The King Murder
The King Murder
NR | 10 October 1932 (USA)
The King Murder Trailers

A beautiful blonde makes a career out of seducing and then blackmailing wealthy married men. She is found murdered after demanding a $5000 payoff from her latest victim, and the detective investigating the case finds out that she was involved in a lot more than just blackmail.

Reviews
Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
fwdixon I watched this movie as an entry on one of those "50 Movies" DVD sets (Crime Classics), so maybe I didn't get the highest quality video around. Nevertheless, I found this movie to be stultifyingly bad. The script is muddled and confusing. Characters come and go and the time line is jarring and confusing. The acting generally sub-par, with the best performance being turned in by Maurice Black, probably best known for his role as "Little Arnie" Lorch in "Little Caesar". The audio is terrible and at time unintelligible. The cinematography is primitive and looks many times as if filmed in a closet. Don't get me wrong, I like "bad" movies but more in the vein of Ed Wood bad. This film has nothing to offer the viewer on any level.
JohnHowardReid It's a remarkable fact that some of the "B" directors like Richard Thorpe adapted to sound much faster than acclaimed "A" leaders like John Ford and Howard Hawks. Thorpe's Border Romance (1929) is very competently made indeed, and in this 1932 production he could still give some of the masters a keen lesson in pacing. Indeed, the first two reels move with such celerity that the average viewer needs to be really on his toes to keep up with the plot. And at this stage it's worth paying attention, because the sultry Dorothy Revier is right up there on the screen. When she is killed, the pace slows somewhat when the focus shifts to Marceline Day (who is too rake-thin for my taste) and plodding-as-she-goes hero, Conway Tearle. Nonetheless, the mystery is still intriguing enough, and Thorpe makes good use of Universal's standing sets to give the movie a bit of class. Natalie Moorhead is exotic enough to command a bit of interest, and an outstanding cameo by Rose Dione also helps. Alas, as usual in many of these Poverty Row thrillers, the solution to the mystery is somewhat contrived. Also disappointing is the revelation of the actual killer. In fact the whole climax is a letdown. One gets the impression that the producer ran out of money at this stage and simply wound the film down. Curtain!
kidboots Classy Natalie Moorehead plays Beth Hawthorn, who is worried her fiancée is involved with a notorious gold-digger, Miriam King (Dorothy Reiver). Miriam is being blackmailed by a Mr. Scott and agrees to ask one of her lovers for the $5,000 needed. Before she can obtain the money she is murdered.Pretty Marceline Day plays Pearl Hope, Miriam's former room-mate. She is in love with Marino (Don Alvarado, a Latin type actor in vogue in the early sound era) who was also involved with Miriam months before. Everybody is implicated in the murder.Conway Tearle, a matinée idol of the silent screen, plays the chief detective. Maurice Black, who had a long list of credits usually playing ethnics was Mr. Scott.The story isn't much although there are so many suspects you will never guess who did it. It is just nice to see 3 beautiful actresses in the same short film.
Hitchcoc This is about philandering. It has at the center, a gold digger who is using planned extortion to get what she wants. She sets herself up, leaving little choice among her victims. Of course, the men are truly culpable and deserve much of what they get. The conclusion is pretty far fetched. If you are old enough to own a phonograph (turntable) you will get my point. The bad guys are depending a lot on some pretty random incompetence. This is interesting and has a few twists and turns, so it's not bad, but the conclusion is unsatisfying. The character of the young woman is pretty well portrayed and the acting isn't too bad. Still, it could have been better with a little more imagination.