Crime Unlimited (1935)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

disgusting, overrated, pointless

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Allegedly based on the 1933 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott, the British movie "Ctime Unlimited" bears little resemblance to this source at all and in actual fact was based on the 1894 novel, Trilby, by George Du Maurier - a property that Warner Brothers also owned. The most notable film version of Trilby was Svengali (1931) in which John Barrymore played the title character. On this occasion, the role is played - and played well - by sanpaku-eyed Herbert Lom, while Anne Crawford makes a most effective Trilby and David Farrar a more powerful and charismatic Little Billee. The setting has been cleverly changed from opera to a circus, enabling director Harlow to incorporate a number of genuine acts, including a thrilling sequence in which a clown performs a number of breathtaking high wire stunts. Nominal star, Ben Lyon, doesn't get too much in the way. Production values impress and the noirish photography by Otto Heller is a stand-out, particularly in the Herbert Lom sequences.

The situation was this. In 1927 (according to Robert Osborne in introducing this and two other films on TCM) a British law insisted that British casts and crews had to be used in films shown in the U.K. by foreign distributors. Warner Brothers - First National got around this by doing films at a British studio they bought at Teddington - so that they would show one of the British films with one of their American films on the same bill. This proved to be acceptable, and they would turn out about 100 films in the 1930s and 1940s, before the studio was closed due to bomb damage from a V-2 rocket. Later it was repaired, but the law was changed and Warners sold Teddington to British interest. It still is in use.Only a third of the Warners Teddington films survive, and Turner Classics showed three last Monday, and three a week before - all shown the first time in the U.S. The first shown on Monday was CRIME UNLIMITED. This melodrama fits nicely into it's London locale, as it deals with a phenomenally successful jewelry gang under one "Merrick" that keeps beating Scotland Yard's attempts to stop it. When they kill an undercover cop (they've also killed three stool pigeons), the Yard knows it must crack the case to regain public trust in it's abilities. The dead detective held onto a clue that mentions "A D 1935 +" on it. Hopefully this taunting clue can be cracked. The Assistant Commissioner (Cecil Parker) decides on another risky scheme. Again, plant a police inspector to spy and uncover the gang inside the gang. But to do this, the police inspector must appear to be a really clever jewel thief - one that "Merrick" would consider for his gang. Shortly afterward we see Esmond Knight as Pete Borden, pulling off a clever jewelry snatch of three expensive bracelets worth 3,000 pounds. He manages to go to a gambling den to try to fence the jewels. There he meets one Natasha (Lili Palmer), who is one of the members of "Merrick"'s gang. He is taken (blindfolded) to Merrick's headquarters, and speaks to him over an intercom. Given little option (join or be killed), he joins the gang.From that point on he acts totally as a member of the gang, but their well organized heists keep going awry. "Merrick" is increasingly suspicious of Borden, as all the mistakes occurred after he joined. The climax is when Borden and Natasha steal a famous necklace at a society party, although Borden's alias is revealed to be false. He escapes. But although Natasha gets a piece of jewelry, it turns out to be a paste imitation. At which point "Merrick" decides Borden (and possibly Natasha) are expendable.It's actually not a bad little mystery, as we keep wondering who is "Merrick", and as we see each of Borden's leads passed to the police get stymied by this criminal genius and his gang. If the conclusion seems a trifle melodramatic (the actor who is Merrick seems too giggly when uncovered - the role called for Henry Daniell if possible for perfect affect). Knight is a feisty little actor (with sufficient English restraint, believe it or not). As for Lili Palmer, Natasha was a good early role as a bad girl who reforms in time. But she did go on to better things - and for awhile so did Knight.

This film is a mystery which concerns a rather sick man who loves to play chess and laughs like a Bela Lugosi who loves to cause all kinds of problems and is being investigated by Pete Borden, (Esmond Knight) as an undercover police man and gets deeply involved with Natasha, (Lilli Palmer) who made her first film debut and adds a great deal of charm to this rather old B picture from England and produced by First National Pictures. If you are interested what woman's hairs styles looked like and the clothes that they wore, this is a great film to enjoy along with the old automobiles that were driven during the Year 1935. Lilli Palmer was so well liked, she eventually came to the United States and married Rex Harrison and the both of them had a great career together.

It zips along quickly, like most B productions, with little wasted motion and no time spent on incidental events or reality intrusions. It's a British crime thriller starring Esmond Knight and Lilli Palmer and was made in 1935, about the time Hitchcock was hitting his stride in the same arena.You can't help wondering, as this thing rolls along in its complicated but uninspired way, like any cheap second feature starring Boston Blackie or Charlie Chan, what Hitchcock would have done with it. There's even a scene shot in an illegal casino in which one of the villains is eating a meal. And that's it. He just eats. All the scenes show about as much interest on the part of the participants as this one, as exciting as watching a barnacle clinging to a rock.Lilli Palmer plays a slightly tarnished moll who falls for the hero and turns good. She's recognizable to those familiar with her later films only because her voice is the same. It's really strange. She was 21 when this was released and quite pretty. Ten or fifteen years later she was beautiful. Did she get a nose job, or what? Unless you have a taste for old-fashioned crime films with the undercover Scotland Yard agent finally trapping the cackling villain -- "Of course, you think I'm mad. I prefer to call it genius." -- you might better think about spending your time doing something other than this absolutely formulaic B film.