Strangers of the Evening (DVD)

The mutilated body of prominent attorney Clark McNaughton is delivered to novice undertaker Tommy Freeman for burial. When the "dead" man is seen in public following the funeral it is clear that the wrong man has been buried. Called in to investigate, Detective Brubaker uncovers a dark comedy involving political scandal and a plot to cover-up a murder.

The delightfully macabre Strangers of the Evening features marvelous comic performances by Lucien Littlefield, Harold Waldridge and Eugene Pallette. Zasu Pitts is best remembered for her tragic starring roles in Von Stroheim's silent classics Greed (1925) and The Wedding March (1929). Cinematographer Arthur Edeson's resume includes the classics Thief Of Bagdad (1924), The Lost World (1925), All Quiet On The Western Front (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1932), The Maltese Flacon (1941) and Casablanca (1942). The visual style of those major productions in evident in this modest Amity production.

• comedy