Dead Men Tell No Tales (1938)
The middle aged matron at a Norwich school wins a large prize in a French lottery. She is murdered in London and the murderer's secretary impersonates her and draws the old lady's prize money. There follows a series of killings until the murderer realises that he is trapped and commits suicide.
Watch Trailer
Free Trial Channels
Cast
Reviews
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
A Matron at a school wins £10000 on a French lottery ticket.Emlyn Williams,the stuffy head,allows her to go to Paris to collect her winnings.She receives a letter from a mysterious financier offering to double her money.Despite Williams warning she meets him in London,is kidnapped and strangled by the financier.His secretary poses as the matron and collects the winnings.She comes back to London with her boyfriend who has a scheme to defraud his father for which £5000 was needed.One of the masters at the school played by Maurius Goring,spots the Matron in London but realises it is not the original woman.However he is later found hanged,maybe suicide.Then the boyfriend is found burned to death in his car.Now if you want to see this film look away now.The problem is that the killer is so readily obvious from the second reel.It is Emlyn Williams.He wears heavy make up and a beard but this cannot effectively disguise him.However the point is that he is the head at a school in Norwich and the financier has his office in the City of London.So how can he be in the same place at once and how can he get so quickly from Norwich to London and back.To make matters worse just as we are getting to the climax the director decides that Williams has got to give us a good show of losing his marbles.So he goes from underplaying the role of the head to chewing the scenery on his crazed transformation.The climatic fight between Emelyn Williams and Hugh Williams is so poorly staged i have no clear idea as to how Emlyn Williams died.All in all a rather disappointing film.