The Crooked Circle (1932)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

As Good As It Gets

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

An early, inexpensive programmer involving death threats against the leader of a club that devotes itself to solving crimes. That's all it does. It solves crimes. The death threats come from a hooded gang of ritualists who commit evil acts. That's all they do. Commit evil acts.I imagine that in 1932 this was an entertaining hour spent at the local Biograph but more than eighty years later it seems pointless. It's presented as a comic mystery -- secret identities, hidden passages, a haunted mansion on Long Island -- but the mystery isn't really gripping and the comedy seems stale.James Gleason, playing James Gleason, is a police officer who sees something suspicious and blows his police whistle. Another officer runs up and asks if there's something going on. "Naw -- I was just tunin' up the cement," replies Gleason with incandescent sarcasm.Really, if you miss it, you won't be missing much.

The Crooked Circle is a crime organization that meets in a dark room. All the members wear hoods. The group has one female member. They do not like the Sphinx Club, which is a local amateur crime fighting organization that is adding one new member because of the retirement of another. --Okay, if that makes sense so far then the rest of the film will, too.Over in the old dark house, Zasu Pitts is spooked from the first moment we see her, and that's before the real action of The Crooked Circle has even started. Soon police officer James Gleason arrives, and Zasu spends the remainder of the picture clinging to various pieces of his uniform, much to his annoyance. They make a cute couple.Other club members—who all end up assembled at the house, of course—include Berton Churchill as a jovial host who thinks it's amusing that the Circle has vowed to kill him; Rosco Karns, who manages a few wisecracks; and C. Henry Gordon as "Yoganda," a mystic of sorts who has just joined the group, claims to have insight to future events, and may or may not be an infiltrator from the other side. Ben Lyon and Irene Purcell are the obligatory handsome young couple who are both—in different ways—deeply involved in the case.It's totally silly, but plenty of fun.

James Gleason and Zasu Pitts, first introduced in "Oh Yeah" (1929), were reunited for "The Crooked Circle". Tough no nonsense Gleason and fluttering, daffy Pitts - completely opposite in temperament but together they work wonders. This little movie also boasts a superlative cast with Ben Lyon (equally at home in As and programmers) and Irene Purcell, who had just been the leading lady in Paramount's "Million Dollar Legs" (everyone was a winner in that movie)!! Combining a mixture of gags, frights and plenty of action (director H. Bruce Humberstone had tried it before in his directorial debut, "Strangers of the Evening" and found it worked) this is about the goings on of a criminal secret society called "The Crooked Circle", who meet at an old mansion called "Melody Manor"!!Brand Osbourne (Ben Lyon) is resigning from the Sphinx Club at the urging of his new love, Thelma (Irene Purcell). The Sphinx Club is an amateur band of crime fighters whose aim is to try to expose The Crooked Circle members. Colonel Wolters (Berton Churchill) has just received a death threat and Yoganda (C. Henry Gordon), a new member, suggests they all spend the night guarding him. The film really picks up the pace when the Sphinx members arrive at Melody Manor - clocks strike 13, tables move, pianos play ghostly music, - even weird old men come knocking at the door in the middle of the night with gifts of tomatoes!!!! It also gives Zasu Pitts, as Nora, the frightened housekeeper, a chance to bring out her bag of tricks - fluttering hands, whiney voice. James Gleason plays Crimmer, a cranky, bumbling motorcycle cop who is called to the "old dark house" to investigate Wolter's murder (it looks as though he wasn't guarded enough)!!!! Brand also has to contend with a stranger breaking into his apartment and his butler taking the stranger's side when the police are called. He meets the stranger (Robert Frazer) again at Melody Manor and also has suspicions about Yoganda and Thelma!!!Apart from Robert Frazer, who was such a success in "White Zombie" there were a few stars of the silent screen with roles in this movie. Ethel Clayton was a Lubin star from 1912 until the company folded in 1916 but she never stopped working - even if it was only in roles like Yvonne. Paul Panzer, who had terrorized Pearl White in "The Perils of Pauline" - was a member of the Circle.Recommended.

If you've never experienced the thing that is Zasu Pitts, here is a Zasu zinger! In 1933 Mae Questel caricatured Pitt's voice for the character Olive Oyl for the Fleischer Studios animated cartoon version of the comic strip Popeye. Zasu (pronounced Zay-Sue) does her best "Olive Oyl" impersonation walking around whining and ringing her hands or attaching herself to the policeman's laynard. I kept waiting for her to say "ohhh myyyy", but instead it's "something always happens to somebody." The first time I saw this film I loved Zasu and found her character really funny. I've since seen her in other films where she does this same whining, uptight, fragile-flower routine. So, upon watching this film again I started getting a little annoyed with the constant whining and near hysteria over a piece of dust. But, there are some funny comedy bits here, and it's also a mystery movie as well. It's an interesting mix of mystery and comedy that actually works. The mystery plot holds together well through the camp of Zasu Pitts and James Gleason who plays Arthur Crimmer the policeman. The haunted House is fun with many a secret passage and even a skeleton in the attic! Well worth the watch. Read more public domain movie reviews at: http://pdmoviereview.blogspot.com/