Murder by Invitation (1941)
1h 7m | PG-13
The relatives of a rich old woman unsuccessfully try to have her declared insane, so they can divide up her money. To show them that there are no hard feelings, she invites them to her estate for the weekend so she can decide to whom she actually will leave her money when she dies. Soon, however, family members begin turning up dead.
Director: Phil Rosen
Studio: Monogram Pictures
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Video: 720p
Cast
Wallace Ford
as Bob White
Marian Marsh
as Nora O'Brien
Sarah Padden
as Cassandra Hildegard Denham
Gavin Gordon
as Garson Denham
George Guhl
as Sheriff Boggs
Wallis Clark
as Judge Moore
Reviews
This is quite an enjoyable little game of cinematic Cluedo as a bunch of avaricious relatives take their their rich old aunt "Cassie" (Sarah Padden) to court to try and get her certified so they can access her $3 million dollar fortune. They get stuffed in court but to show no harm has been done, the old lady invites them all to her country pile for the weekend. Not long afterwards they start dropping like flies and George Guhl ("Sheriff Boggs") and local hack "Bob White" (Wallace Ford) are on the case whilst there are still folks alive! The dialogue is quite fun and Padden, Ford and his secretary "Nora" (Marian Marsh) keep this rather daft pot-boiler swinging along nicely for just over an hour with lots of secret passages, red herrings and quite a satisfactory ending.