Night Club Scandal | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Ralph Murphy |
Screenplay by | Lillie Hayward |
Produced by | William LeBaron |
Starring | John Barrymore Lynne Overman Louise Campbell Charles Bickford Harvey Stephens J. Carrol Naish Evelyn Brent |
Cinematography | Leo Tover |
Edited by | Archie Marshek |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Night Club Scandal is a 1937 American thriller film directed by Ralph Murphy and written by Lillie Hayward, based on a play by Daniel Nathan Rubin. [2] The film stars John Barrymore, Lynne Overman, Louise Campbell, Charles Bickford, Harvey Stephens, J. Carrol Naish and Evelyn Brent. It was released on November 11, 1937 by Paramount Pictures. [3] [1]
After murdering his unfaithful wife in his apartment, Dr. Ernest Tindal leaves before his wife's lover Frank discovers the body. Frank panics and flees, leaving his fingerprints. He is arrested, convicted and condemned to die.
A newspaper reporter, Kirk, and a police captain, McKinley, continue to investigate. Kirk becomes attracted to Vera, the suspect's sister. They successfully prove that Frank was falsely accused while Tindal conspires with gangsters Jack and Julia Reed, hoping to escape implication in the crime. Tindal shoots Jack but is taken into custody by McKinley.
In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Bosley Crowther called Night Club Scandal a "workmanlike and reasonably exciting melodrama" and wrote:
The screen's finest Westphalian is still being purveyed by John Barrymore ... The role is merely a quoditian chore for John, but he brings it to a Barrymore-ish dignity, authority and presence which add immeasurably to its dramatic effectiveness. Though not especially "ambitious" in a productional sense, the film itself—largely in consequence—may be counted among the more tolerable of recent corpse operas. [1]