There have been five police constables murdered in London in as many days. Prior to the killings a note is sent to one of the newspapers from a Mr. X warning them of the killings. All of them stabbed through the heart. Sir Herbert Frensham (Henry Stephenson) from Scotland Yard returns early from a holiday at a spa. His doctor had prescribed it for his health. His daughter Jane (Elizabeth Allan) returns with him. Jane’s fiancé Sir Christopher Marche (Ralph Forbes) as well as Inspector Connor (Lewis Stone) are waiting at the train station to meet them.
That night Nick Revel (Robert Montgomery) is robbing a safe. His quest is the Drayton diamond. At the same time another constable is killed by Mr. X. Nick finds the body of the cop and takes off. Inspector Connor believes that the man who stole the diamond is also the constable killer. Nick’s partners are a cab driver named Joseph Horatio Palmer (Forrester Harvey) and an insurance appraiser Hutchinson (Ivan F. Simpson). They want Nick to get rid of the diamond.
The next night Jane’s fiancé Christopher is out at a club dinner. Drunk he slugs a constable and steals his helmet. Mr. X comes along and kills the cop. Christopher’s scarf is found by the body. Christopher is arrested. Nick has a plan to find the killer and take the heat off the stolen diamond. To do that he needs to get close to someone in the investigation. Nick decides to provide an alibi for Christopher thereby ingratiating himself with the Frensham family. It works. Christopher is released but Inspector Connor becomes suspicious of Nick.
In the meantime Jane and Nick become romantically interested in each other. Christopher breaks off his engagement with Jane. Jane is not really upset about this. Nick decides to go straight but he still has Inspector Connor and his men tailing him. Nick believes the only way to get out of this mess is to return the diamond and catch Mr. X himself.
“The Mystery of Mr. X” was released in 1934 and was directed by Edgar Selwyn and an uncredited Richard Boleslawski. It is an American pre-code mystery comedy. It is based on the novel “X v Rex” by Philip MacDonald who used the pen name Martin Porlock. The film was remade in 1952 as “The Hour of 13”.
The movie isn’t so much a who-done-it as it is a wrong man film. It’s also not a laugh out loud comedy so much as it is a light mystery. What it is is a good story with some good acting and an interesting plot.
Some thought that the romance developing between Nick and Jane hadn’t been developed enough but I disagree. So many times the romantic leads of a film fall in love at first sight which may happen in real life but not near as often as movie producers think. I realize that time is of the essence in films but waxing poetic within the first five minutes of meeting is just a little too unrealistic.
What makes it pre-code? Nothing really. I suppose if you wanted to press the point you could say that a criminal is not suppose to get away with his crimes but Nick returned the diamond and decided to go straight so it’s a weak point at best. I didn’t see anything else that screamed censor in the movie so I suspect it would have passed anyway had the code been in force when the movie was made.
As far as I know it hasn’t had a DVD release but it is available bootleg on some sites plus it is available through Turner Classic Movies.