Murder in Times Square (1943)

We start with a play closing to a standing ovation on Broadway. Suitably proud, playwright "Cory" (Edmund Lowe) heads out for some after show drinks and that's where he encounters "Longacre Lil" (Esther Dale). She's a local "character" who is after a few dollars. He tells her to get lost and she reciprocates with a curse. Bunkum, thinks he - until later that evening when his is being arrested by the police for murder after accidentally causing a man to fall. Luckily for him, "Supai George" (Bruce Bennett) is on hand and points out that the man was poisoned by a dose of deadly snake venom. The cops are still wary of "Cory" but off he goes into the night determined to find out just what old "Lil" is up to. Oh, and did I say - his fiancée is already married to someone else! Anyway, it seems that this kind of poison is the preferred weapon of choice for someone as soon the bodies start piling up and our writer's future is looking distinctly gloomy. It's a bit all over the place this, but the story has loads of twists and turns and "Lil" turns out to be quite a savvy piece of work as we slaughter our way through an hour towards a denouement that is almost incidental to the story. Indeed, this is more of a collection of mediocre individual acting performances this - rather than a coherent attempt to tell a story and though nobody is ever really quite sure what the reasoning is behind the crimes, that doesn't stop us having an amiable enough ping at the theatre types. Instantly forgettable, but not dreadful.