Footsteps in the Dark (1941)

Purely Joyful Movie!

hyped garbage

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Associate producer: Robert Lord. Executive producer: Hal B. Wallis. Copyright 8 March 1941 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. A Warner Brothers-First National picture. New York opening at the Strand: 14 March 1941. U.S. release: 8 March 1941. Australian release: 12 June 1941. 10 reels. 8,699 feet. 96 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A mystery comedy of manners featuring a socialite who writes detective novels (under an assumed name) without the knowledge of his wife and more importantly, his mother-in-law.COMMENT: Errol Flynn made only four comedies in his entire movie career. This is the third—and a delightfully amusing, thoroughly entertaining and utterly enjoyable outing it is too! Although the comedy is fast and furious, the situations become so believable, the mystery itself turns into a fascinatingly suspenseful exercise. All the players approach their roles with exactly the right injections of carefree enthusiasm. Flynn is rippingly debonair. His scenes with waspish Lucile Watson (whom he was to battle again in his fourth and final comedy, "Never Say Goodbye") are laced with diverting barbs which he delivers (and avoids) with charming ease. Also good to see the alluring Brenda Marshall (actually more colorful and picturesque here than in her previous Flynn vehicle, The Sea Hawk), plus the ever-loyal Allen Jenkins. Co-star Ralph Bellamy, as always, provides some of the movie's principal pleasures. The script also provides delicious encounters with other appealing players, including Lee Patrick, Alan Hale, William Frawley, Grant Mitchell and sneeringly sinister Turhan Bey (whom we find so much more adept as a slippery villain than a cut-price romantic lead). Hard to believe that Lloyd Bacon is the director responsible for this vigorous ensemble playing. He also keeps the plot snapping along at scintillating speed, expertly making the most of the film's marvelous production values. In short, "Footsteps in the Dark" comes across as a most agreeably acted, lightly humorous, tongue-in-cheek, impeccably mounted entertainment dessert.

. . . for an hour and a half during FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK. This flick is structured pretty much as a spoof of THE MALTESE FALCON, but short-sighted set decorators forgot to include an iconic prop which could be auctioned off for millions 75 years later. No harm done, since if you pro-rate the enduring entertainment value of FOOTSTEPS against that of FALCON, a hypothetical objective correlative for FOOTSTEPS might go for about 59 cents at the final gavel at Bonham's today. Mr. Flynn looks somewhat lost without his sword, and one glance at co-star Brenda Marshall is enough to see why the prop people "kept it real" by placing her and husband DON JUAN in twin beds. It's too bad Lucile Watson, who plays Flynn's live-in mother-in-law Agatha, wasn't around to take a similar role in TV's BEWITCHED a couple decades later--Ms. Watson makes a far better nag than Agnes Moorehead. Maybe you can only get away with James Cagney's grapefruit scene once in Tinsel Town, but Flynn Coulda-been-a-contender for PUBLIC ENEMY, JUNIOR, if he'd ad-libbed a Double Grapefruit during FOOTSTEP's breakfast episode.

Footsteps in the Dark is the title of a mystery novel that investment banker Errol Flynn wrote under a pseudonym that has become a best seller. Unfortunately he used as characters some of his wife Brenda Marshall and mother-in-law Lucille Watson's society friends and they'd like to sue the author if they can find him.Errol while trying to see they don't find out what his double life is gets himself involved in another murder of Noel Madison who wanted Flynn to essentially launder the money from some stolen jewels in his banker self. Flynn spends over 90 minutes struggling to keep his identities secret from those who know him in one guise or the other and solve the mystery at the same time. The only two who know about his masquerade are his chauffeur Allen Jenkins and his lawyer Grant Mitchell.Flynn had a very good gift for comedy, he had already done The Perfect Specimen and Four's A Crowd and had gotten good reviews. Footsteps in the Dark was an effort by Warner Brothers to cash in on the popularity and success MGM was enjoying with The Thin Man series. Flynn and Marshall were good together though there was no further sequels.Best in the film by far is William Frawley as one truly dumb detective that even his superior Alan Hale is frustrated with. Flynn bounces some great lines off Frawley.It's a different Errol Flynn than normal and not a bad one.

A foolish and somewhat tiresome script about an aspiring novelist who moonlights as a crime-solving detective in his spare time. It's painful to watch an able cast of actors cope with this nonsense. Flynn wanted to play something other than swashbuckling roles so the studio gave in. Unfortunately, his feeble attempts at comedy are not a pleasure to watch. Later in his career he did manage to develop a style for this kind of farce--but not here. The wasted cast includes Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale and Lee Patrick. It has a few halfway interesting moments but not enough to sustain a running time of 96 minutes. Only Ralph Bellamy manages to inject some dry humor into his role as a dentist--but Flynn throughout appears more foolish than funny. Watch at your own risk.