Review of Queen of Crime

He can't arrest her because he has no evidence. She knows he knows what she's up to, so she has to stay one step ahead of him. It's a clever game of cat and mouse where each gets their chance to be both. Jack Hulbert has that toothy grin that makes us Americans laugh at British stereotypes, but if only we had half of their way of thinking. Even the most common of British accents to us comes off to us as deliciously eccentric, and yet to them, it just reveals where whoever they are talking to came from. British films, too, seemed to have an advancement that American films of the time (as delightful as they are) all seemed to be the same song with different twists in the music to make it slightly different.

As this is a film about Scotland Yard, American audiences should know a bit of history to be able to follow the plot and style of the characters. Genevieve Tobin, a star of pre-code romantic comedies, is the heroine here, out to outwit Hulbert whom she can't help be charmed by. Arthur Wontner, Francis L. Sullivan, Google Withers and Felix Aylmer are among the cast of British actors I instantly recognized. There's plenty of intrigue, comedy, romance and amusing twists and turns that keeps the film moving. As I've noticed about other British films of this period, they often seem a decade ahead of American films technologically, often seeming more ahead in their time.