Secret of the Chateau (1934)

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Writers:

Lawrence G. Blochman (story)
Albert DeMond (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 December 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Shadows Come to Life! Traps Snare Women! Trunks Swallow Men! Bells Toll Out Death!

Plot:

Inspector Marotte, attending an auction of rare collectible books previously ownded by the recently murdered M...

Plot Keywords:

Estate | Auction | Inspector | Bible | France

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Claire Dodd	...	Julie Verlaine
Alice White	...	Didi Bonfine
Osgood Perkins	...	Martin
Jack La Rue	...	Lucien Volaire
George E. Stone	...	Armand
Clark Williams	...	Paul
William Faversham	...	Monsieur Fos / Professor Raquet
Ferdinand Gottschalk	...	Chief Inspector Marotte
DeWitt Jennings	...	Louis Bardou
Helen Ware	...	Madame Rombiere
Frank Reicher	...	Auctioneer
Alphonse Ethier	...	Commissioner

Also Known As:

Rendezvous at Midnight (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

66 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Son of Svengoolie: Secret of the Chateau (1934) (#1.38)" (1980)

Less than meets the eye

A sturdy whodunit premise (various characters assembled at a French chateau, vying for an original Gutenberg Bible), potentially interesting plot details and colorful character names suggest that this is perhaps an adaptation of a good golden-age whodunit novel (perhaps one of A.E.W. Mason's Inspector Hanaud tales). However, it was actually a hastily written original for the screen, and after many reels of long, tedious exposition, the plot is resolved quickly, arbitrarily and quite unsatisfactorily. None of the promising plot elements turn out to have any real pay-off (though a good puzzle-plot writer could probably watch the first two-thirds of the film and devise an interesting resolution from what came before).

Though Richard Thorpe never became much of a director (even in his "glory" days at MGM), he certainly improved later upon this feeble early effort. Of course, the vastly superior production values at Metro certainly didn't hurt. "Chateau" was obviously shot shot quickly on standing sets at Universal.

On the plus side (not much here), the always-welcome Claire Dodd is at her loveliest here, Ferdinand Gottschalk is properly egocentric as the detective (though the script gives him no examples of deductive brilliance to justify that ego), and Osgood Perkins (Tony's father) has one beautifully dry explanation for his wife's objection to him keeping floozy Alice White company for the evening: "She's funny that way."