Murder at the Vanities *** (1934, Jack Oakie, Victor McLaglen, Carl Brisson, Kitty Carlisle, Gertrude Michael) – Classic Movie Review 11,458

Director Mitchell Leisen’s 1934 musical murder mystery film Murder at the Vanities stars Jack Oakie, Victor McLaglen, Carl Brisson, Kitty Carlisle, and Gertrude Michael, and is based on the 1933 Broadway show, Earl Carroll’s long-running Broadway revue Earl Carroll’s Vanities, with music by Victor Young.

Jack Ellery (Oakie) is staging a lavish musical revue featuring Eric Lander (Brisson), Ann Ware (Carlisle) and Rita Ross (Michael), as well as 100 singer-dancers and two full orchestras. Then music-hall artiste Rita Ross is murdered while singing ‘Sweet Marijuana’ (a song in praise of marijuana from those pre-Hayes Code days), and the hunt, led by police lieutenant Murdock McLaglen, a detective of the homicide squad, is on for her killer. This provides Gertrude Michael with perhaps her best remembered role as Rita Ross in one of the last pre-Code films, and her finest moment in which she sings the ode to marijuana.

Murder at the Vanities is a successful, entertaining blend of backstage murder mystery and (more enjoyably) old-fashioned Hollywood musical, with plenty of song and dance numbers, including the show-stopping ‘Cocktails for Two’. The music and performances prove more enjoyable than the predictable plot revelations.

Songs featured by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow most notably include ‘Cocktails for Two’ sung by Brisson, ‘Sweet Marijuana’ sung by Michael, ‘Where Do They Come From (and Where Do They Go)’ sung by Carlisle, and ‘Ebony Rhapsody’ by Ellington.

Also in the cast are Kitty Carlisle, Gertrude Michael, Toby Wing, Jessie Ralph, Dorothy Stickney, Gail Patrick, and Donald Meek, while Duke Ellington and his Orchestra are featured in the elaborate finale number.

Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan (as Clara Lou Sheridan) and Virginia Davis appear in small walk-on roles as chorus girls.

It was released on 7 April 2009 on DVD as part of the six-disc set Pre-Code Hollywood Collection.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,458

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