Chatrand The Great (Edmund Lowe) is a magician whose act is being performed at the Tivoli Theater. The act is also being broadcast over the radio. At the close of the act he brings his mind reading assistant Alexander (Howard Phillips) on stage. Over the air Chatrand tells the audience that two years ago he found Alexander on the streets of Washington. The young man was suffering from a head wound and had no memory of who he was or what happened to him.
Listening to the broadcast is Beverly Lane (Lois Moran). She believes that the man could be her missing brother Paul. Her uncle John Carrington (Earle Foxe) disregards the broadcast as a publicity stunt. Nevertheless Beverly plans on going to the theater herself to see for sure. Her uncle insists on going with her. Before the performance Chatrand sees Beverly out in the audience. He believes she looks like the picture of a girl that Alexander has in a locket he carries. Believing Beverly is the same girl Chatrand gives Alexander a subliminal command to remember what happened to him when he sees her. Chatrand goes on stage and begins his act. At a set point in the act Alexander comes onstage wearing a mask and blindfold. As part of his act he reads minds and guesses objects that people in the audience are holding up. Chatrand goes into the audience and holds up various items. Beverly has a locket exactly like the one Alexander has.
When Chatrand comes near Beverly wants to give him her locket to hold. Carrington objects to this. An argument ensues between Chatrand and Carrington. Alexander, upon hearing Beverly’s voice peeks out from under his blindfold and sees her. He stands up and says “I remember”. At the same time there is a struggle between the two men over the locket. Chatrand’s other assistant, Sonja, cuts off the lights. In the dark a gunshot is heard. When the lights come back on Carrington has been shot and Alexander passes out.
When the lights come up Carrington has been shot. He is seriously wounded. Chatrand believes someone from the audience is responsible. Inspector Riley (Purnell Pratt), with a squad of police, descends on the theater. A doctor in the audience, Dr. Blackstone (George E. Stone), attends to Carrington. Riley believes Alexander shot Carrington and that Chatrand is trying to help him get away with it. When Carrington ultimately dies, Riley is ready to charge Alexander with murder and haul him off to jail. Chatrand is quickly running out of time as he tries to devise a way to convince the police to let him smoke out the guilty party by using smoke and mirrors.
“The Spider” was released in 1931 and was directed by Kenneth MacKenna and William Cameron Menzies. The special effect magic tricks were devised by Menzies. It is a pre-code crime mystery. The film was based on the play “The Spider” by Fulton Oursler and Lowell Brentano. Comic relief by El Brendel as Ole is tedious.
There is a whole bunch of hocus pocus and some over the top acting in this movie. The sets are intricate and fit for a hammy magician and his mind reading partner. It’s not really a good movie but it is entertaining to watch. The police are ham fisted and jump to conclusions. Their stubbornness requires “Chatrand The Great” to improvise some fancy tricks to find the villain. The movie is complete with Chatrand falling in love at first sight and even a Perry Mason moment at the end when the bad guy confesses.
As far as mysteries are concerned it’s not exactly deep and neither are the characters but for fifty-nine minutes it’s actually fun. Yes, it’s old and creaky but still worth checking out. The title of the film really has nothing to do with the movie other than that the killer wears a ring shaped like a spider. The ring appears in a close up of the hand holding the gun.