Customer Reviews

Murder by Television

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

... in buying this movie. It is also included in the "50 Classic Mysteries" movie set that you can get for under $15 here on Amazon.

I suppose we're all being murdered by television to some degree but here the title is somewhat miseading. Its not really murder BY television (as in forcing someone to watch Jim Carey, for example) but murder ON television.

This minor quibble aside, MBT is incomprehensible, dull, has offensive racial stereotypes and acting not unlike Plan 9. So what's not to like? I knocked off one star as this isn't one of Bella's films that also stars the Bowery Boys...sigh...

Oh - to add to the hilarity the print has more scratches than a driver's ed movie with some bits spliced out altogether. In short, its great! Highly reccomended.

Bela Lugosi was a wonderful actor and he always put his heart into his performances, regardless of the film's quality. But there are times that I wish I wasn't a Lugosi fans, and one of those times ws when watching "Murder by Television". Apart from Lugosi, this movie has nothing going for it. It is dull, even at less than one hour, and the plot is completely uninteresting. And even Lugosi's performance isn't that interesting, since he's given no opportunity to show what he's capable of.

Save your time and money. Re-watch one of his other movies instead. If you really need to see this movie, it's in the public domain and can be legally downloaded for free.

This is a dull mystery centered around the inventor of a television system. Suddenly, the inventor is killed right as he is making a broadcast. Whodunit? Prime among the suspects is Bela Lugosi, who plays the inventor's assistant. But no, it's not Bela. We discover him to be just another red herring as he is killed later on in the film. However, all is not lost. Bela's twin brother (?), a federal inspector, shows up and in only five minutes, unmasks the killer. Why couldn't he have shown up thirty minutes before and saved us all this dull talk? Look for Hattie McDaniel in an early role as the stereotypical servant. This obscure feature (it scarcely played any dates when originally released back in 1935) is recommended only for die-hard mystery fans and hardcore Bela fans.

The title of this movie interested me. I did not expect it to be one better science fiction movies I have seen and it was not. However, it was a typical Bela Lugosi, low budget movie, but still entertaining.

In 1935, this was cutting edge sci-fi horror. Produced for less than $40,000 by Cameo Pictures, Bela Lugosi starred in a dual role. The story and movie, way ahead of its time, was released more than a decade before television became a piece of furniture -- or, "a cold alter of Satanic light," as some called it -- in a minority of America's post WW II homes.

The plot is an oddity to be sure. A scientist drops dead during the unveiling of his TV system -- his actual death is broadcast live. No clues turn up in the investigation and the dead scientist's assistant (Lugosi) becomes the prime suspect. When he too dies, the case becomes cold until Lugosi reappears as a ghost -- or is it some kind of latent, lingering television affect? -- and solves the mystery.

Watch for an early appearance by Hattie McDaniel (Gone With The Wind) and listen for the incongruously ironic song "I Had The Right Idea" written for the film by Oscar© winner Oliver Wallace of Dumbo fame.

It's hard to really enjoy this film because of the print quality. I love the film but the splices never end. Bits and pieces of the film are missing here and there. This is the Alpha edition and the Treeline 50-pack isn't any better.

An inventor makes a TV network that does not need a relay to broadcast across the world. Everyone wants the secret to the electronic tube that can do this. It includes industries and governments and cabals.

During his maiden transmission of piano music, the inventor will reveal a new addition. Unfortunately he is all choked up and the shadow of death crosses the screen. Yep the inventor is dead and everyone that should have been watching the broadcast was elsewhere. Among the who-dun it's is Bella's twin brother. We also get the added how was it done?

The film was scratchy and badly cut. The dialog, well lots of talking, but little is relevant to the story. The plot was too ambitions for the simple conclusion.

In the early days of cinema, it seems like every third movie involved a murder, after which the authorities would not allow anyone to leave the house before the mystery was solved. Murder By Television is a rather poor representative of that type of movie. I like my plots to make sense, and this movie kept me rather confused from the very start. Worse, the final solution to the crime seems to me as if it was just made up out of thin air. The murder victim in this case is a television pioneer whose plans for a technological breakthrough are in high demand. As he is broadcasting his message to the few people lucky enough to actually have a TV, he suddenly collapses. There are several suspects, as one or two of the guests seem to be doing something akin to spying for a rival television company or two. The inventor's assistant, played by Bela Lugosi, is another prime suspect. There's another guy who keeps snooping around outside and sneaking in the house, but for some reason I don't understand the cops just keep throwing the guy out the door without asking him any questions. The ultimate solution to the crime partly relies upon one of the oldest tricks in the book, a plot device that was surely old and tired as early as 1935. Bela Lugosi is about the only thing this movie has going for it, but his character is by no means interesting. Almost everyone just seemed to be going through the motions on this one, and the result is a flat, forgettable film. The one exception is Hattie McDaniel, whom I was surprised but delighted to find in this pre-Gone With the Wind motion picture. Of course, her character is just one big stereotype, which makes her performance much less enjoyable than it would be otherwise.

to "discover" this isn't exactly a cinematic classic?? Just the title and the fact that Lugosi is in it pretty much tell that story (let's face it; after Dracula, Bela did nothing but B and C movies except for an occisional cameo).The one actor really wasted here is Hattie McDaniel. Be that as it may, the movie's amusing in its own Ed Woodish sort of way. Interesting more as a history capsule of sorts, due to the early reference to TV.