nonetheless who wants to be a character actor when they can make the grade as a star? Here's a rare opportunity to see what Elliott could do with a really meaty role.
Other players are not as well served by the script, but all contribute to the success of the mystery which is not only well plotted, but fairly laid out so that we all of us have an equal chance to make the right deductions.
Unlike Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers did not always spend a great deal of money on their "B" product. If you are looking for rich production values, you'll not find them on display here. Nonetheless, the décor, the photography and other credits do serve the picture well enough.
Director: FRANK McDONALD. Screenplay: Roy Chanslor, Luci Ward. Based on the 1932 novel by Mignon G. Eberhart. Photography: Arthur L. Todd. Film editor: Louis Hesse. Art director: Hugh Reticker. Costumes designed by Orry-Kelly. Music: Bernhard Kaun. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Dialogue director: Irving Rapper. Assistant director: Wilbur McGaugh. Producer: Bryan Foy.
Copyright 15 June 1936 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 12 June 1936. Australian release: 5 August 1936. 7 reels. 60 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The black sheep of the Thatcher family is murdered, but all likely suspects have cast-iron alibis.
NOTES: Number three of the six-picture "Nurse Keating" series, all but the fourth released by Warner Bros from 1935 through 1938.
COMMENT: An odd series in that throughout its brief run of six pictures, the heroine was enacted by no less than five different actresses. Aline MacMahon played the nurse in the first entry, While the Patient Slept (1935); Kay Linaker essayed the role in the second, The Murder of Dr Harrigan (1936); Jane Darwell played Nurse Keating in the fourth, The Great Hospital Mystery (1937), for 20th Century-Fox; Anne Sheridan was cast in the fifth and sixth, The Patient in Room 18 and Mystery House (both 1938).
Although Marguerite Churchill is probably the least interesting of the five actresses involved, and Lyle Talbot is merely okay as the hero (he has little to do anyway), this third entry is a superior one. William B. Davidson has a sizable role for once and Bill Elliott gives a really fine performance in a character role. He obviously wasted his talent in the "Wild Bill" westerns, but nonetheless who wants to be a character actor when they can make the grade as a star? Here's a rare opportunity to see what Elliott could do with a really meaty role.
Other players are not as well served by the script, but all contribute to the success of the mystery which is not only well plotted, but fairly laid out so that we all of us have an equal chance to make the right deductions.
Unlike Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers did not always spend a great deal of money on their "B" product. If you are looking for rich production values, you'll not find them on display here. Nonetheless, the décor, the photography and other credits do serve the picture well enough.
Slick but fairly obvious whodunit
gridoon202430 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Of the three young actresses I've seen so far in the role of Sarah Keate / Sally Keating, Marguerite Churchill is my favorite (Kay Linaker and Ann Sheridan were the other two). She makes the most inquisitive and intelligent nurse, and she actually solves the case herself (of course this has more to do with the writers, who made the - amateur or professional - detective of the other films a man). This entire film is well-produced and very well-acted. There is just one small problem: the big mystery is quite obvious. Anybody who has seen more than five murder mysteries in his or her life will recognize the significance of the mail plane, and as soon as you've done that, you'll also know which of the suspects has a totally fake alibi. Any surprises in the film are minor - e.g., who moved the dead body from the study into the library. "Murder By An Aristocrat" is still worth seeing, but for a knockout surprise ending, search for "The Great Hospital Mystery" (which had an older Keate) instead. **1/2 out of 4.
Murder by an Aristocrat
coltras351 March 2023
Bayard Thatcher, the black sheep of a storied family, has announced that he will leave for good provided the others pay him $25,000. Unfortunately, they are not that liquid at the moment, due to lingering effects of the Great Depression. That night, Thatcher is shot in his bed but only wounded. As he recovers, his doctor and nurse try to discern his assailant's identity while also protecting him from any attempts to finish the job.
A familiar tale of a distasteful member of the family meeting his demise but not after a lot of set-up. The person who figures out the murder is Marguerite Churchill who plays a nurse, and the denouement was quite complicated- had to rewind a few times. My head was spinning, but it's an entertaining mystery that kept my interest.
A familiar tale of a distasteful member of the family meeting his demise but not after a lot of set-up. The person who figures out the murder is Marguerite Churchill who plays a nurse, and the denouement was quite complicated- had to rewind a few times. My head was spinning, but it's an entertaining mystery that kept my interest.
Enjoyable but familiar and a bit sloppy in spots.
planktonrules7 June 2021
Murder mystery B-movies are a dime a dozen, as they made a bazillion of them in the 1930s and 40s. Because of this, much of "Murder by an Aristocrat" seems very familiar...too familiar. Additionally, there are a few logical inconsistencies that spring up here and there during the story.
When the story begins, you learn that EVERYONE in this aristocratic family hates Bayard, the obvious rogue of the family. He apparently knows a lot of dirt on various family members and is not afraid to blackmail them. You'd think he'd learn his lesson when he is shot (but not killed), but Bayard is still looking to make a big clean up because of the secrets he knows. It's obvious some family member tried to kill him and you can only assume that they'll try it again.
The logical inconsistencies abound...such as WHY weren't the police called when the nurse caring for Bayard learns that his gunshot was NOT an accident and he was nearly murdered, why after the actual murderer is discovered that they let the person leave the room with no one following them to make sure they didn't try to escape or kill more folks! There are a few more instances like this, though I must admit that the film STILL manages to entertain.
When the story begins, you learn that EVERYONE in this aristocratic family hates Bayard, the obvious rogue of the family. He apparently knows a lot of dirt on various family members and is not afraid to blackmail them. You'd think he'd learn his lesson when he is shot (but not killed), but Bayard is still looking to make a big clean up because of the secrets he knows. It's obvious some family member tried to kill him and you can only assume that they'll try it again.
The logical inconsistencies abound...such as WHY weren't the police called when the nurse caring for Bayard learns that his gunshot was NOT an accident and he was nearly murdered, why after the actual murderer is discovered that they let the person leave the room with no one following them to make sure they didn't try to escape or kill more folks! There are a few more instances like this, though I must admit that the film STILL manages to entertain.
The only thing more dangerous than a Rich Dude . . .
oscaralbert20 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
. . . is a house full of the Filthy Rich, warn the always eponymous Warner Bros. With MURDER BY AN ARISTOCRAT. The prophetic prognosticators of Warner use ARISTOCRAT to document how the Corrupt Capitalist Corporate Communist Cabal is rigged to concentrate wealth in the grasping greedy paws of a few drug-addicted bankers and blackmailers, acting in cahoots with "law men." The Warner seers show viewers how these resource hoarders are demonically possessed, frittering away their days upon idle pursuits while contributing absolutely nothing to the Good of Society. Warner suggests that unless they redistribute their ill-gotten loot back to the Common Man, these malingering miscreant money misers will soon meet their doom along the lines of the three Thatchers shown crossing the River Styx into Hades here.
Fall From Grace
boblipton3 June 2021
William B. Davidson is blackmailing his aristocratic family: $25,000 before the next evening or he opens the closet to show all the skeletons. There's an accident with a gun, and nurse Marguerite Churchill is brought in to see to him. He appears to be getting fine, and Miss Churchill overhears the rest of the family agreeing how to raise the cash. The next afternoon, she is sitting on the lawn, when Davidson is shot and killed, with no one to do it, and no gunshot!
It's a nice little locked-room mystery from a Mignon Eberhart story, and under B director Frank MacDonald, it comes in at precisely one hour, giving the audience little time to think out the mystery. Everyone in the household has a reason to want Davidson dead, and no one has the opportunity. Yet there he is.
It's a nice little locked-room mystery from a Mignon Eberhart story, and under B director Frank MacDonald, it comes in at precisely one hour, giving the audience little time to think out the mystery. Everyone in the household has a reason to want Davidson dead, and no one has the opportunity. Yet there he is.
It's the set-up for a shoot-down.
mark.waltz1 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
No, the shoot down is not in regards to this film. What is here is a fine, basically trim and neat hour long murder mystery where the villain is instantly set up in the show's first scene, the black sheep of a wealthy family attacking their clan and going after the cash with the delightful gusto of a great melodramatic villain. He's William B. Davidson, a punch in the gut rogue who has more fun telling his family how much he hates them even more than he will at accepting what he hopes will be the grand prize. When one of the family fakes concern for him by asking if there's anything he can do for him, Davidson basically tells him to fall down the flight of stairs and break their neck. The fact that he's recovering from a gunshot to the gut shows that he hasn't learned a lesson. The writers keep this hateful but funny schemer around longer than usual, so when the ultimate predictable murder does occur, the audience is grateful that it took a while for it to happen and that the pathway to doom was indeed a long but memorable one.
The real mystery isn't who has already shot him or who will ultimately do him in. That is pretty obvious. What isn't obvious is how it will be solved and the clues that lead the solver to the revelation of the perpetrator. Yes, the solver is not a detective or a cop, and even without the presence of some dumb flatfoot, the way they solve it is most ingenious. Police do show up, but they are pretty much an afterthought to the presence of nurse Marguerite Churchill who realizes that this case is none like any other she has been in on. For one thing, the patient really doesn't act like they are in need of care (even though with a bullet to the belly they obviously do), and everybody in the house seems about as worried as they would be watching a cat chase after a mouse. Lyle Talbot gets top billing as Davidson's doctor and Marguerite Churchill's love interest, but he really has nothing to do.
In solid support of Churchill and Davidson is Virginia Brissac as the fragile but mentally sound family matriarch who knows she's surrounded by a family of greedy hanger-ons including a drug addicted son and assorted greedy in-laws. Then, there's Lottie Williams as the deaf as a post housekeeper demanding that doctor and nurse stay out of the huge mansions' private office and maid Mary Treen who keeps screaming about how the cards indicated that there would be death at Thatcher house and blames it all on the nurse. The Warner Brothers mysteries, between the Perry Masons, Crime Clubs and the various individual programmers, are a mixed bag, and while this is not a classic, there are some interesting twists and turns which make this better than average.
The real mystery isn't who has already shot him or who will ultimately do him in. That is pretty obvious. What isn't obvious is how it will be solved and the clues that lead the solver to the revelation of the perpetrator. Yes, the solver is not a detective or a cop, and even without the presence of some dumb flatfoot, the way they solve it is most ingenious. Police do show up, but they are pretty much an afterthought to the presence of nurse Marguerite Churchill who realizes that this case is none like any other she has been in on. For one thing, the patient really doesn't act like they are in need of care (even though with a bullet to the belly they obviously do), and everybody in the house seems about as worried as they would be watching a cat chase after a mouse. Lyle Talbot gets top billing as Davidson's doctor and Marguerite Churchill's love interest, but he really has nothing to do.
In solid support of Churchill and Davidson is Virginia Brissac as the fragile but mentally sound family matriarch who knows she's surrounded by a family of greedy hanger-ons including a drug addicted son and assorted greedy in-laws. Then, there's Lottie Williams as the deaf as a post housekeeper demanding that doctor and nurse stay out of the huge mansions' private office and maid Mary Treen who keeps screaming about how the cards indicated that there would be death at Thatcher house and blames it all on the nurse. The Warner Brothers mysteries, between the Perry Masons, Crime Clubs and the various individual programmers, are a mixed bag, and while this is not a classic, there are some interesting twists and turns which make this better than average.
This movie illustrates the severe danger of house parties . . .
cricket3020 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
. . . being held when there is only one shooting iron to go around. A foolhardy reliance on a single Peacemaker to pacify all the inevitable warring factions, especially when family reunion-type dynamics are involved such as here at Thatcher House in MURDER BY AN ARISTOCRAT, is simply asking for trouble, this film shows. When you have a gun for every purse, suitcase, dresser drawer and closet, polite discourse necessarily becomes the norm. No one's going to get out of line, knowing that if they do a bullet could sever their spine. After enjoying ARISTOCRAT's lessons, remember to support your local chapter of BANGS (Broke Americans Need Gun Stamps) for those of us who are NOT aristocrats!
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