A different way of telling a story

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.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

. . . concludes this Warner Bros. live action short (and America probably yawned, sighing, "What else is new?). "Callous" is the key word in THE WALL STREET MYSTERY. The two dead brokers were callous. The police are plenty callous about their demise. Their bookkeeper is callous, and their secretary is nonchalant. Doc Crabtree, Manhattan's amateur sleuth, is downright jocular about the whole affair. The two swindled Fat Cats are bitterly callous. This story is set in 1931, when America--at the onset of the "Great Depression"--was almost as bad off as it is today. Back then, the Middle Class had not yet been created by Labor Unions. (Today it's been all but eliminated by the "trade agreements" and "right to work" doublespeak edicts that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce bribed Repugs and Dems alike into imposing.) As the 1930s opened, the financial system was ruined by "buying short," and the crooked brokers dropped like flies from skyscraper windows. Now, "derivatives" and "pyramid schemes" have impoverished we 99%, as token One Per Centers such as the Madoff Clan kill themselves with ropes and guns (since the penthouse windows do not open any longer). In the 1930s, CEO's made 100 times a wage slave's pay. Now, it's a multiple of 500 times and up. The real puzzler is the fact that Americans still are allowing Wall Street to rig our Economy and get their jollies by conducting their Real Life PURGE and HUNGER GAMES in 2015 (as if no one remembers anything from the early 1900s): that's the true WALL STREET MYSTERY!

When John Hamilton as Inspector Carr arrives at a crime scene which is at a Wall Street brokerage house, literally, before he starts anything he calls in his medical examiner. Hamilton reacts huffily to the thought he can't work without him, but he says that Donald Meek as Dr. Crabtree is his good luck charm. Like Adrian Monk is Captain Stottlemyre's good luck charm.Remembering this is a short subject and we can't introduce a whole lot of potential suspects, still these guys are good, they solve cases while the crime scene is fresh. And in this one Meek makes a little side visit to the residence of one of the suspects.There are two victims here, partners in a brokerage house. There is as another reviewer mentions a nice little twist to the ending. I do like the chemistry between Hamilton and Meek. Once again S.S. Van Dine proves the authorities can solve crimes without the help of another of his characters, Philo Vance.

Another Vitaphone short with DONALD MEEK as the criminologist Dr. Crabtree working on a case with Inspector Carr (JOHN HAMILTON).Again, the solution comes out of nowhere and is one nobody could have expected given the small amount of clues involved. But not Dr. Crabtree. As he describes what really happened, we see the entire event in flashback as he convinces Inspector Carr that he is wrong about the identity of the real killer.These lifeless little shorts were an attempt to cram a decent mystery into seventeen minutes or so, meant to entertain audiences between showings of the feature films on the program.Today, they seem like no more than curiosity pieces.

Wall Street Mystery, The (1931) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Third film in the S.S. Van Dine series has a couple men murdered inside an office on Wall Street. Insp. Carr (John Hamilton) believes he has the case solved but Dr. Crabtree (Donald Meek) has a theory that might lead to a major twist. This is another pretty good entry in the series but I must admit that the way the mystery plays out is somewhat weak. The twist in the movie is downright great and you won't see it coming but at the same time you can't help but role you eyes and feel you've been cheated in some ways. The ending didn't make me mad and I did get a smile out of it but it pretty much comes out of no where. Hamilton plays his character a lot tougher than some of the future shorts that I've seen from the series. We also get a touch of humor thrown in with a joke about Sherlock Holmes as well as a black elevator man calling himself "Amos Andy", after the radio show of course.