Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

blanche-2 "Moonlight Murder," from 1936, is an operatic mystery. A tenor,Gino (Leo Carrillo), singing Manrico in "Il Trovatore" at the Hollywood Bowl is told by a fortune teller (Pedro de Cordoba) not to perform or he will die. Well, you can't keep a tenor from performing that way. But he does die under mysterious circumstances.Chester Morris plays the detective brought in to investigate. It's a pretty good mystery, and the detective soon learns there are plenty of suspects, including the Gino's cover, who wants to go on in his place, various women, and an escaped lunatic who is angry that Gino did not sing his opera.Some people complained here that there was too much opera. Frankly I could have used more. Of course I love Trovatore. I actually thought the first aria done by Carrillo (who was dubbed by Alfonso Pedroso) was quite good. Most of the singing was okay despite some screechy high notes.A little baby boomer trivia: For us boomers, Carrillo was Pancho on "The Cisco Kid," and the Cisco Kid was Duncan Renaldo - who is listed in the cast here. As a friend of mine used to say, "foreshadowing." Ah, Pancho; ah, Cisco.

blissfilm I just wanted to make a comment about the quality of the singing. While Frank McHugh is always fun to watch, no matter what part he's playing, I kept wondering who was really singing during the operatic performances in the film. I think this page has a listing for the singer dubbing Carillo's part, but not certain about the rest. Anyway, the singing is top notch -- beautiful voices of Metropolitan Opera quality. Sad that this is not appreciated! Carillo was also pretty (deliberately) hilarious in his part, and I enjoyed watching him. Interesting that Duncan Renaldo (a very attractive young tenor in the film) teamed up with Carillo to play Cisco and Pancho in The Cisco Kid later on. This may be classed as a "B" film but there is a great deal of talent here, and Hollywood quality touches (like the truly good singing talent).

kevin olzak 1936's "Moonlight Murder" may be from MGM, but its 'B' status is assured by starring Chester Morris, whose 'A' status had passed, but his solid pedigree remained for second features such as RKO's "Five Came Back," plus all 14 features in Columbia's 'Boston Blackie' series. Leo Carrillo is cast against type as opera crooner/lothario Gino D'Acosta, who has more than a few interested females, an escaped maniac (J. Carrol Naish) determined to do away with him, and a mysterious swami (Pedro de Cordoba) predicting his imminent demise if he performs his next opera. There's plenty of opera, predating "Charlie Chan at the Opera" by at least five months, and it does tend to slow things to a crawl, particularly after the murder, when we're itching for some mystery relief to take charge. Another commentator took note of the method of murder popping up in a 'Mr. Wong' feature, but there also were two Monogram Charlie Chans, plus Universal's 1939 "The House of Fear" as well. Director Edwin L. Marin never seemed to escape the 'B' tag (even at MGM), his best remembered features including his debut "The Death Kiss," "A Study in Scarlet," "Bombay Mail," "The Crosby Case," "The Casino Murder Case," "The Garden Murder Case," "A Christmas Carol," "Invisible Agent," "Tall in the Saddle," and "Nocturne."

kidboots Chester Morris and Madge Evans head an absolutely stellar cast (well, this was MGM - even their B movies were made with class and sophistication). This snappy murder mystery is set at the Hollywood Bowl, amidst Grand Opera and prima donnas!!The dress rehearsal of "Il Travatore" is not going smoothly - dancers have their mind on other things and the lead tenor, Gino D'Acosta (Leo Carrillo) has just been told by a fortune teller that if he sings tomorrow, he will die!! As he is temperamental, egotistical and a womanizer, there are no end of suspects. There is an unhinged composer, Bejac (J. Carroll Naish), a tenor eager to replace him, a jealous wife and an unhappy dancer who carries knives (Duncan Reynaldo). For a while Bejac is safely in custody, being driven to the local asylum but he manages to overpower his guards and is soon back at the Hollywood Bowl and at the top of the list of suspects. The conductor (H.B. Warner) proves to be pretty callous, the way he organises back up singers only moments after Gino meets his death.Chester Morris breezes through his role as the enthusiastic sleuth with his usual professionalism and Madge Evans makes a very attractive scientist. J. Carroll Naish adds another to his long list of superlative characterizations and one person you can definitely count on for laughs is Frank McHugh.This movie went through quite a few name changes - "Hollywood Bowl", "Murder Under the Stars" and "Murder in the Bowl". I actually liked the Opera and thought this movie had the perfect blend of music and murder.Recommended.