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Reporter Bill Bartlett (Charles Starrett) is virtually a witness of a
murder in a locked clocktower on a college campus, but somehow the killer
seems to be missing - he couldn't get out of the tower but hasn't been
found inside neither. What makes things worse though is that Bill's
girlfriend Lilian (Shirley Grey), college student and singer in Blackie's
(Maurice Black) might just be one of the key suspects - as is Blackie for
that matter.
So Bill helps (and misguides) his old friend Captain Kyne (J.Farrell
MacDonald) in his investigations of the case, which lead to Lilian's
friend Ann (Ruth Hall), who might know nothing but lies with every word
she speaks nevertheless, to frat-boy Wilson (Richard Catlett), who seems
to be a bit too jealous about Ann's relationship to the deceased, to
professor Holly (Edward Van Sloan), a criminologist whom Bill tries to get
to work on the case, and to two attorneys, Smythe and Brock
(Harrison Greene), though Smythe they only find dead.
Eventually, more and more evidence points to Lilian and she is taken
in, and to Blackie, who escapes his arrest, only to give himself up only
hours later. Soon the case unfolds into an unexpected direction: The first
murder victim turns out to be Ann's husband, though she told nobody about
him and tried to annull the marriage, while Blackie turns out to be Ann's
father. Now everything would point to Blackie, only the dead attorney does
not quite fit in, not the fact that his colleague Brock makes a visit to
professor Holly to shoot himself ...
But while the cops are still busy in deciding whether Lilian or Blackie
is the killer, Bill puts 2 and 2 together and pays a visit to professor
Holly, accuses him and learns the truth - he was once in jail with all
three murder victims (Brock's death turns out to be not suicide at all)
and they now tried to blackmail him - as well as how he could murder
someone in the clock tower without being there - it was done by phono
recording to give the good professor an alibi while the actual killing
took place way sooner.
In a desperate effort, Holly tries to kill Bill too by gassing him, but
the police has trailed Bill and arrives in time to save him from a
horrible death, and Holly can be arrested as well.
Even if much of the plot is far-fetched, in the case of this film this
doesn't matter much as Murder on the Campus is a tightly paced and
swiftly directed, atmospheric thriller that features great cetnral
performances, especially by Edward Van Sloan as the mild mannered villain
and J.Farrell MacDonald as the crusty cop.
If you like early talkie B-murder mysteries, this is a must-see.
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