The Death Kiss is a 1933 film directed by Edwin L. Marin.
A man leaves a fancy hotel and waits for a cab. He is then shot to death by gunmen in a passing car. But wait! It's actually a film production at Tonart Studios of a film called The Death Kiss. But wait! Actor Myles Brent, who was supposed to die in the scene being filmed, really was shot and really is dead.
At first it's thought to be a terrible accident, but screenwriter Franklyn Drew (David Manners) digs the fatal bullet out of the film set and discovers that it was a .38, while all of the prop guns the gangsters were using were .45 caliber. Suspicion then falls on Chalmers, an extra and once a head gaffer at the studio who had a grudge against Brent. Chalmers is found dead in an apparent suicide but Drew, who is conducting his own investigation as an amateur sleuth and is well ahead of the police, quickly figures out that it was murder.
Finally the cops zero in on Marcia Lane, Brent's ex-wife and his co-star in the film. Franklyn Drew however has taken a shine to Marcia, and so he resolves to clear her name and find the real killer.
This film reunited three of the stars of Dracula: Manners, Edward Van Sloan as Avery the director, and Bela Lugosi as Steiner the production chief.
Tropes:
- Amateur Sleuth: Franklyn Drew, the screenwriter and a mystery writer, who says "I like to dabble a bit in murder cases." He unravels the case all by himself while the cops bumble.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Although really it's not that ambiguous. Studio head Leon Grossmith is named "Leon Grossmith", talks with a vaguely foreign accent, and says stuff like "Oy, that's going to cost me a fortune!", because presumably All Jews Are Cheapskates.
- Deadpan Snarker: Franklyn, who is usually snarking about how dumb the police are. Like when the cops are pinning the blame on Chalmers, and Franklyn says "Why not pin the murder on the murderer? It's not against the rules."
- Fake Shemp: In-Universe. Still needing to finish the last scene and with Brent dead, Steiner suggests they use his body double. They do, and they finish the movie.
- Going by the Matchbook: Franklin goes through the pockets of Myles's coat (because the police were too dumb to think of this) and finds a key to a room at the Cliffside Inn up the coast. He goes there and discovers that Brent visited there with another man's wife.
- The Killer Was Left-Handed: Chalmers is found dead at his kitchen table, having drunk poison, with a suicide note and a pencil in his hand. Except that the pencil was in his right hand, and he wore a watch on his right wrist, showing that he was left-handed. Chalmers was murdered!
- Melting-Film Effect: This is shown as the crew and the cops view the raw footage of Brent's death. The killer whacked the cameraman on the head and then left a lit cigarette in the projector case in order to set fire to the film.
- No-Tell Motel: Franklyn's investigation leads him to the Cliffside Inn, a motel that a security guard says is "one of those weekend places for all of the Mr. Smiths and Mr. Jones and Mr. Browns." The desk clerk says "Alone?" in a tone of surprise when he sees Franklyn.
- Police Are Useless: Lt. Sheehand and the homicide detectives are incompetent dummies, who fall for every misdirection and basically have to be led around by Franklyn.
- Proscenium Reveal: The opening scene has a nattily-dressed gentleman go down in a hail of bullets, only to show that it's a film in production. However that scenario is tweaked when the "dead" man, Myles Brent, is revealed to be actually dead.
- Show Within a Show: In-Universe Tonart production The Death Kiss, which, from the single scene we see, is apparently a gangster picture.
- Smithical Marriage: The security guard snarks that the Cliffside Inn is where people check in under Smithical Marriages for illicit trysts. Sure enough, Franklyn learns that Brent took another man's wife there and registered as "Mr. and Mrs. Brent."
- Splash of Color: Some dramatic elements, like flashlights, a fire, and the muzzle flashes from guns during the climax, are shown in color. This was done by hand-tinting the film.
