In a spooky hotel on the coast of France, two bands of crooks are working independently of the other in an attempt to steal the inherited fortune of an American girl, Sue Tally. Along the way the heiress is kidnapped, three murders are committed, a girl appears in two places at once, mysterious persons roam about the old hotel at night and mysteriously disappear, and there is a hidden room without any doors.
02 Oct The White Cockatoo (1935)
Bible Verses
I pride myself on being able to say something both useful and positive about a film, a discipline a wise man taught as a practice for the more useful challenge with souls we meet. The dynamics overlap in narratives that each carry.
I found it a bit difficult this time around, because my time is short and so many other more worthy films await. But so it is with people, and the lead actress here — who I had never seen before — looked uncannily like my teen girlfriend.
This is a mystery to be sure, but of the kind that surprises you at the end with a solution you could not have guessed. So it is more frustrating than rewarding. It apparently is based on a book from a writer I do not know, and does have some ingenious interweaving and somewhat conflicting conspiracies worthy of Christie.
The setup is that in a remote hotel waits a young woman for news of an inheritance. Why is has to be French, and why she is waiting are plot contrivances. She is to wait for her brother to finalise things by matching a torn Bible page with the half he carries. Two plots are underway to confound this and capture the fortune. One involves a double for the sister and the other a double for the brother. Each plot is ignorant of the other, but one is murderous.
Just a little better in clueing in the audience along the way would have made this great.
Posted in 2022
Ted’s Evaluation — 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
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