Dreadfully Boring

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Blistering performances.

It's rather easy for a contemporary viewer to spot the killer early in "The Studio Murder Mystery" (it practically uses the same gimmick as the even earlier Philo Vance cinematic debut "The Canary Murder Case", also made by Paramount and also with Eugene Palette in the cast, in the same role with a different name). But the movie is still fun to watch, especially for buffs of the genre who want to see it taking its first baby steps. Frank Tuttle (who also directed some Philo Vance films) was a director who adapted quickly to the new "talkie" era, and employed the advances of the medium (flashbacks, close-ups, etc.). The film does not feel very static. Also of interest is the presence of Warner Oland, who is excellent in an early, pre-Charlie Chan role. **1/2 out of 4.

It's easy to rip apart films like "The Studio Murder Mystery". After all, the sound isn't very good, the sound effects are pretty crappy, there's no incidental music and the acting is occasionally a bit stilted. However, you need to cut the film a bit of slack because all these problems are true of just about every film from 1929! After all, sound was a new thing for films and learning to effectively use it was still being worked out properly. For example, they still didn't know how to add music to films other than having an orchestra just out of camera range playing the music as they filmed it! And, often actors tended to stay in small areas because microphones had difficulty picking up folks otherwise! So, be prepared...it's going to be tough going with this picture.The picture itself is only fair even if you excuse its technical shortcomings. The murder victim is VERY easy to determine and all the stuff in between this and the capture of the killer is pretty dull. There are only two unusual things about the film. One is that a character is convicted of the murder and sent to prison...and the real killer is only discovered later. Another is that the cast is really interesting--with Warner Oland (who also played Charlie Chan throughout the 1930s), Neil Hamilton (quite the matinée idol in his day) and a very young Frederic March. Apart from that, it's slow going and clichéd.Normally, I'd give this one a 2 but due to the date in which it was made, I'll kick in another point due to the shabby production values of ALL 1929 flicks!

I happen to see this film on YouTube in 11 segments which made watching it easier. It is in bad need of restoration and the fact that it is Fredric March's third film might get it restored.It's an early talkie and it is complete with all the problems that those films had. March who was one of many stage trained players with good speaking voices who came to Hollywood with the popularity of talking pictures. March seemed to know what to do and the film's other players also were not playing for the galleries like they would on stage. The problem with the film is that it has too much talk. It's as if Paramount said, we know have sound, let there be dialog. And there is dialog with no trace of subtlety at all.March who is fourth billed in the cast plays a no good womanizing actor who regularly two times his wife and in this case his real life spouse Florence Eldridge makes her first joint appearance on film with her husband. She's one of many suspects that include Doris Hill a young starlet he's been stringing along, her brother Gardner James, her father Guy Oliver, and a director Warner Oland whose wife March had also been playing around with. Not until he played Marcus Hubbard in Another Part Of The Forest would March play this slimy a character on screen.Also on the suspect list is Neil Hamilton who's a gag writer at the studio and has as fresh a mouth you would hear this side of James Cagney. He and investigating detective Eugene Palette who has a most stupid looking mustache are oil and water from the beginning. Hamilton keeps throwing zingers at Palette and he earns his way on the suspect list for that alone. If I had some good ideas about solving the murder I wouldn't antagonize the investigating detective. Truth be told Palette is no dumber than he is playing Sergeant Heath in the Philo Vance films and William Powell worked well with him.But as luck would have it Hamilton solves the crime by coming up with some background information on one of the suspects. In that he frees another who was tried and convicted.There is a nice look at Paramount studios at the beginning of the sound era in The Studio Murder Mystery. In a few years once the technical and script problems for sound were licked this might have been a better picture.

By 1929 a lot of the public were getting sick of talking pictures that seemed to do nothing but talk! But a year bought big changes and the difference between "The Studio Murder Mystery", a static, no action talkie made in June and "Darkened Rooms", an interesting movie about spiritualism made in November was immense. Neil Hamilton, interestingly, was in both and far less annoying in the latter.This must have been the prototype for all those murder mysteries set in film studios, featuring annoying heroes that seem to know more than the police (I'm thinking of 1932s "The Death Kiss"). Neil Hamilton, in 1929, was to Paramount what Conrad Nagel was to MGM, played irritating gag writer Tony White and definitely made you wish that he had been "bumped off" instead of Richard Hardell!! It did get a glowing, big star review from "Photoplay", that was because the story was taken from one of the magazine's fictional stories that they occasionally featured.Borka (Warner Oland) regrets giving the part of the hero in his new talkie to Richard Hardell (Fredric March) - he thinks he has no talent!! The role was part of the prize in a New Talent Competition that Hardell, a rich womanizer, has just won. Even though Hardell is married it doesn't stop him playing around with every girl at the studio - including Borka's wife, who dies with Dick's name on her lips. When Dick is found dead it seems everyone at the studio has a motive. There is Dick's wife Blanche, who is fed up with his cheating ways (Florence Eldridge was March's real life wife). Helen MacDonald (Doris Hill) who loves Dick madly but is finally convinced of his wandering ways by his wife, Helen's father and brother who want to protect her and of course Borka. When Helen's father dies from the same poison that Helen had bought for herself (she was going to end it all) and just as he was about to shed light on the killer - things look grim for her.The best thing about the film is the fascinating, behind the scenes look at Paramount. The "film within a film" (with an unbilled Phillips Holmes in the lead as a soldier) was a silent but would have been released with dialogue sequences or syncronization - in 1929 silents were long gone. In "The Studio Murder Mystery" there is a lot of clustering - microphones were still stationary and being hidden in vases and table arrangements. Doris Hill may have been a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1929 but in this movie she was swamped by more talented players - before the year was out she was a definite supporting player in "Darkened Rooms" and by 1930 she was being starred in the genre that every young actress dreads - the Western!!Mischa Auer, who is remembered for his screwball comedy in "My Man Godfrey" had an unbilled bit as an assistant. Lane Chandler, who at one stage was a challenger to Gary Cooper's Western crown had an unbilled bit as Bill Martin. Eugene Palette, who was also in "My Man Godfrey" played Detective Dirk and the butt of White's jokes.Recommended.