THE BLACK DOLL

US, 1938, 66 minutes, Black-and-white.
Donald Woods, Nan Grey, Edgar Kennedy, C.Henry Gordon, Doris Lloyd, Addison Richards, Holmes Herbert, William Lundigan, Fred Malatesta.
Directed by Otis Garrett.

The film is an interesting murder mystery and there are quite a number of twists. There is a discussion of the opening with the view of the man to be murdered is after money, check from his uncle, indulged by his mother. He obviously will be one of the suspects. However, the focus is on the rich man, who discovered mine in Mexico, splitting money with his partners, but one of them disappearing, possibly killed. The murdered man has a daughter and it was her black doll which lead to the discovery of the mine.

The doll appears on the desk of the murdered man. And he summons his two partners he has not seen in years. Two more suspects.

The daughter is present when her father is killed but collapses.

Most of the film is taken up with the interviews, some of twists, a most inept sheriff, rather irritating for the audience because of his stupidity, but the young woman’s boyfriend who has detecting skills (Donald Woods) feeding ideas to the sheriff and ultimately solving the case.

There are Hispanic servants, the local doctor who has a relationship with the dead man’s sister (and it becomes evident to most audiences well before the end that he is the murderer.)