The Sphinx [1933] (NTSC)

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-06-20 rating:
An amusing and fast-paced B-movie quickie; murder, mayhem and a sliding door in 63 minutes
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 proven 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. The release is watchable, but that's about it. There are no extras, and the six chapter stops are arbitrarily placed in the film. If you're fond of the old ones and if the price is right, the movie is worth getting.


review by: darkgenius date: 2005-12-31 rating:
A slightly hokey but very entertaining murder mystery
In most cases, stopping to ask a good fellow for a light and to inquire as to the time is not the best of strategies for a murderer leaving the scene of the crime. In The Sphinx, though, it offers said murderer an iron-clad alibi. When a prominent stockbroker is killed, a janitor named Luigi is right there in position to be the perfect witness. He swears in court that he recognizes the defendant and makes a big deal over the fact that the guy stopped to chat with him. It looks like a slam dunk case for the prosecution. There's just one teensy little problem, however - the defendant, Jerome Breen (Lionel Atwill), is a deaf-mute, as any physician can certify. The cops come off looking pretty foolish for putting the guy on trial, especially since Jerome Breen is well-known as an all-around great guy and true humanitarian. Almost no one believed he was capable of cold-blooded murder to begin with.

One man who does still suspect Breen is Jack Burton (Theodore Newton), a - you guessed it - crime reporter who fancies himself to be quite the detective. Despite the fact that he's rather pompous and undeniably annoying, the police chief keeps letting him horn in on the big cases, and he did as much as anyone to finger Breen from the start. What really drives him up the wall, though, is the fact that his would-be girl, society columnist Jerry Crane (Shelia Terry), thinks the world of Breen and makes regular visits to his home as she works on a series of favorable articles about him. I think any of us would be a little put out to see our girl making nice-nice with a guy we suspect to be a devious, cold-blooded killer. I know I would. Burton is determined to get to the truth, and he manages to get the local police to keep Breen on their radar screens.

The Sphinx is a classic 1930s whodunit. Jerry may be an independent woman pursuing her own career, but she's still just a dizzy "dame" to Burton and the cops. Burton is your prototypical journalist/investigator who thinks he knows more than the cops or anyone else. The cops themselves are great, especially Detective Terrence Aloysius Hogan (Paul Hurst), who is very much the Lestrade for Burton's Sherlock, an ambitious, publicity-seeking bungler who is only capable of solving a crime by stumbling over the crucial piece of evidence. He manages to close the film with a wonderful, "ah, that Hogan - you've gotta love him" - quip that single-handedly cemented a four-star review from this reviewer.

Egad, I've written all of this without yet mentioning Lionel Atwill's winning performance as Jerome Breen. Atwill was every bit the polished actor who turned in winning performances left and right, even in lesser-known films like this one from Monogram Pictures. Even though his character is a deaf-mute, he manages to command attention in every scene he's in, and he gives this somewhat hokey murder mystery a real aura of class and distinction.

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Classics
Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Crime, Thrillers & Mystery . All Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 0
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1939 and earlier
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . English

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