''Who's Guilty?'' is a 1945 American

film serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, ge ...

. It was the 28th of 57 serials released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. ''Who's Guilty?'' was a rare attempt at a

whodunit A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...

mystery film A mystery film is a film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur Detective, sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, ...

in serial form. The serial's villain (The Voice) was designed to look like

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibs ...

on the poster. The film co-starred some well-known character actors, such as Charles Middleton,

Wheeler Oakman Wheeler Oakman (born Vivian Eichelberger; February 21, 1890 – March 19, 1949) was an American film actor. Early years Oakman was born as Vivian Eichelberger in Washington, D.C., and educated in that city's schools—specifically Henry School ...

, and

Minerva Urecal Minerva Urecal (born Florence Minerva Dunnuck; September 22, 1894 – February 26, 1966) was an American stage and radio performer as well as a character actress in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood films and on various television series ...

. Robert Kent played the lead role of Detective Bob Stewart.

Plot

Walter Calvert (Clark) calls upon his brother Henry at his eerie old house and demands a share of the family fortune, threatening to kill Henry if he doesn't get it. Within days, Henry's car goes over a cliff. Bob Stewart (Kent), a detective Henry asked to investigate the matter if he should die, begins his investigation accompanied by his pal Duke Ellis, a newspaper reporter. Bob meets the family at its mansion and questions Henry's sister, his half-brother, his nephew, and his nephew's bride, along with Ruth Allen (Ward), whose father was in business with Henry. Henry's brother Patton (Middleton) and a shadowy figure known as The Voice plan to kill all the relatives and divide the fortune. As the murder attempts multiply, Bob, Ruth, and Duke endeavor to track down the masterminds and bring them to justice.

Cast

* Robert Kent as Bob Stewart, detective * Amelita Ward as Ruth Allen,

love interest (; ) were stock characters within the theatre style known as commedia dell'arte, who appeared in 16th-century Italy. In the plays, everything revolved around the lovers in some regard. These dramatic and posh characters were present within pl ...

* Tim Ryan as Duke Ellis * Jayne Hazard as Rita Royale *

as Mrs Dill, the housekeeper * Charles B. Middleton as Patton, the butler/Walter Calvert * Davison Clark as Henry Calvert, the murder victim *

Sam Flint Sam Flint (born Samuel A. Ethridge; October 19, 1882 – October 17, 1980) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films, and is perhaps most familiar to today's audiences from Charlie Chan mysteries, adventure serials (notably ...

as Horace Black, the victim's lawyer *Bruce Donovan as Curt Bennett *

Jack Ingram Jack Owen Ingram (born November 15, 1970) is an American country music artist formerly signed to Big Machine Records, an independent record label. He has released eleven studio albums, one extended play, six live albums, and 19 singles. Alt ...

as Sergeant Smith *

Milton Kibbee Milton Kibbee (born Milne Bryan Kibbee;"Obituaries: Milne B. Kibbee"

as Morgan Calvert *Nacho Galindo as Pancho * Robert Tafur as Jose *

as Smiley * Charles King as Burke

Production

Producer

Sam Katzman Sam Katzman (July 7, 1901 – August 4, 1973) was an American film producer and director. Katzman's specialty was producing low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financi ...

had been making feature films for budget studio

Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

. Columbia hired him to make its serials, and Katzman made the first few on the side at Monogram, using that studio's sets, technicians, and actors. Among the Monogram regulars appearing in ''Who's Guilty?'' are Tim Ryan, Wheeler Oakman, Amelita Ward, Jayne Hazard, Minerva Urecal, Milton Kibbee, and Belle Mitchell.

Reception

The whodunit formula was not ideal for serials, which relied on fast action, fistfights, and chases in various outdoor settings. The script's emphasis on indoor filming and a limited premise—suspicious characters lurking around an old house—resulted in slowness and repetition. Although producer Katzman went on to make successful serials with mysterious masked villains, he never made another murder-mystery serial. Serial historian Daniel J. Neyer comments on the serial's plodding storyline, "completely ineffectual in a five-hour serial. The 'mystery’s' ultimate solution becomes obvious in the first chapter, which makes all the subsequent obfuscation so transparent that it quickly gets irksome... The real damage to the serial is done by its tedious pacing; in order to fill the aforementioned five hours, characters waste far too much time in conversations that lead nowhere, variously plotting their moves, pondering over suspicious incidents, or vehemently but pointlessly bickering with each other. The dialogue in these scenes is so mediocrely written and (in some cases) so poorly delivered that it’s not even interesting, unlike similarly oversized portions of talk in Universal’s serials from the same era." In the opinion of author William C. Cline, Robert Kent as police investigator Bob Stewart was the only sane characterization in a "complicated melange of victims and suspects... ther charactersseemed lost in a swirl of plots, counterplots and cross plots that none of them could understand."

Chapter titles

# Avenging Visitor # The Unknown Strikes # Held For Murder # A Killer at Bay # Human Bait # The Plunge of Doom # A Date with Fate # Invisible Hands # Fate's Vengeance # The Unknown Killer # Riding to Oblivion # The Tank of Terror # White Terror # A Cry in the Night # The Guilty One _Source:

References

External links

* {{Sam Katzman 1945 films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures film serials 1940s English-language films American mystery films Films directed by Howard Bretherton 1945 mystery films Films with screenplays by George H. Plympton 1940s American films Films produced by Sam Katzman English-language mystery films