Horror Classic 42 of 50: A SHRIEK IN THE NIGHT

A Shriek in the Night stars Ginger Rogers, and was released in 1933. That means it came out two years before Top Hat, which as far as I know was the first musical to co-star Rogers and Fred Astaire. I was genuinely curious to see if there would be any singing or dancing in this movie, but alas, there is none... only shrieking in the night.

So, that's too bad. Forty-two movies into this project and I can't even get a musical number. What else can I do to make things more interesting? How about if I write the synopsis in verse? Okay, I'll try that.

Synopsis (in verse)
Mr. Harker falls out his window
Down he plummets -- watch him go!
Suicide? Murder? Or accidental?
Detective Russell wants to know.

Harker's live-in secretary
Is quite a pretty dame
She's also an undercover reporter!
To her this whole thing's like a game

Her name is Pat, and she works hard
For all the news that's fit
But when her rival steals her story
She's so mad she could spit!

His name's Ted; he thinks he's smart
Stealing Pat's hard work
He's the male lead of the film
But really, he's a jerk

Meanwhile, Harker's downstairs neighbors
Turn up dead and strangled
It sure does look like murder now
The housekeeper's nerves are jangled

Before his death, Mr. Harker received
A card with a snake drawn on it
The message: "You will hear it!"
But what does it mean, doggone it?

As Ted and Pat investigate
They make each other mad
He's always getting on her nerves
(They want each other bad)

Now, what about Mr. Martini?
Harker knew that criminal
Was he involved in the murder, maybe?
Yeah, I think maybe it was him-inal

But wait! The maid finds a secret note
To Harker from the guy he framed long ago
"I'll get you!" it says, and it's signed "The Juice"!
OJ Simpson's in this?! Whoa!

The note-writer's dead, but he had a brother
The brother's bald, and kinda fat
And when she deduces what's going on
The brother tries to incinerate Pat!

I knew Ginger Rogers was pretty hot
But this is ridiculous, friend!
Will the vengeful janitor kill her?
Or will she survive in the end?

Is It Scary?
Nope.

Lessons I Learned

• Men are jerks. Until the third act, when they become nice.
• Investigating a murder is a barrel of laughs. Laughs, and sexual tension.
• Cab drivers are wise and should be listened to.
• Janitors prefer to live in darkness.
• YOU WILL HEAR IT!

My Favorite Lines

• Pat, trying to accompany Detective Russell on his investigation: "Don't you think it's a good idea?"
  Russell: "I think you're trying to flirt with me. If I didn't have four kids and a wife who could lick her weight in wildcats I might like it better."
• Augusta the maid, on being asked to identify the neighbor's body: "Coby's dead? I didn't even like him alive. What makes you think I'd like him dead?"
• Ted: "Could you sit a little closer?"
  Pat: "Not without getting arrested."

Body Count
Four.

Comments
• Well, I did the synopsis in verse. That was interesting. I don't think I need to do it again.

• As with so many other films in this DVD set, this was not really a horror movie, but more of a murder mystery. It was all right, I guess. It was nice that we were actually given enough information to guess who the murderer was before the characters did. But it had the same audio issue as The World Gone Mad, where it sounded like somebody was unwrapping a giant, shrink-wrapped mummy in the background of every scene.

• Pat Morgan's fake name when she's undercover as Harker's secretary is "Miss Terry," which, as my roommate Joe pointed out, is a pun on the word "mystery."

• Pat's just the latest in a series of spunky girl reporters on this DVD set. She was not as spunky or likable as Patricia in The Corpse Vanishes, but I suppose I'd rate her above Bobbi from Doomed to Die and The Fatal Hour, at least as far as sheer spunkiness. And nowhere near the same league as Lois Lane.

• When characters make phone calls, we see the switchboard operator connect the calls. This was obviously a low-budget movie, which raises the question: Why even bother casting an actor to play the operator? They could have saved quite a stack of quarters by just showing us Ted saying, "Operator, connect me to the Daily News," and then cutting to the Daily News, instead of showing us some dorky guy in between.

• There's a scene where Ted walks into Pat's room and tosses his hat on her bed, then they both frantically throw it off, lock pinkies, and quickly count to ten. My question: Wha?! Is this a superstition I've never heard of? What does it mean? Somebody please tell me! If you don't know the real answer, please make something up!

• Wikipedia and IMDb will tell you that the guy in this movie is named Ted Kord. Ted Kord, of course, was the secret identity of the original Blue Beetle in DC Comics. Imagine my disappointment, then, when the guy in the movie turned out to be Ted Rand. Wikipedia is WRONG! Akording to me.

• Of course Ted and Pat were smooching by the end of the movie, but I'm really not sure Ted deserved it. He was a pretty big jerk at the beginning.

Letter grade for A Shriek in the Night: C+
Next film in the 50-movie set: Bloodlust. Eww.