Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Show Biz? It's Murder!, Part 1 of 3

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

Show Biz? It's Murder!

Part 1 of 3

Ah, show biz. It's a hard life. Between the casting calls and the casting couches? Why, it's enough to drive anyone to... murder!

Today, we start a three part series all about the potential toil, trouble and terror faced by those in the cutthroat industry we all know and love: Show Biz!

Some of these are based on actual murder cases, while in others... the leads simply wanted to kill each other.

Let's not waste another blood curdling scream, and dive right into this spine tingling edition of Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies.

Careful not to choke on your popcorn, kiddies!

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The Black Camel

(1931)

The unsolved murder of a Hollywood actor several years earlier and an enigmatic psychic are key to helping Detective Charlie Chan solve the Honolulu stabbing death of a beautiful actress. An alluring movie actress is being wooed by a wealthy young man while filming in Honolulu, but refuses to marry him without consulting a famed psychic. Instead of validating the star's romance, the psychic confronts her about the unsolved murder of a fellow film star three years earlier. Distraught, the film star no sooner rejects her lover's marriage proposal, then she is found shot to death in her beach-front pavilion! But don't worry... Detective Charlie Chan is on the case.

Based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Earl Derr Biggers, this pre-code mystery was directed by Hamilton MacFadden and stars Warner Oland, Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, and Dorothy Revier.

This is the  second of three Chans directed by Hamilton MacFadden. McFadden began directing a fourth - Charlie Chan in Paris (1935), but was terminated after a week on set.

Of the five Charlie Chan films based on the original Earl Derr Biggers novels starring Warner Oland  as the fabled detective, only this one survives. The other four are believed to have been lost in one of two fires; one in the 1930s and the other in the 1960s.

Much of the picture was shot on location in Honolulu, with several scenes filmed at the renowned Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The opening beach scene was filmed at Kailua Beach.

The unsolved murder of the Hollywood actor, which is an important plot point, was inspired by the unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor in 1922.

Co-star Bela Lugosi became a star courtesy of the film Dracula, released during the same year this film was released.

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This film marked the screen debut of Robert Young.

You can watch this one for free on YouTube!

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Another Face

(1935)

AKA: It Happened In Hollywood

On the run from the New York police on a murder charge, a notorious gangster undergoes plastic surgery to change his appearance, and then takes up residence in Hollywood. Posing as millionaire playboy, the criminal manages to snag a part as a gangster in a movie. The studio's ambitious publicity director decides to make a star out of  him, not realizing who he's dealing with. Needless to say, complications ensue.

This film noir was directed by Christy Cabanne and stars Wallace Ford, Brian Donlevy and Phyllis Brooks.

Wallace Ford became a successful Broadway performer during the Roaring Twenties, appearing in multiple stage productions, including the lead role in the Broadway smash hit Abie's Irish Rose.

In motion pictures, he made his debut with Possessed in 1931, appearing with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. The next year he was given the lead in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Freaks, directed by Tod Browning. Ford went on to have an extensive 30-year career, appearing in more than 150 films, with lead roles during the 1930s and '40s in Hollywood B movies.

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The Preview Murder Mystery

(1936)

At an internationally renowned movie studio, a prestige production is currently being filmed, a musical remake of the silent classic Song of the Toreador. Rumor has it that the film will make a star out of its leading man, just as it did for the leading man of the original, an actor who has since passed away due to workplace accident. The director who helmed the original, is behind the camera and producing the remake, with his wife in the lead. She was also in the original and married to it's leading man. 

Oddly, there have been legitimate threats issued regarding the preview of the movie. At first the threats were believed to be a publicity stunt, however, the head of the department swears his hands are clean. It seems the department head is too preoccupied for such shenanigan's, as he tries to get his lovely assistant, who is obsessed with astrology, to accept his proposal of marriage. She keeps claiming the stars have not yet aligned. However, once what appears to be a murder occurs at the preview, leading to subsequent threats and several attempted murders on the studio grounds, a veteran police detective is brought in to manage the carnage. He orders an immediate lockdown of the studio for the length of the investigation. While he allows the multitude of productions underway to continue, upwards of seven hundred people are holed-up within the walls of the studio - including, no doubt, the murderer!  

Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. this comedy/mystery was directed by Robert Florey and stars Reginald Denny, Frances Drake and Gail Patrick.

At the movie premiere in the film, the preview audience watches a newsreel before the main feature. Back then, cinema offerings were a package deal at the time; they included a newsreel, a film short (typically about travel) and a cartoon, in addition to the main film. In addition, there was often a second film included, called a 'B' picture - which is what this film The Preview Murder Mystery, would have been considered.

The movie being made in this film shares a number of similarities with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

You can see this one for free on YouTube!

Reginald Denny and Frances Drake

Frances Drake was best known for playing Eponine in Les Misérables (1935). She was often typecast in 'damsel in distress' roles and appeared in horror and sci-fi films opposite stars like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. One film reference book summed up Drake's career as follows: "She played leads in many Hollywood productions of the '30s, often as the terrified heroine of horror and mystery tales."

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Special Effects

(1984)

Reality and illusion collide in this thriller about a megalomaniacal movie director who murders a young would-be actress, then sets about making a feature about the deed, casting the dead woman's clueless husband as the patsy, and finding a dead ringer to play the part of the dead actress.

This horror thriller was directed by Larry Cohen and starring Zoë Lund, Eric Bogosian and Brad Rijn.

The screenplay was based on a script titled The Cutting Room which Cohen had written circa 1967, around the same time that Universal optioned his screenplay for Daddy's Gone A Hunting. He was hoping The Cutting Room might land in Alfred Hitchcock's hands.

 
Filming took place in New York City. Cohen recalled that stars Lund, Bogosian, and Rijn were "all highly offbeat people who lived in strange basements, had no money, and were highly talented." The film is now considered a cult classic.

Obviously someone was having a bit of fun: while perusing actor head shot photos while on the case, one of the head shots the film's detective looks at is Dustin Hoffman as Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie (1982).

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Sunset

(1988)

Whilst making a silent film about the life of the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, a veteran actor discovers that the real Earp is on the film set as a technical advisor. The two become friends, but when a murder takes place, the two become partners and set about tracking down the killer.

 

Based on an unpublished novel by Rod Amateau, this crime/mystery western was written and directed by Blake Edwards and stars Bruce Willis, James Garner, Mariel Hemingway, with a supporting cast which includes Malcolm McDowell, Kathleen Quinlan, Patricia Hodge, M. Emmet Walsh, Joe Dallesandro, Dermot Mulroney, Liz Torres and Dann Florek.

While Willis receives top billing in Sunset, Garner actually has much more screen time in the film. This was the second film in which Garner played Wyatt Earp, the first being John Sturges's Hour of the Gun, released in 1967. This was director Edwards' second collaboration with Willis, whom he previously directed in Blind Date (1987).

Garner had fond memories of working with Edwards in Victor Victoria (1982), and Willis and Edwards had a close working relationship after due to Blind Date. Throughout the pre-production phases of the film, Edwards counseled Willis, warning him that, "he couldn't rely on the jokes and the leer" that had been his trademark on the television series Moonlighting (1985–1989). 

The relationship between the two male leads, however, was far from sunny. After filming completed, Garner told Edwards that he would never work with Willis again, because "Willis is high school. He's not that serious about his work. He thinks he's so clever he can just walk through it, make up dialogue and stuff. I don't think you work that way."

Mariel Hemingway, like Bruce Willis and James Garner, signed on to the film for the chance to work with Blake Edwards. Hemingway confessed, "The movie sounded a little chaotic, but it had a secret weapon: it was directed by Blake Edwards who had made Breakfast at Tiffany's, a movie that was almost a religion with me. I couldn't pass up the chance to work with him."

The film earned predominately negative reviews from critics and the public alike. Most reviewers noted that Garner's screen presence was the only thing that made the film watchable. Upon release, Sunset was a box office failure, produced on a $16 million budget, and making only $4.6 million domestically.

Patricia Norris, costume designer for Sunset was nominated for Best Costume Design at the 1989 Academy Awards. She didn't win. However, Blake Edwards did: a Razzie Award for Worst director. The same organization nominated Mariel Hemingway for Worst Supporting Actress for her work on the film.

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And that's all for now, folks.

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel.

Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye in

The Black Camel

1931