Displaying items by tag: Ann Sothern

GRAND EXIT

US, 1935, 68 minutes, Black-and-white.

Edmund Lowe, Anne Sothern, Onslow Stevens.

Directed by Earle C.Kenton.

A star vehicle for Edmund Lowe, very popular in the 20s, 30s and 40s. He often plays a smart gentleman type – and that is the case here, New York City, the desperate situation with the arson attacks on quite a number of prominent buildings, factories. And the target is the insurance company.

Lowe is Fletcher, dapper suit and tie, hat, aristocratic manner, self-confident, previously dismissed by the insurance company but, at the meeting, desperate to have him back. He is assisted by his friend played by Onslow Stevens. And, at the various scenes of arson, a young woman, Adrienne, played by  Anne Sothern.

In such a short film, it often seems that Fletcher is not doing any particular work at all – but, the screenplay gives him all kinds of insights, picking up clues, working out how the fires started, some quite ingeniously, but then falling in love with the young woman who eventually comes under suspicion, as does his good friend who is also falling for the young woman.

Quite some complications at the end, the young woman being arrested and sent to a mental institution, Fletcher putting on an act to get himself interned – with the knowledge that there is a paint shop in the prison a good centre for an arson attempt. And, this happens, the revelation being that the victim of the insurance company had not committed suicide, was alive, setting the fires in revenge.

Typical of the brief supporting thrillers and mysteries of the mid 1930s.