Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

classicsoncall If you're scoring this one on the basis of what came out of the early talkie era, then it's actually pretty good. Lionel Atwill does double duty in the picture as millionaire socialite Jerome Breen and his deaf mute brother. About half way into the picture with the dead bodies piling up, I had a sneaky suspicion that the film makers were going to pull this ruse to make the story seem plausible, but having the 'hidden' Breen sibling pop up every time the secret door was opened was just a little too obvious, not to mention hokey. I realize these Poverty Row productions couldn't keep you guessing for much more than an hour, so I guess they did the best they could here.You know what seemed really dumb to me? Near the end of the story, when reporter Burton (Theodore Newton), and Detective Casey (what? - that was Gabby Hayes!!) hear Burton's gal Jerry (Sheila Terry) scream for help inside the Breen mansion, they make a mad dash for the entrance, and then wind up knocking on the door!! What?!?! If you're a fan of these old time mysteries, you'll note a couple of elements that would wind up being repeated in subsequent films. For example, Charlie Chan used a coin toss to test the hearing of a supposedly deaf person more than once, in "Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise" (1940), and later on in "Dark Alibi" (1946). There was also a variation of the poison ring gimmick in the 1945 flick "The Shanghai Cobra". I'm sure there are other films that recycle similar gimmicks like this, but these are the ones that readily come to mind. Oh, and by the way, the cruise director in that Chan movie I just mentioned - it was Lionel Atwill!

gridoon2018 This one is watchable, helped by a surprisingly good DVD print, but nothing special. Its plot really has only one ace up its sleeve, which, by the way, Leonard Maltin stupidly reveals in his capsule review (this entry has been taken out of the new editions, but if by any chance you have an older one, beware!). And the only directorial touches of style are the occasional "wipes" in transitions between scenes. There is also some amusing comic relief from an Italian janitor who was the only witness to the first murder, and a vaguely Hitchcockian bit involving a piano, but despite all that "The Sphinx" can only be recommended to the completists of the crime genre. ** out of 4.

Terrell-4 If someone asks you, "Do you happen to have the correct time?," you can be sure that, as soon as he leaves, you'll find around the corner, or in the next office, or in an upstairs bedroom, a corpse...brutally strangled. The problem is, the person who asked you the time is a deaf mute. A serial killer has been prowling Gotham knocking off stockbrokers, and in the 63 minutes it takes to tell this story three deaths will occur, not counting the three that happened earlier. The suspect is Jerome Breen (Lionel Atwill), a wealthy stockbroker and a respected philanthropist. Witnesses swear he was the man who at each killing asked them the time. Yet doctors testify that Breen has been a deaf mute from birth, with a paralyzed larynx which is proved to be caused by a genetic defect. The cops can't lay a hand on him. Jack Berton (Theodore Newton), a hot-shot reporter, is determined to crack the case. Things get complicated when his girl friend at the paper, Jerry Crane (Sheila Terry), decides to write a series on Breen's life and good works. It's not long before she finds she likes Breen a lot...and he's showing interest in her. The climax comes with a twist and a feint, and involves Breen's ornate and lavish home, a piano with a deadened key, a sliding door, a hidden room, a suspicious butler, gun play and a poison ring. What more could you want in little more than an hour? Not much more, I hope, because this is a fine example of a cheap B movie that delivers the goods. Yes, the two romantic leads are a bit clunky, but the secondary cast features amusing performances, especially by Detective Terence Aloysius Hogan (Paul Hurst) and Jinks the butler (Lucien Privet). Lionel Atwill as the deaf mute is who the movie is all about and he does a fine job. He has a well-modulated voice, acts stylishly in a tux or a smoking jacket and uses his eyes to great effect. He was an actor whose eyes could look as crazy as George Zucco's; here he uses them to convey many kinds of emotion. Atwill's career was often in B movies with an occasional part in A-level films. I've always thought he was an interesting actor who usually kept the ham under wraps. He also could be funny by playing with a straight face. Watch him in Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be or as the police chief in Son of Frankenstein who uses his wooden arm as a place to stick his darts. Mel Brooks owes him one. The Sphinx is dated, but it still works fairly well. I think this is because many, perhaps most, of these B quickies weren't the work of artists or even craftsmen. They were the work of skilled journeymen who knew how to crank out the product while making sure the story was interesting, the dialogue was smart enough to keep us paying attention and the action kept us moving along. Think of these men and women as carpenters who knew how to throw together a solid table that could bear weight, not wobble and do it on time and under budget, The Sphinx, like so many of these old cheapies, is in the public domain and will never see better treatment than what they've already received.

jcholguin Lionel Atwill plays Jerome Breen which has a near perfect alibi because as he strangles people he talks to whomever is available immediately after the murder scene to set up his alibi. It seems that Breen is the city philanthropist that is also "deaf & dumb." A string of murders involving stock brokers is unsolved and Insp. Riley cannot solve the murders. A witness talks to Breen as he leaves his latest victim which leads to the murder trial of Breen. Problem is that the witness testifies that Breen talked to him but all the medical doctors that examine Breen testify that Breen cannot physically talk. So Breen is acquitted. Riley discovers a clue as to how Breen can be medically "deaf & dumb" but still talk and pays with his life for this discovery. The clue turns out to be a logical but unexpected one. So if you like puzzles then you will enjoy this film.