The dude on the left? The cops jailed him for stealing scenes.
The Sphinx (1933) presents a classic murder mystery – when a deaf, mute man is the most likely suspect in a murder, and yet deliberately makes conversation with a nearby janitor, well then just who goldarn did it?
But there’s more going on here. A young woman reporter gets to interview, on an ongoing basis, the murder suspect after he’s found innocent, and is enraptured by his eloquent silence and philanthropic ways. Meanwhile, she’s receiving insistent warnings from the wannabe boyfriend, as well as a cop, that she’s in a dangerous situation.
The lady’s intuition, of course, wins out.
And the bodies are piling up. Who knows what about the financial business, and why does that make them targets of the mad man with the big hands?
For all the nice complexity, the flat acting is a bit of a drag. It made me a little impatient. On the other hand, credit where due: the cops were not a member of the trope common to the era, which is the irritating, farcical nobodies. Authentic or not, these cops were serious characters with believable motivations and actions. A relief for those of us who are not fans of the farce.
It’s not a bad little story. It could have been better.
