Police Captain Timothy Riley (Robert Elliott), Police Lt. Frank Martin (David Landau) and reporter Dan McKee (Stuart Erwin) are playing cards when Dr. Emil Brandt (Jean Hersholt) rushes into the captain’s office and asks to be locked up. He tells them that he is going to do something terrible. Riley tells him that he can’t lock someone up who hasn’t done anything wrong yet. Captain Riley shoos reporter McKee out of the office before continuing. He then asks Brandt to explain why he wants to be locked up.
Brandt tells him that he is going to commit a murder. Brandt says that he is a psychiatrist and a hypnotist that uses his knowledge to solve crimes. One of his patients is a bank executive. He put the man under hypnosis and told him to take $100,000 from the bank and bring it to him. When he gets the money he plans on killing the man and disposing of his body. Riley agrees to have him and Martin take turns keeping an eye on Brandt to make sure he doesn’t follow through with his plans. McKee, smelling a story, follows.
Things manage to go awry. Brandt finds out that his wife Freda (Wynne Gibson) knows all about the scheme and is planning to steal the money from the bank executive and run off with her lover, Gilbert Reid (Gordon Westcott). The lights go out and someone kills the bank exec and the money disappears. The police manage to foul up the investigation and it is up to the wily reporter to find all the clues and eventually solve the crime, but not before there is another murder and a string of suspects.
“Crime of the Century” was released in 1933 and was directed by William Beaudine. It is an American pre-code murder mystery.
About three quarters of the way into the film a man comes out (Arthur Hohl) and addresses the audience. He dares them to solve the mystery before the film ends. He even gives them a minute, which is counted out, before the film resumes. This is a feature that has been done before in other films. I believe the last time I saw it was for “The Beast Must Die” 1974. In that film you had the “Werewolf Minute” where the audience was given time to identify who the werewolf was. Many find it cute or campy; however, nothing makes my fast forward button finger itch more than that.
Despite that cheezy little addition there are some wonderful things about this movie. The actors and the acting are very good. The pace is fast and the story interesting. There are also some unique twists and turns and some nicely done plot devices. It certainly wasn’t your normal 30’s murder mystery. Altogether it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie.