Footsteps in the Dark
Footsteps in the Dark
NR | 08 March 1941 (USA)
Footsteps in the Dark Trailers

A high-society gent has a secret life - he writes murder mysteries and hangs out with the police attempting to solve crimes. This causes him no end of problems when his wife wants to know about his little disappearances and exceptionally late nights out.

Reviews
CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!
Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Edgar Allan Pooh . . . for an hour and a half during FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK. This flick is structured pretty much as a spoof of THE MALTESE FALCON, but short-sighted set decorators forgot to include an iconic prop which could be auctioned off for millions 75 years later. No harm done, since if you pro-rate the enduring entertainment value of FOOTSTEPS against that of FALCON, a hypothetical objective correlative for FOOTSTEPS might go for about 59 cents at the final gavel at Bonham's today. Mr. Flynn looks somewhat lost without his sword, and one glance at co-star Brenda Marshall is enough to see why the prop people "kept it real" by placing her and husband DON JUAN in twin beds. It's too bad Lucile Watson, who plays Flynn's live-in mother-in-law Agatha, wasn't around to take a similar role in TV's BEWITCHED a couple decades later--Ms. Watson makes a far better nag than Agnes Moorehead. Maybe you can only get away with James Cagney's grapefruit scene once in Tinsel Town, but Flynn Coulda-been-a-contender for PUBLIC ENEMY, JUNIOR, if he'd ad-libbed a Double Grapefruit during FOOTSTEP's breakfast episode.
blanche-2 "Footsteps in the Dark" is a 1941 film briskly directed by Lloyd Bacon. It stars Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Alan Hale, Lee Patrick, Lucille Watson, Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, William Frawley, and Turhan Bey.Flynn plays an investment broker leading a double life as a mystery writer, the author of a book called "Footsteps in the Dark." Only his chauffeur knows the truth. When he becomes involved in a real-life murder, his situation starts to create havoc at home.This is a pretty good mystery story, though one can figure it out fairly quickly, and it's enlivened by a wonderful cast. Flynn is delightful and funny, particularly when he's disguised as a Texas oil man, Tex. The unusual-looking Marshall is his frustrated wife and does a fine job, as does the tart-tongued Lucille Watson as his suspicious mother-in-law. Turhan Bey has a small part as a houseman, and he's very exotic. Hale and Frawley are the bumbling police.All in all, good fun, and a nice departure for Flynn.
lordhack_99 By that I mean that the actors are pros, the cinematography is superior, the music is excellent, the opening scene under the credits is neat, the underlying idea is very good - and this mess is like watching someone trying to paint a landscape on a bucking horse. Jamming the mysterioso together with a domestic spat can be heavenly if done right - and I had just watched THE THIN MAN. After watching that film, and then this dog's dinner was painful. And I so wanted it to work!! But how can a film go off in three directions in 96 minutes and still bore us?To think that the screenwriters were blacklisted because they were Reds almost begs the idea that they ought to have been blacklisted for stirring up this junk.
MartinHafer The synopsis from IMDb aside, I liked this movie a lot. Probably because it was quite a departure for Flynn and because it was a rather breezy little comedy. For what this movie tried to be, it did a good job accomplishing it.Flynn has a double life. Though a rich and socially adept man much of the time, he hides a darker side to his personality--he writes cheap mystery books that poke fun of the very sort of people that he pals around with at the expensive clubs and dinner parties. Knowing that this would ruin his reputation, he naturally keeps this from everyone--including his own family! When, quite accidentally, he stumbles on a REAL mystery, he feels compelled to prove that he really has the stuff to solve crimes--and nearly gets himself killed in the process!Overall, the film excels due to an excellent case, a breezy and likable script and it's "fun factor"--you just can't help but enjoy the film.