Ticket to a Crime (1934) Online

"Ticket To A Crime" is a quickie on several levels. It is a quickie in that it is over in 64 minutes, and there is a rush to a conclusion which leaves the viewer unsatisfied. Additionally, it is evidently a quota-quickie, rushed into production to meet the enormous appetite of a public attuned to double features.

I thought Ralph Graves and Lola Lane played off each other well, but the relationship was unfulfilled due to the rush to end the picture. The rest of the cast was inconsistent, but this was a Poverty Row production and the studio was probably under cost restraints and had to cast accordingly. James Burke's character was particularly irksome as the dim-witted police Sgt., a role he played many times in his career, but he was primarily a character actor and may have had too much of a part here.

The plot was interesting and there were several suspects to choose from but those in charge took the easy way out, maybe to bring the picture to a quick close. As I said, the outcome is ultimately unsatisfying, and you can't help thinking how much better it could have been if handled by a major studio.

Ralph Graves and Lois Wilson star in this second rate comedy/mystery on the lines of "The Thin Man" movies where a starving secretary to a private detective gets her chance to eat when he invites her to a society party, and they end up finding a case with the discovery of a corpse, the father of the party's hostess. Together, with occasional interference by a rather dumb detective (James Burke), they come across more clues and suspects than they can handle, their antics only interrupted by a prank thrown at Burke's expense. There are a few laughs here and there, but for the most part, this is your standard, color by numbers script with only a few thrills but little substance. Lola Lane of "Four Daughters" fame plays the society hostess and is rather bland. The banter between Graves, Wilson and Burke is amusing, but Burke's cop is too stupid to be believable. In fact, one joke at his expense indicates that detectives who can't read or write are at risk of loosing his job and that he might be able to get a job as a night watchman. Some nice sets hide the cheap feel of the rush job put on the script, but ultimately, I have to mark this one as a dud in the many comic murder mysteries made in the mid 1930's.