Highly Overrated But Still Good

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This Warner Bros. film starts off slowly as a romantic drama, but then becomes a fast paced murder mystery with an ending hard to predict. I was not especially put off by the stage origin of the screenplay, the inauthentic accents of a story supposedly set in Vienna, or the tenuous connection to the Firebird, either as myth or music. The performances of the principals were weak: Ricardo Cortez as the victim, Verree Teasdale (overacting), and Anita Louise (quite beautiful, but unconvincing). This is more than made up for by the supporting roles of Dorothy Tree as the sharp-tongued ex-wife of the victim and Lionel Atwill as the initially oblivious and later befuddled husband/father. Even C. Aubrey Smith, usually relegated to pipe smoking and pontificating, has a more substantial role in this film as the inspector who actually solves the crime.

THE FIREBIRD is a very melodramatic story acted in ultra theatrical fashion by most of the cast, but especially VERREE TEASDALE as the concerned mother of ANITA LOUISE, both of whom are bothered by the attentions of a playboy actor (RICARDO CORTEZ) with designs on both of them.LIONEL ATWILL is Teasdale's husband, who comes to believe that his wife is responsible for Cortez's death--until the case is thoroughly examined by C. AUBREY SMITH as Detective Miller.The slight story gets routine treatment as directed by William Dieterle, and today's audiences will immediately note the overly theatrical acting by Miss Teasdale as the chief suspect.The revelation at the end comes as a surprise with almost no preparation, but by that time many viewers will have lost interest in the slow-moving story even though it's told in a brief running time of little more than an hour.

I had never heard of this movie, and had never seen Verree Teasdale given top billing in a film, so I tuned in for the novelty value.It turned out to be a very pleasant surprise -- a fast-paced story, imaginatively presented.The cast is full of faces familiar to any '30s movie fan -- C. Aubrey Smith, Ricardo Cortez (he of the dazzling smile), Anita Louise.There's even a wire-haired terrier that looks like the dog who played Asta (I don't know the canine actor's name!) So I recommend this as a little-known but certainly worth-seeing gem, and a great reason for keeping your TCM subscription up to date.

You can tell that a lot of production money was thrown at THE FIREBIRD but for the life of me I can't tell why it's set in Germany. Ricardo Cortez (the corpse to be) plays a horndog actor with a shady past who lives in a high class apartment building. There's an angry ex-wife, an effeminate personal assistant that's in love with the corpse's Dachsund, and well heeled neighbors with a lovely daughter (Anita Louise) who fear for their reputation. C. Aubrey Smith, the 71-year old impeccable Englishman, plays the police inspector. Remember this is supposed to be set in 1934 Germany (what, no Nazis?). Except for the wiener dog, the apartment manager's pipe, beer swilling policeman and some German shop signs, you'd never know it. Not one stab at an accent between them. A standard whodunnit.