This isn’t one of those tough cases which depends on clues. – Lady in the Death House (1944)
Lady in the Death House (1944)
Film Noir is a dark alley of human misery. Today I wanted to go further into the alley than most people ever venture. I dropped to the end of my List of All Film Noirs and selected two films from the bottom of the pile based solely on their titles.
Today we will take on the first of these Film Noirs, and the other will follow in the future. This film has one of the most unusual problems a character faces in any film. In a lot of ways, this film might have made a better horror film with its plot and horror connections,
Hello to all of the classic people that are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors and let you know there will be spoilers ahead.
Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Lady in the Death House (1944). This film was directed by Steve Sekely and stared Jean Parker, Lionel Atwill, and Douglas Fowley. It is an odd tale of justice, betrayal, and redemption. I have to say I expected this to be terrible, but it was okay, and I enjoyed watching it.
This film has a critically low 5.3 rating on iMDB.com[1]. On Rottentomatoes.com, the film has neither a Tomatometer nor an audience score.[2] Reviews are scant for this film, but the opinion seems it is better than expected or not bad as expected.
Actors – Lady in the Death House (1944)
Returning
The single returning actor is Lionel Atwill. This and a few other reasons are why I think this could be a fine horror film. Or at least had the start of one. I will hit on this as we go along. Atwill was first covered in Son of Frankenstein (1939).
New
Jean Parker played the role of the condemned Mary Kirk (Logan). Parker was born in Montana in 1915, although there is some reporting of a different name, town, and birth year. Her father was a hunter and gunsmith. Her birth mother later worked in the MGM set department. She worked on National Velvet (1944), Forbidden Planet (1956), Raintree County (1957), and many others.
Somewhere between the age of 6 to 10, Parker’s family fell on hard times. She was adopted by a family living in Pasadena, California. Parker graduated from high school and was focused on drawing and art. Around 1932, she entered a drawing contest for the upcoming Olympics. Parker won the contest, and the lovely young lady was contacted by MGM. Following a successful screen test, she signed a contract with the studio.
Parker had her screen debut in 1932, and that same year, she had an uncredited part in Rasputin and the Empress (1932). That’s the one with all those Barrymore’s. Parker was very active in film, and some of her better-known movies include Little Women (1933) with Katharine Hepburn, Sequoia (1934), Operator 13 (1934) with Marion Davies, The Ghost Goes West (1935) with Robert Donat, The Traitor Within (1942), Tomorrow We Live (1942) with Ricardo Cortez, The Gunfighter (1950) with Gregory Peck, and Bluebeard (1944) with the great John Carradine. Beginning around 1951, Parker was more active on television than in movies.
Parker’s last acting credit was in 1965. She moved into the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in 1998 and died there at 90 in 2005.
Douglas Fowley played the doctor with a secret, Dr. Dwight ‘Brad’ Bradford. I have mentioned Fowley several times but have not done a short bio on him until now. Fowley was born in 1911 in New York City. Fowley moved to Los Angeles and studied at Los Angeles City College.
Fowley began working on stage and entertaining in clubs. His first film role was The Mad Game (1933) with Claire Trevor and Spencer Tracy. This role as an uncredited gangster led to a career with 337 film and television credits.
Fowley took time from his career to join the Navy during World War II. Fowley was injured during an explosion on his aircraft carrier. This resulted in his losing most of his teeth.
An abbreviated list of Fowley’s roles includes 20 Mule Team (1940), Chick Carter, Detective (1946), Fall Guy (1947), Mighty Joe Young (1949), Battleground (1949), where his missing teeth were featured as part of the movie, Armored Car Robbery (1950), Angels in the Outfield (1951), not the one with Danny Glover and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Singin’ in the Rain (1952), The High and the Mighty (1954), The Naked Jungle (1954), Raiders of Old California (1957), Walking Tall (1973), and his final film, The North Avenue Irregulars (1979) a fun little movie where six church ladies play detective.
Fowley worked on television, with his best-known role being Doc Holiday in “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” 1955-1961. Fowley died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in 1998.
As a note, Fowley was married 8 times. Wow. What’s the common denominator?
Story – Lady in the Death House (1944)
The credits roll over the shadow of an electric chair and prison bars. The outside of a prison is shown, and then the camera goes inside to a co-ed death row wing. Mary Kirk (Jean Parker) feverishly works on a letter in one of the cells as the hours tick away.
The matron arrives to escort Mary to be executed. Mary asks for and is granted a little time to finish her letter. When Mary is taken from her cell, she gives the letter to a trustee and says it is for Mr. Finch.
The narration begins, and the voice is Dr. Charles Finch’s (Lionel Atwill). He begins with talk of the last long walk to death and then brings up the morals of state execution without taking a side. He also talks about Mary being unafraid as she walks the 39 steps.
The scene switches to Dr. Finch reading Mary’s letter saying she will die in an hour. He reads on saying she will be killed by the hand of the man she loves. There are four reporters holding court around Dr. Finch. One of the reporters complements Finch for working on the case until the last minute. Finch says Dr. Dwight ‘Brad’ Bradford (Douglas Fowley) should be the focus of their stories.
Finch holds a door key and says it’s Exhibit A in solving the case. He also says it will go into his case of trophies from famous cases he has solved. Finch is a psychologist that focuses on criminology.
Finch begins telling the story of meeting Brad one night at The Grotto. Finch sits at the bar next to Brad, who is wearing a trench coat and looks pretty distracted. Brad accidentally drinks from Finch’s glass. He quickly apologizes, and Finch offers to buy the worried man a drink.
At a table, a rude man is calling for more drinks. Mary is sitting at the table with the rude man.
Brad and Finch watch and talk. Brad says he is doing medical research. Brad says he has another job. The rude man knocks over a heating tray at the table, and the flames set Mary’s dress on fire. Finch quickly covers the flames with his overcoat while Brad sprays Mary with a seltzer bottle.
Brad wraps the coat around Mary and carries her outside. Finch sends the rude man away, giving him the seltzer bottle as a drinking companion. Because it’s Finch’s coat, he tags along with the new couple.
When they arrive at Mary’s apartment, a couple is in the car parked outside. Suzy Kirk (Marcia Mae Jones) runs into the building. Criminologist Finch notes the rapid departure. Brad unloads Mary from the taxi, leaving Finch to pay the bill. Finch notes that detailed silhouettes of the people in Mary’s apartment can be seen from the street.
Finch buzzes the doorbell and is admitted by the sparkling young Suzy. Mary asks Suzy if she just came in. The younger sister makes a clumsy lie that she has been at home. Finch notes the lie.
The scene returns to Finch briefing the reporters. He says he knew Suzy was lying. He tells that sometime later, Brad invited Finch to visit his laboratory.
At the laboratory, they drink bourbon and seltzer. Brad immediately begins to talk about the late Dr. Zigfield, who claimed to have revived animals after being dead for long periods. I think the man when by Dr. Frankenstein before he was Dr. Zigfield.
Brad says he believes Zigfield was correct and that life is in the cells of living things. Finch takes it all in stride. Brad reveals that he is the state executioner and is paid to flip the switch on condemned people. For some reason, this is shocking to Finch. Brad does the job because he gets paid and sometimes can study the bodies. Brad drops the bomb that he wants to marry Mary and is concerned about telling her about his extra job. Brad invited Finch to dine with him and Mary at The Grotto.
Mary joins the two men at the club. Mary says that a man named Richard was looking for Suzy, so she left word where her sister could find her. Brad is nervous and can’t get the proposal out. Finally, Finch does it for him. Brad finally gets the proposal out. Finch begins to leave, but Brad asks him to stay. Finch sends Brad to the bar and plans to talk with Mary about Brad being an executioner.
When Mary is told about Brad’s job, she says there is no way she could be married to an executioner. Suzy arrives and insists on speaking with Mary alone. Finch tells Brad the bad news about the marriage. Suzy is trying to get money from Mary for her friend, but she won’t give any details. Mary leaves the diner and says there is no more to say.
Back in the room with the reporters, Finch continues his story. He says time passed, and Brad was very dejected. Finch returns to the letter and reads that something from her father’s past provided a motive for the murder she was charged with and condemned for.
A court binder is shown for The State vs. Thomas P. Logan et al. It then cuts to Mary working in a bank office. She asks the manager Mr. Gregory (George Irving) if she can permanently store the Logan files. Gregory replies that he was too smart for that crook. He said he was a part of the civic committee that forced the notorious criminal out of business, resulting in Logan’s death. Gregory also mentions that Logan had two daughters that the former tried to have placed in reform school, but a relative took them away. He says blood will tell. Gregory tells that Mary is the only employee that didn’t have a detailed background check because she was hired on the word of a friend.
Mary goes home for the day. Shortly after she arrives, a man, Willis Millen (Dick Curtis), buzzes and pushes inside. Mary says he should never come to her home because Suzy might find out. Millen says he is leaving town but first wants a collection from his “friend.” Millen says he helped Tom Logan and will tell Gregory if she doesn’t come through with some money. He has been blackmailing Mary for some time.
On the street, Mr. Avery (Byron Foulger) and an unidentified woman watch the conversation play out in silhouettes on the shades. Millen wants $500, which Mary has saved for Suzy’s college. Mary runs into the bedroom and locks her door. Suddenly, Millen’s shadow is knocked in the head by a large statue. Mary runs out of her room onto the street below.
The street watches go into the apartment and find Millen still alive. His last words are, “Mary, why did you.” Avery calls the police.
Finch and Brad are dining in The Grotto, and Finch is about to tell Brad he has found a position for him. Suddenly, Mary runs into the club. Mary asks the two men to go with her.
Mary, Finch, Brad, Avery, the street woman, and detective Cy Kendall are in Mary’s apartment. Kendall is putting the screws to Mary. She refuses to tell the identity of Millen. Suzy comes in, and, under questioning, she asks if the dead man was the blackmailer. Mary tells the dead man’s name, and Kendall remembers him as the frontman for Tom Logan in the pinball racket. A pinball racket, that’s the crime? Oh god, I hope they don’t move up to Pacman. Mary denies killing Millen and says she wasn’t in the room.
Finch starts breaking down the case Kendall is making against Mary. Finch finds a key on the floor and secretly picks it up.
Finch talks with the reporters about the key and his not knowing why it was important. Finch continues that the key did not fit anything at Millen’s apartment. He then asks Suzy about her boyfriends. Suzy wouldn’t provide any information. He continues that he found a print on the statue that matched one on the key. Also, there were plenty of Mary’s prints on the murder weapon. Finch continues to read from the letter.
Finch visits with Gregory, and the bank man is stunned that Logan’s daughter worked for him. Finch says it will help Gregory feel vindicated if he helps prove Mary is innocent.
Back in the room with the reporters, Finch continues reading Mary’s letter describing how she does not blame the jury and that the entire trial was a nightmare for her.
The scene switches to the trial. Suzy testified that she had met Millen and knew about the blackmail. Gregory testifies and goes after the ghost of Thomas Logan. Suzy tells Finch that she thinks her sister is guilty. Mr. Avery testifies to what he saw and heard the night of the murder. Avery says he is sure it was Mary that killed Millen.
Mary takes the stand and tells the true story. By the faces of Finch and Suzy, she doesn’t get the sympathy she expected. The DA gives a much better closing than the defense. The jury finds Mary guilty and orders that she be executed on the night of April 15th. Question; does she have to pay her taxes for that year?
Mary and Brad exchange loving glances until Mary remembers she is looking at her future executioner. Finch continues the story in the room with the reporters, saying neither had thought about Brad being the executioner. One of the reporters asks if he might be planning to bring her back to life. There’s that horror story again.
Finch and Brad still believe Mary to be innocent. Finch says that the next thing to do is to go after Suzy. He says Suzy was emotionally unstable but truly believed Mary was guilty, thus seeing no reason to implicate any of her boyfriends.
Finch meets with Suzy to propose another killer. Finch proposes that the killer came in the back door with a key Suzy gave him. She is indignant but eventually gives up the man she was with the first night they met. Suzy eventually gives the name Bill Elsworth. Finch knows she’s lying and gets all her boyfriend’s names.
Finch tracks them all down, removing them from the list as they are cleared of being involved in the murder. Back in the room with the reporters, Finch says that Suzy was lying and the search was of no help.
Finch had also investigated the murdered man Millen’s associates and found nothing. He also says that Thomas Logan ran a legitimate business until the city council made pinball illegal and that Gregory was trying to make a name for himself by attacking Logan.
Finch says that Mary’s appeal was denied, and he traveled to the prison to see her. At the prison, Mary, on the co-ed death row, is given the news that Finch has found nothing to save her. Finch asks Mary for the name of the man Suzy wanted money for on the night Brad proposed. Suzy wanted $1,000 for her friend. Mary cannot remember the name. Brad is hanging around the cell, still professing his love for her. Finch says he will talk to Suzy again.
Finch, in the room with the reporters, reads the closing of Mary’s letter. Mary has accepted the fact that Brad is going to be her executioner.
Finch was at The Grotto earlier that night, and Suzy came in to meet him. At the table, he pulls out the key he found the night of the murder and tells Suzy she holds the key to her sister’s life. She tries to leave, and he threatens to take her to jail. Suzy slips and calls the key a car key.
Brad is waiting with a trustee at the prison, hoping for a call from Finch or the state governor.
Finch continues to work on Suzy. She gives it away when she looks at a flashing neon sign above the bar saying, Richardson Ale. Finch remembers the name as Richard. Finch says he will not reveal her name if she tells the truth. Finch tricks Suzy into admitting that Richard has a key to Mary’s apartment backdoor. Suzy can’t believe her boyfriend is leaving town that night.
Finch and Suzy go to Richard’s car. Finch uses a key to access the garage. Inside the garage, the key Finch found fits the car.
There is still a half hour before the execution.
Richard Snell (John Maxwell) comes to the garage and finds it open. Richard enters and is confronted by Suzy. Richard says he wouldn’t have to leave town if she had gotten him the money. Suzy bluffs by saying, why didn’t you take Millen’s money? When he starts to attack, Finch steps in and stops him.
Back in the room with the reporters, Finch explains that Richard worked at Gregory’s bank and had been embezzling money. Finch explains how on the night of the murder, Richard snuck into the back of Mary’s apartment. He saw the wad of money that Millen had with him. When Mary ran into her room, Richard took the statue and killed Millen. He heard Mary coming out of her room and ran away before he could rob Millen.
Finch takes Suzy to the police station and telephones the governor. No one is sure where the governor had gone following his speech. Finch gets a police escort to the prison while Suzy stays behind to keep calling for the governor. A montage of calls, wires, and switchboards are shown.
The chauffer Jennings, who is not listed on iMDB.com, and Gov. Harrison (Sam Flint) go to a special place. Seeing how it was a governor and a special place, I assumed it was a strip club. Jennings says it’s not a nice place for a governor to be seen. The governor responds that nice places never have the sandwiches he likes. At the diner, the governor orders two Denver sandwiches smothered with onions. A Denver sandwich is a Denver omelet containing onion, green pepper, and scrambled eggs. This eggy concoction was served between two slices of bread[3].
At the prison, the warden tells Brad it is time to perform the execution. The trustee waits by the phone as Mary makes the long walk. She breaks down a little as she sees old sparky. The shadow is seen being placed in the chair. The warden tells Brad it is time for the execution. Brad man’s up and says he is not pulling the switch until he hears from Finch. The warden tries to pull the switch, but Brad stops him.
Suzy calls the press and begs for help.
The warden gets guards with tear gas to move Brad away. The guards fire tear gas through the door where Brad is guarding the door.
The governor finishes his meal and hears a radio broadcast requesting that he call the warden immediately. The governor jumps on the pay phone.
Brad is dragged from the tear gas-filled room. The warden goes in to pull the switch. The trustee gets the call from the governor at the same time Finch arrives. A montage of the trial and other events is shown. Mary is ordered released.
Back in the room with the reporters, Finch is offered money for Mary’s letter. He says it doesn’t belong to him. It fades into Mary tearing up the letter while seated in The Grotto. Finch also gives Brad a job offer from the Chicago Research Foundation. Apparently, Mary and Brad are married.
Suddenly, they hear a man bellowing for a drink as the waiter sets a warming tray on the table. Mary says they should leave because this is where they came in. Finch says he will stay behind because he still has his overcoat, and you can never tell. He then gives a creepy leer at the woman with the drunk.
Conclusion – Lady in the Death House (1944)
I originally had this film listed at 895 on my List of All Film Noirs based on its low iMDB.com rating. However, after watching the film, I will move it to 350 and see how it compares to other films in that range as I review more.
How the movie was cut and shown with flashbacks from multiple times, the actual killer was never revealed until the end. The governor search sequence was exciting and lifted the value of the ending.
The acting in this film was pretty solid, even though it is considered a Poverty Row production by Producers Releasing Corporation, known as PRC. Jean Parker was solid and came off as a prettier version of Jean Arthur. Douglas Fowley was outstanding in the role, as I have only seen him in character bits before. Marcia Mae Jones was believable as the ditzy Suzy. Lionel Atwill was decisive and strong as the lead Dr. Finch. He came across much like Herbert Marshall as W. Somerset Maugham in The Razor’s Edge (1946). I am somewhat surprised about Atwill’s creepy leer at the end. When this movie was filmed, he was already on probation for crimes related to his sexcapades.
In the laboratory scene, Brad talks about the late Dr. Zigfield, who claimed to have revived animals after they had been dead for long periods of time. He believes he can do the same with humans. As part of his study, he works as an executioner, running the state’s electric chair. Of course, this is the inverse of creating life with electricity, as Dr. Frankenstein did in so many movies.
Lionel Atwill is strongly associated with Dr. Frankenstein have appeared in five of the eight Universal Studios films with Dr. Frankenstein’s monster[4]. These films are Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), and House of Dracula (1945). Also, one of the reporters asked if Brad was planning on reanimating Mary after the execution. It would make an excellent horror film with only a couple of tweaks.
Lady in the Death House (1944) has been overlooked as a Film Noir classic. While it is not The Maltese Falcon (1941), it is worth a watch. Try and find a clean copy and enjoy. Thanks for listening.
World-Famous Short Summary – Boyfriend plans to give his girlfriend a big charge.
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[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037001/
[2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lady_in_the_death_house/
[3] Denver sandwich – Wikipedia
[4] Lionel Atwill – Biography – IMDb
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