Crime-Busting Bruce Cabot on MGM Payroll

Sinner Take All (1936) and Another Murder Solved In The City Room

I like the title, which I guess could fit any B mystery out of MGM or elsewhere. Systematic kill-off of wealthy family members (Charley Grapewin thrown off a balcony!) draws news scribe Bruce Cabot to investigate. There's gathering of suspects at a dinner party a la The Thin Man, but Cabot's no Bill Powell, even as he exerts a certain brutish charm on Margaret Lindsay (on loan from WB?). Cabot came of privileged stock himself, offscreen habits and conduct somewhat belying that. How often were reporters a source of murder solutions? H'wood writers graduated from the ink trade sure gave their old stand a boost. You'd think journos were all the civic authority we needed during the 30's. Police are superfluous in Sinner Take All and (many) pics like it, though it's refreshing to find habitual bad guy Edward Pawley for once on the side of law. Killings are gory even if we don't see them committed. One victim already dead gets six shots to the head just to avert suspicion from a still alive red herring. You could talk about the worst kind of violence, pre- or post-Code, so long as you didn't show it. MGM B's were fun lest they overstay, which some did, but happily not Sinner Take All at 74 minutes, an enjoyable one worth the seek-out.