A Shriek in the Night

When a film starts with a scream and a man falling a couple of storeys to his death, it promises to be an interesting ride. But sometimes this is not always the case, such as in the case of A Shriek in the Night. 

Beginning with a dramatic death scene, the film chronicles a murder mystery that has police baffled. But two rivalling journalists (Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot) aren’t so quick to close the case. When another body is found, a resident of the same apartment building, the two competitors team up to find the murderer and get the scoop. 

Part Hitchcock thriller with cryptic clues, part romantic comedy in the vein of His Girl Friday, A Shriek in the Night sits as a truly vanilla film. There is nothing actually wrong with it, but it could have been strawberry cheesecake or phish food, something much more exciting. The story is all gothic and whodunit with all the answers being spilled out at the last minute. 

The characters of the two journalists are kind of fun, she’s pretty and ambitious but not the most cunning and he’s a smartarse, cynical dickhead who fancies her. I might have been more invested if their story and relationship was developed a little more, but sadly it is all about the murder and that doesn’t really work as a thickening agent for their ‘romance’. 

At best, this movie can be described as a paint-by-numbers thriller: going along in a preordained sequence that will produce something entertaining, but not spontaneous and creative or original at the end. 

While there is nothing wrong with the construction of this movie, it could have done with a little more investment from the writers and director. The story is engaging and opens really well, throwing us right in the deep end, but then there’s not a lot to flesh out the conspiracy of it all throughout the rest of the film and I can’t help but feel that if we were given more characters or information about the other residents of the apartment building (as they’re the ones dropping like flies), it could have been rounded out into a much more intriguing thriller like a Hitchcock classic or Sherlock Holmes narrative. Its one-dimensional path (for the majority of the movie) is fine to travel by, but doesn’t offer any distractions, which is something that a movie like this needs to really deliver an experience. Plus, with a little more investment, the identity of the murderer could have been much more of a twist. 

While the story is fine, the characters are interesting, and the performances are all solid, A Shriek in the Night is a vanilla thriller that suffers from a lack of investment from those whose job it is to make the movie exciting. The straight and narrow path proves not to be the best to take when dealing with whodunit movies. 

Starring Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot, Harvey Clark, Purnell Pratt, Lillian Harmer, Arthur Hoyt, Louise beaver, and Clarence Wilson 

Rating: PG 

Year: 1933