A Scream in the Dark

You may need a copy of Jerome Odlum's pulp novel The Morgue is Always Open to hand to check on who's who and what they're up to in George Sherman's blithely convoluted B-movie thriller. With characters continually emerging from the woodwork and few of them proving who they claim to be, it's no wonder reporter Mike Brooker (Robert Lowery) and photographer sidekick Eddie Tough (Edward Brophy) have second thoughts about the wisdom of opening a detective agency. Sparking the mystery is a headless corpse in a New York morgue, but Brooker keeps relying on tip-offs from his girlfriend (Marie McDonald) - who just happens to be the police chief's secretary/daughter - to keep him on the right track. Lowery and Brophy prove genial sleuths without quite hitting their hardboiled stride. However, the supporting cast breathes life into their sketchy roles, particularly Hobart Cavanaugh as the client mourning his missing spouse and Elizabeth Russell as the femme fatale with a fortune-seeker in tow.