1933's "The Circus Queen Murder" was Columbia's second adaptation of an Anthony Abbot Thatcher Colt novel, in this case 1932's "About the Murder of the Circus Queen," a followup to the previous year's "The Night Club Lady." Back as the lip reading Colt is Adolphe Menjou, happily teamed again with gorgeous Ruthelma Stevens as faithful secretary Miss Kelly, as savvy and sassy as ever. This time around, there's precious little mystery, with Colt taken out of his native New York City milieu, watching over suspicious activities in a traveling circus far from home. It does evoke Tod Browning's "Freaks," with such pre-code details as cannibalism adding to the doom laden atmosphere, not really a mystery as defined in the title, the circus queen only meeting her fate in the final reel. Fortunately, we have Dwight Frye's Flandrin commanding attention, and in a larger role than usual he's definitely in rare form, better in dangerous mode than his bland hero from 1935's "The Crime of Doctor Crespi." Both Thatcher Colt features have remained stubbornly elusive over the years, while one of Columbia's four picture Steve Trent series has suffered the indignity of actually disappearing without any trace. There would be one revival for Colt, in 1942's "The Panther's Claw," casting dependable Sidney Blackmer as Colt, his fate on screen ending just like his inspiration Philo Vance, at Poverty Row's PRC.

This is just a terrific little movie featuring Thatcher Colt, the lip reading D.A. He was a creation of Anthony Abbott, who wrote the stories for Liberty Magazine. Everything about this movie was perfect, the pacing, the wit, the fact that Miss Kelly, his lovely secretary was not just decoration but a vital part of solving the mystery. Ruthelma Stevens also played Miss Kelly in "The Night Club Lady" (1932), the only other Thatcher Colt story adapted for the screen - this movie makes you wish there had been more. Adolph Menjou brought sophistication and urbanity to Thatcher Colt, a harassed New York City D.A. who badly needs a holiday and goes to Gilead, a town where he thinks he can become John Smith.When the circus comes to town all hope of a quiet vacation becomes a dream as he and Miss Kelly are thrown into some seedy circus intrigues. The circus is in strife - it is due to close after it's stay in Gilead due to lack of money, there is also a steamy love triangle involving "King of the High Wire" Sebastian (Donald Cook), Josie La Tour (Greta Nissen) a seductive bare back rider and Flandrin, her deranged husband (Dwight Frye). Yes, that's right, Dwight Frye can add another deranged characterization to his rogue's gallery and he is fantastic.Before he can finish his third bag of peanuts Colt's expertise is needed to help solve the case but he gets a lot of help from Miss Kelly. Flandrin is missing, his caravan is in disarray and there is a gunshot through the window, but while Josie manages to keep a stiff upper lip about that, the death of her little dog Choo Choo sends her into hysterics. There are also threatening letters being sent - "If the circus attempts to open, you will all die!!" - that sort of thing, plus the circus star attraction, a group of cannibals have a habit of going missing. The climatic high wire performance is done very thrillingly and will surprise you!!Greta Nissen was a lovely Norwegian actress whose career never recovered from the "Hell's Angels" debacle. She had already completed her role as the faithless Helen in the silent version but when sound came in Howard Hughes remade the movie featuring his protégé, the unknown Jean Harlow, because Nissen's accent was so hard to understand. Four years later, it wasn't much better - it was still a challenge to understand Miss Nissen in her role of Josie. Strangely, to me, she seemed much clearer in "Transatlantic" made two years previously in 1931.Highly Recommended.

Adolphe Menjou is a weary Police Commissioner on vacation in upstate New York. He gets entangled in a nearly bankrupt circus, and endeavors (unsuccessfully) to prevent THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER.This crisply directed and well-acted little drama is perhaps the best test of the auteur theory one could devise. Director Neill is best known as director of most of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies, and the fantastic film noir Black Angel. If you ever catch his other Columbias on TCM, one notices that his movies have a distinct visual flair, and always seem to be moving on to the next plot point.In this one, Neill has a real problem -- and it is one he probably suffered with a lot. The story (as opposed to the script, which has a decent batch of the usual 30s wise talking) is terrible. The "mystery" is no mystery -- the killer is well known before the murder actually happens and there are only one or two "deductions". The murder itself happens far too late in movie (and is so telegraphed by the title of the movie, that it does not come as any surprise). Menjou, by the operations of the plot, seems ineffectual, rather than the clever unraveler of mysteries. And, courtesy of the story, there are long patches of film where there really is nothing going on.So what's an auteur to do? Well, at the beginning of the film, we get a montage of gangster action, with newspaper headlines. We get atmospheric rain when the circus wagon comes into town. We get circus atmosphere and more circus atmosphere. We get chilling cries of fearsome circus animals (even though those animals have very little to do with anything going on on the screen.) We also get Adolphe Menjou, acting the part of an elegant but burnt out policeman, with so much grace and elan that we do not notice that he really isn't doing much of anything. We also get lots of Dwight Frye (who thinks Renfield is a model for any character he might play) chewing the scenery in the sort of role Peter Lorre would have got (and actually acted) had the film been made 7 or 8 years later. Finally, we get lots of dangerous trapeze action. And, at last, we have the final confrontation between policeman and murderer, and the witty closing line (to which Menjou gives the perfect reading).In other words, we end up with an entertaining movie but an unstisfying one. It probably played well on the top half of a Columbia double feature, but a little time and effort by the scenario writer could have made this one great, as opposed to an interesting time-passer. The message here is that 30s film was always a collaborative medium and failure in one aspect of the production was really difficult to salvage through brilliance in one of the other ends.Oh -- and what's the spoiler? Given the structure of the movie, the worst spoiler is repeating its title.

ADOLPHE MENJOU and RUTHELMA STEVENS do a nice job as D.A. and secretary, a sort of Perry Mason and Della Street type of relationship, both of whom are practicing the art of lip reading, which we know is bound to become a plot device in helping to put the murderer away.Menjou is desperately in need of a vacation, so like so many other criminal sleuths before him, he goes to a small town and is soon involved with a circus troupe and a slew of suspects who are trying to kill either the circus queen or her paramour. For an exotic touch, there are traveling cannibals among the circus entertainers.There are a lot of high wire acrobatics and tension as the jealous husband (DWIGHT FRYE) climbs aboard the tent's outside perimeter to peer down at the high wire acts with a crazy gleam in his eyes. GRETA NISSEN is the circus queen (with a thick accent) that Menjou has to keep a sharp eye on.It's a diverting little circus drama, well photographed by Joseph August and directed at a fast clip by Roy William Neill.