Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Robert J. Maxwell
Spencer Tracy as a star New York reporter in a murder mystery that starts out as a fast-pace comedy and gradually turns dramatic.You'll recognize many of the faces in the supporting cast, even if you don't recognize the names. It's Jimmy Stewart's first film. He's "Shorty", the new reporter. Lionel Atwill gives the only performance in his life where he shows something resembling compassion, instead of his usual clipped authoritarianism.The cop at the merry-go-round is played by James Flavin. A native of Maine and a graduate of West Point, Flavin usually played Irish cops. Actually, he played nothing but Irish cops, and all cops in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s were played by James Flavin. Even the word "flavinoid" was coined to describe a person resembling a cop played by James Flavin. A performance that deliberately spoofs Flavin's notion of a cop is known in the trade as a "riboflavin," originally "rib of Flavin." You don't believe it? Look it up in Wikipedia.I'm trying to avoid any details of the plot because the solution to the mystery may come as a surprise.The first half hour is a shameless rip off of "The Front Page". Even the set design seems to replicate the press room in the play, or at any rate in "His Girl Friday." The pace isn't as fast in "The Murder Man" but still everyone rushes around, shouting fabricated stories into phones. It seems to call for bouncy Jimmy Cagney but he was busy at Warners and perhaps Tracy was better suited to the events leading up to the Big Reveal.Tracy's slouching figure is not exactly heroic. He's a star reporter, so they keep saying, but he disappears for days on end while on a major bender. At first his drunken impertinence is played for laughs. He and his editor at the New York Star grumble at each other, like Clark Gable drunkenly calling his editor a "big palooka" at the opening of "It Happened One Night." At first it seems like just another cheap movie with a fine cast, but after the writers have worked through their imitations and gotten the fake jokes out of the way, it turns rather interesting.
Michael_Elliott
Murder Man, The (1935) *** (out of 4) Very good "B" movie from MGM has Spencer Tracy playing newspaper reporter Steve Grey who has the nickname of "The Murder Man" due to him being able to crack any case. The latest big story deals with a murdered insurance man who appears to have been killed by his partner (Harvey Stephens) but he claims he's innocent and the majority of the evidence from the police captain (Lionel Atwill) really doesn't tie him to the events. THE MURDER MAN looks like it was a rushed job and there's no question not too much money went into it but the cast, story and direction make it a must see and it's really a gem that should be better known. The greatest aspect is certainly the cast as we get veterans like Tracy, Atwill and Virginia Bruce but we also get a small role played by James Stewart. I'm sure a number of lesser actors could have been handed this role but it's quite easy to see that they wouldn't have brought as much to it as Tracy. Tracy has that terrific ability to make acting look easy but the role here was a pretty difficult one because he's character is dealing with alcohol abuse as well as other issues. Tracy does a remarkable job at showing off all of these emotions and while this certainly isn't as great as many of his future roles, the actor really gives it his all and delivers a memorable performance. Bruce is also very good in her role as the girlfriend and the two have some nice chemistry together. I was also quite impressed with Stephens who manages to be quite cocky early in the film and the actor really gets to shine towards the end when he's cracking from about to hit the chair. Stewart doesn't have a very big role but he does what he can with it. I love watching legends before they were stars and here's the perfect example because it's not everyday you can see someone like Stewart playing such a role. Tracy and Stewart share a couple scenes together, which will certainly please film buffs. The story itself is a pretty strong one and when the final twist happens you can't help but feel good that the film would stick to its gun and go for the shock instead of dealing some weak, lame attempt to make everything happy.
sol1218
**SPOILERS**Even though crooked financial investor Henry Mander, Harry Stephens, was nothing but a low down and despicable swine he still didn't deserve the fate that faced him with Mander being just hours away from his trip to the Sing Sing electric chair. Nobody knew that better then the "New York Star" ace crime reporter Stev Gray, Spencer Tracy, yet it was Gray's testimony that put Mander in the very fix that he was in.The movie "The Murder Man" tries and succeeds to convince it's audience that justice should be blind in it's treatment even of someone as guilty as Henry Mander of the financial crimes that he committed against hundreds of unsuspecting victims. Two of Manders many victims included reporters Gray's both father "Pop" Gray, who lost his life savings in one of of Manders schemes, and his wife Dorothy who was driven to suicide by Mander and his partners J.S Halfords,Theodore Von Eltz actions. Halford not only took Dorothy's money but had an illicit affair with her and then unceremoniously dumped Dorothy leaving her estranged from Steve and out on the street. It's obvious right from the start that Mander was set up in the murder of his equally sleazy partner J.S Halford as we see him being told in a mysterious phone call to be at this shooting gallery where someone in the vicinity takes a pot shot at Holford, as he was in his open air limousine, that killed him. It doesn't take that long for the police to arrest Mander for his partners Halfords murder and the evidence is that Mander is to be the recipient of a $200,000.00 insurance policy on Halford.Being the star witness at Manders murder trial Gray's testimony is the icing on the cake that convinced the jury to come back with a guilty verdict that was to send Mander to the electric chair. Having the exclusive to the biggest news story in the city Gray doesn't at all act as if you, or his fellow reporters, expect him to and goes on a drinking binge that has his boss at "The Star" news editor Hal Robins, Robert Barrat, order Gray to take a forced vacation and dry out.Gray is obviously suffering some kind of severe depression over Manders impending execution but it takes an exclusive interview with Mander just before his scheduled execution for us the realize why. Gray had a lot more to do with Mander's crime and later conviction for it that anyone, but Gray, could have ever imagined and it's the absolutely shocking and surprising conclusion of the movie that put that all into focus.Powerful crime film that goes against the grain in it's treatment of both the killer and his victim that will really blow you away. Spencer Tracy as Steve Gray gives one of his most underrated as well as, being that the film is almost totally unknown to most movie goers, unseen performance of his long and distinguished career. The movie "The Murder Man" also has the distinction of being James 'Jimmy" Stewart's motion picture debut. The tall, six foot three inch, and lanky Stewart plays Steve Gray's fellow reporter on "The Star" who's ironically referred to by everyone in the movie as "Shorty"!
bkoganbing
This was one of the first features that Spencer Tracy did for his new studio MGM when they signed him in 1935. At his first studio, 20th Century Fox he was cast in a whole lot of routine action pictures as a two-fisted rugged type in whatever role he played. It's no different here, in fact until he played Father Mullin in San Francisco, Tracy's MGM career promised more roles of the same type.Here he's a newspaper reporter in the best tradition of The Front Page which this film borrows a lot from. He's called The Murder Man because he's the one the editor, Robert Barrat, call for when he wants coverage on any homicide. He's covering one in this film concerning an investment broker (con artist) who's accused of killing his partner. In fact Tracy provides key evidence for a conviction. The movie does have a surprise ending which I won't reveal, unusual for a film in the 1930s. That and the presence of Spencer Tracy and James Stewart make it worth viewing.This was the film debut of James Stewart. He has a role of another reporter on the same paper as Tracy. He was signed by MGM after appearing on Broadway in the play Yellow Jacket and garnering rave reviews. He's the same Jimmy Stewart that soon became an icon, but he didn't get much attention for the few lines he had here. He would have to wait for his next film appearance in Rose Marie to get moviegoers attention.
