dbborroughs Review of Grand Jury

Grand Jury (1936)

Okay film loses its way as it shifts from mystery to comedy and only fleetingly finds its way back again

[5/10 · 2 November 2008]

Odd 1930's mystery that begins when a citizen is called up to serve on a Grand Jury. The case they hear involves the murder of a young man by a mobster. The mobster gets off and is shot by the young man's father who is thrown in jail. A cub reporter gets the father to talk saying that he didn't know everything and that the death of his son actually has larger implications to the local government and that when he gets on the witness stand he's going to name names. Soon the father is dead and the cub reporter along with the grandfather of his girlfriend are hot on the trail of the murders and their boss. More comedy then mystery this is a film that is more neither fish nor fowl. On the one hand the film sets up a good mystery but on the other hand it has the grandfather and the reporter bumbling around in such away that you kind of lose sight of the plot even when its right in front of you. Its amusing, but sequences where the mobsters are over heard playing Monopoly and are thought to be confessing crimes is kind of pushing the envelope of whether the film is good or stupid. Taken on its own terms its watchable, but its not something I should have gone looking for. 5 out of 10