FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK

US, 1941, 96 minutes, Black and white.
Errol Flynn, Ralph Bellamy, Brenda Marshall, Lee Patrick, Alan Hale.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

A fluffy detective story comedy mystery. It looks designed to give the veteran Warner Brothers stars and director, Lloyd Bacon, a rest from their musicals or action adventures. Errol Flynn is in an unusual role as the playboy detective. Enjoyable and entertaining, an example of Warner Brothers light film-making in the forties.

1. An enjoyable example of the detective genre of the forties? How has this genre developed over the decades? How does this comedy drama stand in comparison?

2. Warner Bros. forties films, black and white photography, music, the limits of the studio resources, the humour, the visual jokes? The comparison with later decades?

3. Did it matter that the plot was contrived? Audiences enjoying this? The value of the audience knowing the various steps and following along happily?

4. Errol Flynn appropriate as Francis? His flair for comedy? His business personality, his author personality and the concealment of this? His relationship with his wife and mother-in-law? The playboy turned detective? The light American hero of this kind of film? Audience identification with him? The hero who is part of life, but larger because of his capacities for detection?

5. How well developed was the character of the wife? Her involvement in farcical situations of mistaken identity? The mother-in-law, her primness and her interference, the court case, her snobbery, her reaction to the truth at the end?

6. The favourable presentation of the police? The satire on the police, especially the assistant who couldn't be tricked?

7. The character of Blondie White: in the burlesque show, her involvement in the murder and robbery, her involvement with Francia, her death? The irony of Francis's wife being wanted for the murder?

8. Was it evident that the doctor was the criminal? The first visit, Francis's return and the build-up of ironic dialogue about the solution of the murder? The doctor's escape and the foolishness of his return?

9. How well done was the satire on contemporary detective novels, detectives, and the police? The fantasy and reality of crime detection?

10. How good an example of the light touch on murder mysteries was this?