Touches You

A Masterpiece!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

For all June Collyer's second billing she didn't have much to do as the bewildered heiress in this first Columbia entry in a short series featuring Ralph Bellamy as laid back Inspector Trent. Still, she was definitely easy on the eyes and she would soon retire from movies to concentrate on being Mrs. Stuart Erwin. In 1934 "The Thin Man" showed how witty and stylish mysteries could be but for now (1933) policemen were very straight down the line.When a young rookie cop demands a promotion for solving the "Penthouse" murder, his superior pulls him back into line by telling him the story of the Arnold case. Inspector Trent arrives at Forest Lake on a stormy night "just the night for a murder" at the request of Mr. Arnold, who is convinced someone is trying to kill him. He has seen all the signs - a stopped clock, a pool of blood under a portrait and with a storm battered window and a flash of light, Mr. Arnold lies dead.This movie isn't half as exciting as "The Crime of Helen Stanley", an Inspector Trent set in a movie studio and featuring a temperamental movie star (Gail Patrick). This particular mystery features the old standby, a secret diary that everyone, except the wide eyed Janet (Collyer), wants to get their hands on. There's the usual suspects, a crooked lawyer, mysterious Mrs. Fry (silent screen beauty Betty Blythe), a young doctor, who seems to have all the evidence stacked against him as he just happens to be treating Mr Arnold and a nervous Japanese houseboy Kono. The only person who seems to be taking a back seat is Mr. Fry (Claude Dillingwater, who I could remember as the crusty old Mr. Peck in Shirley Temple's "The Poor Little Rich Girl") and he is the key to the whole mystery. Ralph Bellamy is at the start of a long career and even in this he is never anything less than dependable.

Ralph Bellamy stars as 'Inspector Trent'--a detective who is trying to solve a murder. However, his method of solving the case seems to be to let the murderer kill off all the other possible so that by the process of elimination he's found the killer! In the very first scene, a guy announces to Trent that he's about to be murdered--and he is! Then, the houseboy appears to be connected to the crime and he's stabbed in the back right before the very eyes of Trent!! At the end, when Bellamy discovers the killer, he deliberately gives the guy ample opportunity to kill himself--thus saving the tax payers from having to pay to incarcerate him!! This is all pretty funny, as the case is apparently being told to an up and coming cop who wants an advancement--and his boss tells him how Trent so masterfully solved the case as an example of great detective work!!! Thank God other 'great detectives' don't work this way!! Fortunately, despite this weird plot element, the solution to the crime is actually really cool and makes this B-mystery well worth seeing. Good acting, a genuinely interesting mystery and a relatively ineffectual detective make this one to watch. Plus, it's nice to see Bellamy in a film where he doesn't lose the girl in the end...which seemed to happen all too often through the 1930s and early 40s!

"Before Midnight" was done in 1933, before "The Thin Man," when the style of mysteries would become a little breezier, more stylish, and employ more humor. Ralph Bellamy stars here as Inspector Trent, out to solve a very complicated murder. It has that "dark and stormy night" feel to it, but it's done with a straightforward seriousness, without the good-natured laughter of someone like Warren William or the tipsiness of a William Powell. As Trent, Bellamy interrogates like a real cop: "You did it, didn't you!" The story, however, is very good.I'm always amazed to see Ralph Bellamy as a young man and realize what a long, huge career he had. His first film was in 1931 (stage from 1929), at the age of 27, and his last was "Pretty Woman" in 1990, one year before he died. Here he's a lead, but as someone else pointed out, he probably lacked the excitement of a true leading man and was soon relegated to supporting roles. As a stage actor and as an older man, he really thrived on stage, in film, and on television; besides doing "Tomorrow the World" and "State of the Union" on Broadway, he enjoyed a tremendous success as FDR in "Sunrise at Campobello" in 1959. "Before Midnight" will keep you interested. What it lacks in pace and style, it makes up for in story.

It's a well-directed mystery with more twists than a pretzel. This movie times in at just over an hour, and had to be filled out with a prologue, epilogue and long takes of Ralph Bellamy thinking to bring it up to that. Carefully directed with full Old Dark House look and feel by long-time director Lambert Hillyer -- he had directed William S. Hart to stardom but had retreated, as had so many, to the B list when sound came in -- there's only one flaw in the mystery plot: the detective has the motive before the audience does.This was one of a short and probably unofficial series of movies starring Ralph Bellamy as Inspector Trent of the New York Detective Bureau. He is rather straightforward in his characterization, which probably explains why in another couple of years he was relegated to the role of Second Man in the movies, even if he could act up a storm when given the opportunity. Still, the story is the thing in this movie. The mystery will probably stump you and it's only an hour.