"The Mystery Of Mr. X" is the last movie directed by Edgar Selwyn, who had a career in theater and movies that could never be duplicated again. This movie is full of details that are more typical of a Broadway play than a movie. At the end, when the news photographers want to take a picture of Revel (Robert Montgomery) with Miss Frensham, he hesitates getting next to her and she pulls him closer. Earlier, after the police surround Mr. X, he tells superintendent Connor, "I hate you Connor! I hate you." The earlier part of the story shows that Connor justifies that low opinion, searching Revel's apartment without a search warrant, lying to Sir Christopher Marche and trying to solve the policeman murders by assuming the Drayton diamond thief is also the murderer. Throughout the movie, the dialog between Revel and Miss Frensham is literate and delineates the characters in an amusing and cheerful way.
Of course, there is no way this movie could ever be a stage play, since much of the action involves taxi rides, walking down foggy streets and other outdoors activities. This movie must have been a tough shoot, between the constant dialog (1,830 numbered subtitle segments in the closed captions) and the tracking shots for the studio lot scenes. The showdown in the warehouse building set at the end of the movie must have been really hard to stage and film, but Selwyn and company do a fine job at it.
I saw this movie on TCM and the print shown was worn, had frame damage in parts and looked like a 16MM dupe print. Not the best way to watch a movie that has many scenes shot in shadowed settings. IMDb reports that MGM shot a new ending after preview audiences disapproved of the original ending. Director Selwyn, in New York already, did not want to re-shoot the ending. I am guessing that Selwyn had his fill of working so hard to make this movie a great example of the MGM studio system at work. So Selwyn bows out as a movie director on the top, with a movie that should have been better known but got lost in the shuffle when the 1934 Production Code went into full force.
The Warner Archive should find a way to get "The Mystery Of Mr. X" out as a Blu-ray release using better print material that is given a makeover by the LOC Packard Campus.
Of course, there is no way this movie could ever be a stage play, since much of the action involves taxi rides, walking down foggy streets and other outdoors activities. This movie must have been a tough shoot, between the constant dialog (1,830 numbered subtitle segments in the closed captions) and the tracking shots for the studio lot scenes. The showdown in the warehouse building set at the end of the movie must have been really hard to stage and film, but Selwyn and company do a fine job at it.
I saw this movie on TCM and the print shown was worn, had frame damage in parts and looked like a 16MM dupe print. Not the best way to watch a movie that has many scenes shot in shadowed settings. IMDb reports that MGM shot a new ending after preview audiences disapproved of the original ending. Director Selwyn, in New York already, did not want to re-shoot the ending. I am guessing that Selwyn had his fill of working so hard to make this movie a great example of the MGM studio system at work. So Selwyn bows out as a movie director on the top, with a movie that should have been better known but got lost in the shuffle when the 1934 Production Code went into full force.
The Warner Archive should find a way to get "The Mystery Of Mr. X" out as a Blu-ray release using better print material that is given a makeover by the LOC Packard Campus.