“Are you married?” “No, I was born this way.”
Jimmy Kelly (Wallace Ford) and Marjorie Burns (Barbara Pepper) are detectives. Well, Jimmy is a detective. Marjorie is a store detective. They go to town hall to get married. They are anxious to tie the knot right away; however, they are in the wrong state to do so. Undaunted they decide to cross state lines and get married one state over.
They are supposed to meet a justice of the peace over the state line at a place called the Red Rock Tavern. They get there before the JOP so they ask about renting a couple of rooms. For some reason the owners Mr. and Mrs. Jamison (John Elliot and Clara Kimball Young) tell them that the Inn is full and there are no rooms available. Jimmy and Margie decide to wait in the lobby. They are not alone. There are a number of shifty looking characters sitting about waiting as well.
Suddenly they hear a gargled scream. Everyone in the lobby runs into the room of one of the guests to find he has been attacked by a dog and his throat is crushed. Later, when the rest of the guests try to settle down, another guest is killed. Jimmy takes charge and tries to call the coroner. When he finds the phone lines cut he realizes that the dog is not the real killer. Panic among the other guests leads to suspicion. Then there is another murder. The arrival of a mysterious guest named Wentworth (Arthur Loft) adds another layer to the mystery.
With the murder count now at three Jimmy, with help from perky Margie, doggedly pulls together any clues he can find to try and unravel this tapestry of mysteries.
“The Rogues Tavern” was released in 1936 and was directed by Robert F. Hill. It is your basic ‘dark and stormy night’, ‘old dark house’ mystery, at a tavern and it is also your basic low budget poverty row movie.
The rapport between Wallace and Barbara’s characters was charming. Their banter back and forth was quick and playful. Both are good actors and their dialogue blended well. Wallace is known for his role as Phroso in Tod Browning’s “Freaks”. Barbara Pepper had a career as a character actress that spanned thirty-five years. For all you “Green Acres” TV show fans she played Fred Ziffel’s wife Doris Ziffel. That’s Arnold the pig’s human mother.
There aren’t a lot of suspects so not a lot of red herrings. There is suspicion and a couple dead ends but the whole thing stays together well. It’s a fun mystery and a good look at 30’s style intrigue.
The dog‘s name was Silver Wolf.