Murder at the Vanities (1934)

Pre-code 1930s:
If You Can’t Swing It, Drop Dead Instead
Murder at the Vanities (1934)
Studio: Paramount Pictures • 90 min B&W • AR 1.33:1 • US: 18 May 1934
Re-release: Universal Backlot Series (Apr 2009)
Series: Universal’s Pre-code Hollywood Collection (3-DVD)
Starring: Jack Oakie, Kitty Carlisle, Carl Brisson, Dorothy Stickney
Dir: Michael Leisen

This is the only genuine comedy, and a musical to boot, in the collection. If nothing else, there are some great numbers, including a fabulous star turn by Duke Ellington and his band. You’ll also be entertained and amused by “Cocktails for Two” and astonished by the full spectacle of “Marajuana”. Kitty Carlisle was a fine operetta style singer; and Carl Brisson, in spite of a very heavy accent, helped turn “Cocktails” into a popular hit in its day. And you must do a double take in the scene with Brisson, dressed in frills, playing a Chopin and Liszt pastiche on a white piano adorned with prominent candelabra. Who ever said Liberace was an original?

Wisecracking Jack Ellery (Jack Oakie) is trying to have a debut as music hall manager when a murder is committed in his theatre. Police Lt Bill Murdock (Victor McLagen), a dim-witted cop
friend of Ellery, spends the rest of the film trying to solve the case, getting it wrong at every turn. One of the show’s stars, Norma Watson (Dorothy Stickney) is a real b*tch and everyone cheers when she adds to the pile of bodies. There is something Agathe Christie-ish about the way the story plays out. All the back stage nonsense is just an excuse for the production numbers, anyway, and some light-hearted escapist (and harmless) fun. It succeeds, admirably.

Without a doubt, this is a musical for people who don’t like musicals (but secretly do); the production numbers are the leading star. You gotta see the Ellington piece! If The Torch Singer is arguably the best film in the box, Murder at the Vanities is the most fun. It also wins the “guilty pleasures” award: look closely at the chorus; even today they wear more clothes than that!