Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Diagonaldi Very well executed

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

artpf While filming the closing scene of "The Death Kiss", leading man Myles Brent is actually killed. Having played around with, or been married to, most of the women connected with the movie studio, there are lots of suspects. When leading lady Marcia Lane is arrested for the killing, her suiter, a studio writer, starts to investigate the killing in order to prove her innocence. The 30's and early 40s had a slew of these kind of dark mysterious drawing room dramas made in Hollywood. Many shorts in this genre were made as well. Not sure why. The genre is still popular in theatre of in the UK so maybe that's where it started.Anyway, this is not a half bad movie. It's a bit slow, but they all are and for a poverty row flick it's quite watchable. Three of the actors from Dracula are re-united. Guess their careers took a quick down turn after Dracula.

dougdoepke So who fiddled with the props. Heart-throb actor Brent was only supposed to get shot with blanks. But now he lies on the sound stage floor, deader than the proverbial doornail.As a whodunit, the movie's only moderately interesting. As a peek inside a filming crew, the movie's fascinating. But as a subtext of studio politics, the movie's a subtle insider glimpse. To me, the film's highpoint comes when the studio head Grossmith stumbles for words for the press, only to be interrupted by his flowery pr man who dishes out the pr pablum in high-falutin' style. I'm wondering how much of that is aimed at the relatively uneducated likes of Louis B. Mayer at MGM or Jack Warner at Warner Bros. Then too, note how the real crime-solving sleuth is not an executive type, but a screenwriter (Manners) instead. Now how do you suppose that decision ended up in the script. Sometimes being a lowly screenwriter has its hidden perks.Anyway, it's certainly different to catch Lugosi not making a meal out of somebody's neck. Still, I kept wanting to tell people not to stand too close. Then there' s the luscious Adrienne Ames (Marcia) who can go toe-to-toe with any Hollywood beauty of that day or this. Too bad she died so young. And, of course, there's Manners who started out as annoyingly smug when outsmarting the coppers. I'm glad he eased eventually into someone more likable.All in all, the movie's worth catching up with for its insider look at movie-making, 1930's style.

Case Even though this early talkie has its flaws it is still an above average little mystery, where the strong points are the interesting supporting characters and the great script. The story opens with a bang... and a pretty interesting gimmick: a well-dressed gentleman in a top hat is shot to death on the street, right at front of his hotel, but we quickly learn that he is just an actor and it all happened on-set. However just as the director asks for a retake, telling the actor to die in a less theatrical way, they realize to their horror that he is really dead.So, the story kicks in pretty quick and keeps up the pace all the way. The police gets on the scene fast, but of course it is not them who really takes the case in their hands, but one of the writers working for the studio, who also happens to be the boyfriend of the lead actress, who in turn happens to be one of the main suspects.At first they have to figure out if it was just an accident or the actor was deliberately murdered (guess which one!) and then the hunt for the killer begins with a lot of suspects, action, misleading clues scattered around and with one plot twist after the other. The film keeps you guessing until the end, the murders are committed in pretty clever ways and the overall great story is only marred a bit by the totally careless handling of important evidence both by the police and our hero.Who is also a bit of a problem: his character is quite antipathetic, together with the lead actress, however the supporting cast makes up for their shortcomings. The producer who keeps on complaining about the loss the whole case causes him, the sullen police inspector and the studio's own clumsy little officer are probably the highlights, but the rest of the characters are quite great as well, while the film's movie studio background gives us a pretty interesting behind-the-scenes look. And at last, even if just as a minor character, we can see Bela Lugosi, back in his days when he was still getting roles in non-horror movies.I only picked this movie randomly from a big stack of old mysteries I got from archive.org recently (as this one is in public domain), but it turned out to be a quite pleasant surprise and a film that can be recommended for anyone, not just die hard murder mystery fans.

bkoganbing David Manners, Edward Van Sloan, and Bela Lugosi all from the cast of Dracula and the first two from the cast of The Mummy reunite for this film from Tiffany Studios The Death Kiss. They are in order a screenwriter, a director, and a studio manager and there's been a murder of one of their stars on a set.Quite a spectacular killing it was too. The studio's leading star is killed with a real bullet while they're shooting gangland style hit on the sound stage. Suspicion points to Adrienne Ames the leading lady who also happens to be the former wife of the deceased.There's yet another murder done by someone who discovers the original killer. Manners who does write mystery type screenplays as his living does his own investigation and does a great job of constantly showing up the real police detective John Wray. Manners has an ulterior motive, he kind of likes Ames himself. For a kind of authority Manners makes as his sidekick the studio rent a cop, Vince Barnett who provides a few laughs with his fumbling character. But with Manners they do get the last laugh on the cops.As for the killer the motive is the oldest one there is, jealousy as the deceased had his share of groupies, some of them married to other folks.The Death Kiss besides being the title of this film is also the title of the film being shot when the homicide takes place. This is not a bad film though the casting does give away who the killer is.