“Inspector Greg is doing the thinking around her miss.”
Mrs. Stella Armitage (Frieda Inescort) runs a boarding house in London. She is a former actress. It is an ordinary boarding house with several ordinary lodgers. At least on the surface.
Mr. Ram Singh (Turhan Bey) and Joe Reynolds (Paul Cavanagh) are smugglers. A small truck arrives at the docks and Mr. Singh is on hand to take possession of a large trunk while Joe observes at a distance. Later a man sneaks into Singh’s room through the window. Singh stabs him in the back and hides him under the bed.
The maid Lucy Timpson (Phyllis Barry) is having a fling with Joe. When she drops a tray of breakfast dishes smashing them she is summarily fired. She goes to Joe for solace but is snubbed. Lucy does not take it well.
Joe and Mrs. Armitage are also having an affair. One that has been going on for ten years. Tom Armitage (Miles Mander) is unaware of it. At least for now. He’s busy playing chess all the time. He has plans to stay with a friend over night and attend a chess lecture. Also unbeknownst to Tom, Joe bought the boarding house for Stella. Of course it also gives him a good place for his nefarious doings.
The only regular folks are the Armitage’s daughter Sylvia (Heather Angel) who is in love with another boarder Hugh Bromilow (Bruce Lester). Hugh is a wanna be screenwriter. The last boarder is Miss Phoebe Snell (Mary Field). She is a mousy spinster. She spends her time reading romance novels.
That night Singh tries to bring the trunk into the boarding house and put it in Joe’s room, however, the room is locked and he can’t get in. The next morning when Stella gets up she can’t find any of her lodgers. Miss Snell is not in her room. Mr. Singh is not in his room and Joe’s room is locked. Hugh comes out of his room. All the doors have the same lock and the same key. Hugh uses his key to open Joe’s door. Joe is on the floor dead. And he is only the first surprise of the morning.
“Shadows on the Stairs” was released in 1941 and was directed by D. Ross Lederman. The film is based on Frank Vosper's play "Murder on the Second Floor". It is a British movie distributed by Warner Brothers. This is Turhan Bey’s first film.
The movie is short so it movies rather briskly. Character development is also fast, but done quite well. You know who the characters are rather quickly. The pace was steady and the acting good. There were a lot of good things about the movie that kept you watching. It was interesting.
The conclusion to the murders was succinct, pat and packaged all snug with hospital corners. A little unfulfilling but I was willing to let that go. Lots of movies from that era used a similar formula where all the threads had to be tied up with a bow. But the conclusion was not the end. I didn’t care for the end. I know it was supposed to be a twist but this wasn’t a twist so much as an ending to the wrong movie. I felt a little cheated. The rest of the movie was fine and your basic Warner Brothers “B” string movie. The ending, on the other hand, was disappointing. At least for me.