planktonrules Review of Grand Exit

Grand Exit (1935)

A decent and original story idea hampered by too many plot holes

[5/10 · 1 June 2007]

The plot of this film is pretty original, as there aren't that many films about arson and the insurance industry. And up through about the first half of the film, it's pretty good and held my interest. Unfortunately, it really looks as if this B-movie was rushed into production before all the logical kinks were worked out, as suddenly characters began behaving stupidly and inconsistently. That's when, out of the blue, an argument occurs between the lead investigator (Edmund Lowe) and his assistant. The intensity of this confrontation and why just made no sense at all--one minute they are friends and the next they are ready to kill each other just because the lead investigator logically concluded that their lady friend was lying (which she clearly had been doing throughout the film). From this point on, the logic of their actions and how Lowe came to unravel the truth just made no sense at all. It was if Lowe had read the script to see the ending of the movie in order to unravel the mystery. All this is really a shame, as the film had some promise. As it is, it's at best a time-passer. Just don't try to think through the logic of this one!