The Crooked Circle (1932)

Great Film overall

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

An early, inexpensive programmer involving death threats against the leader of a club that devotes itself to solving crimes. That's all it does. It solves crimes. The death threats come from a hooded gang of ritualists who commit evil acts. That's all they do. Commit evil acts.I imagine that in 1932 this was an entertaining hour spent at the local Biograph but more than eighty years later it seems pointless. It's presented as a comic mystery -- secret identities, hidden passages, a haunted mansion on Long Island -- but the mystery isn't really gripping and the comedy seems stale.James Gleason, playing James Gleason, is a police officer who sees something suspicious and blows his police whistle. Another officer runs up and asks if there's something going on. "Naw -- I was just tunin' up the cement," replies Gleason with incandescent sarcasm.Really, if you miss it, you won't be missing much.

Apparently, one reviewer didn't read the earlier reviews before writing his entry. As other reviewers pointed out, Zasu Pitts didn't talk like Olive Oyl - Olive Oyl's voice was modeled on hers! This was a comedy/mystery, and Zasu Pitts was one of the most popular comediennes of her time. She was a star of silent films, and her voice and manners transferred successfully to the talkies, where she was a big star, and favorite of audiences. Her 'whining' was her shtick, and audiences loved her for it.The role played by Zasu Pitts in this, and many other films, is actually almost identical to the one played by Stepin Fetchit and Mantan Moreland. Zasu is a whimpering, cowardly fool - played for obvious comic relief. Of course, she was a white woman, so no one mentions the obvious connection. If she had played Charlie Chan's maid, she would have fit right into the Birmingham Brown role.The plot in this film is clunky, and the acting a bit stiff and caricatured, but it was made in 1932, and they were still trying to figure out how to make talkies. Watched with that in mind, The Crooked Circle is quite enjoyable.*** After over a year, and with a second viewing, I'm back to add a few comments. It's interesting that even at the very beginning of the old dark house genre, humor was already an essential part of the mix. One might think that the setting would have featured horror/mystery films, but Hollywood had already figured out that to sell a film to the largest audience possible, it was best to mix genre elements. Thus, we get a murder mystery set in a semi-Gothic atmosphere, with more than one comic relief character. This film did have the other common element, an attractive young couple in the romantic role, but that element played only a small role here. If it was a murder mystery without the old dark house, they might have added a musical number as well. Something for the boys, the men, and the ladies and girls, all in one. Personally, I find the humor far overdone here, and would much prefer a straight Gothic thriller, but I've learned to get along with the humor over time. The policeman-as-fool was played rather hard here, the price you have to pay to get the rest of the story. I still give this a six out of ten on second viewing, but I can see where audiences would have enjoyed it at the time.

James Gleason and Zasu Pitts, first introduced in "Oh Yeah" (1929), were reunited for "The Crooked Circle". Tough no nonsense Gleason and fluttering, daffy Pitts - completely opposite in temperament but together they work wonders. This little movie also boasts a superlative cast with Ben Lyon (equally at home in As and programmers) and Irene Purcell, who had just been the leading lady in Paramount's "Million Dollar Legs" (everyone was a winner in that movie)!! Combining a mixture of gags, frights and plenty of action (director H. Bruce Humberstone had tried it before in his directorial debut, "Strangers of the Evening" and found it worked) this is about the goings on of a criminal secret society called "The Crooked Circle", who meet at an old mansion called "Melody Manor"!!Brand Osbourne (Ben Lyon) is resigning from the Sphinx Club at the urging of his new love, Thelma (Irene Purcell). The Sphinx Club is an amateur band of crime fighters whose aim is to try to expose The Crooked Circle members. Colonel Wolters (Berton Churchill) has just received a death threat and Yoganda (C. Henry Gordon), a new member, suggests they all spend the night guarding him. The film really picks up the pace when the Sphinx members arrive at Melody Manor - clocks strike 13, tables move, pianos play ghostly music, - even weird old men come knocking at the door in the middle of the night with gifts of tomatoes!!!! It also gives Zasu Pitts, as Nora, the frightened housekeeper, a chance to bring out her bag of tricks - fluttering hands, whiney voice. James Gleason plays Crimmer, a cranky, bumbling motorcycle cop who is called to the "old dark house" to investigate Wolter's murder (it looks as though he wasn't guarded enough)!!!! Brand also has to contend with a stranger breaking into his apartment and his butler taking the stranger's side when the police are called. He meets the stranger (Robert Frazer) again at Melody Manor and also has suspicions about Yoganda and Thelma!!!Apart from Robert Frazer, who was such a success in "White Zombie" there were a few stars of the silent screen with roles in this movie. Ethel Clayton was a Lubin star from 1912 until the company folded in 1916 but she never stopped working - even if it was only in roles like Yvonne. Paul Panzer, who had terrorized Pearl White in "The Perils of Pauline" - was a member of the Circle.Recommended.

If you've never experienced the thing that is Zasu Pitts, here is a Zasu zinger! In 1933 Mae Questel caricatured Pitt's voice for the character Olive Oyl for the Fleischer Studios animated cartoon version of the comic strip Popeye. Zasu (pronounced Zay-Sue) does her best "Olive Oyl" impersonation walking around whining and ringing her hands or attaching herself to the policeman's laynard. I kept waiting for her to say "ohhh myyyy", but instead it's "something always happens to somebody." The first time I saw this film I loved Zasu and found her character really funny. I've since seen her in other films where she does this same whining, uptight, fragile-flower routine. So, upon watching this film again I started getting a little annoyed with the constant whining and near hysteria over a piece of dust. But, there are some funny comedy bits here, and it's also a mystery movie as well. It's an interesting mix of mystery and comedy that actually works. The mystery plot holds together well through the camp of Zasu Pitts and James Gleason who plays Arthur Crimmer the policeman. The haunted House is fun with many a secret passage and even a skeleton in the attic! Well worth the watch. Read more public domain movie reviews at: http://pdmoviereview.blogspot.com/