Murder!  (1930)

* * ½

A fairly poorly constructed ‘who-done-it’ as the suspects were not presented in a ‘was it Reverend Green, Mrs. Peacock and Professor Plum’ style; instead Hitchcock focused on building the suspense of whether the woman would be exonerated. Unfortunately the audience does not really care for this woman and nearing the end of the film has become completely bored. It is probably falsely considered as a ‘who-done-it’ because Hitchcock’s famous suspense is definitely lacking during this film.

This is an early demonstration of one of Hitchcock’s sound films and while there are some interesting points, such as his use of voiceovers and moments where there is a soundtrack, there are also flaws within this experimental phase of film development. There are a couple of occasions when a character is talking with an abhorrent accent which is indecipherable and this is intensified through the use of having babies cry over the top of them. This sound issue makes some scenes annoying and, inevitably, pointless as the audience cannot fully follow what is going on.

The story itself is sloppy as it follows a series of fortunate sequences which allow an actor to become a detective. There are many serendipitous pieces of evidence discovered that highlight the fact that this film is just fiction. A film that has a narrative, based in reality, but that is clearly fictitious is not entertaining as the wonder of film is either that it can transport you to an alternate, yet familiar, reality or take you to another world all together. A simplified depiction of the world we already live in is not entertaining but patronising.