Coming almost directly out of the silent era, "Murder at Midnight" might be said to suffer from one of the common complaints of early talkies - the picture more closely resembles a stage play put to film, with the actors and actresses over-enunciating and abruptly deliberate in their mannerism and speech. Getting beyond that though, you have an entertaining mystery given the era, with dead bodies piling up at a rapid pace. I thought it was interesting that when Inspector Taylor (Robert Elliott) first arrived at the Kennedy home, he wanted to see the two corpses - the phone call to the police station tipped him. But the second murder was committed while he was there! Very clever!
By the time it's all over, the body count hits a rather high count of five, and all from within the same house! The picture uses the old lights out trick, the black gloved hand coming in from off screen, and a couple instances of phone lines being cut, which was a bit of a puzzler, since a phone is still operative near the end of the story. I couldn't help thinking that Charlie Chan might be just around the corner to lend a hand in solving the mystery; he might have done it without pretty maid Mille (Alice White) and butler Lawrence (Brandon Hurst) being dispatched - I was sad to see them both go.
The biggest surprise though was the revelation of the killer - It's the only time in a movie I've seen where the murderer gives himself away by killing himself!!! Pretty neat wrap up for the Inspector who earned his pay in this one, while his inept subordinate couldn't stop eating peanuts!
By the time it's all over, the body count hits a rather high count of five, and all from within the same house! The picture uses the old lights out trick, the black gloved hand coming in from off screen, and a couple instances of phone lines being cut, which was a bit of a puzzler, since a phone is still operative near the end of the story. I couldn't help thinking that Charlie Chan might be just around the corner to lend a hand in solving the mystery; he might have done it without pretty maid Mille (Alice White) and butler Lawrence (Brandon Hurst) being dispatched - I was sad to see them both go.
The biggest surprise though was the revelation of the killer - It's the only time in a movie I've seen where the murderer gives himself away by killing himself!!! Pretty neat wrap up for the Inspector who earned his pay in this one, while his inept subordinate couldn't stop eating peanuts!