Saturday Scream Queen: Irene Ware

Irene Ware is among one of the most under-appreciated actresses of the 1930s, both in her own time and now. She might not have had Fay Wray's pipes in the screaming department, but few damsels in distress have ever had the ability to light up the screen whenever they appeared... not to mention elevate entire movies by just being in them.

Irene Ware used $1,000 won in a 1926 beauty contest to move to Hollywood in search of show-business stardom. Like many actresses her day, she appeared in movies of every possible genre, but in almost every role she showed amazing grace and poise. These qualities shined especially brightly during her starring turns in "The Dark Hour", the "Return of Chandu" serial and "The Raven," one of the best films that Bela Lugosi appeared in.

As the 1930s wore on, Ware found herself getting smaller and smaller parts, rather than moving up the starlet food chain. In 1940, Irene Ware retired permanently from screen acting after marrying writer John Meehan. She passed away in 1993.

'Murder at Glen Athol' is a mystery worth investigating

Murder at Glen Athol (aka "The Criminal Within") (1936)
Starring: John Miljan, Irene Ware, Iris Adrian and James Burtis
Director: Frank Strayer
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Well-known gentleman detective Bill Holt (Miljan) is called upon to solve the murders of the VERY liberated Muriel Randall (Adrian) and her ex-husband before an innocent man is condemned.


"Murder at Glen Athol" is interesting primarily for some of its unusual characters. First, we have a comic relief character (Burtis) who is actually a competent assistant to the hero. Second, we have the character of Muriel Randall, a relatively typical murder victim in the sort of Agatha Christie-style mystery that this film represents... although she's far more aggressive and far more liberated and even sexually charged than anyone who ever sprang from the pages of Christie.

The overall plot is solid enough, and the acting and writing is also pretty decent. There's nothing that'll make you sit up and say "Wow!" (except the presence of the two unusual characters noted above, and you'll only be impressed by them if you've seen a lot of early mystery and horror movies), but everything here is competently done.

With one minor exception. I like mystery movies to play fair, that give the audience a chance to guess who the murderer is while the detective investigates. This film plays more fair than most mysteries of the time; generally speaking, the solution to the mystery is a "cheat"--it's based on something that the audience never had a chance to see, like something the detective discovers off-camera.

In fact, "Murder at Glen Athol" may even play a little too fair, as I guessed who the killer was as soon as the rather heavy-handed hint to when the murder was committed and by whom appeared on screen. I don't mind guessing the killing, and it didn't ruin the movie for me, but it did have me expecting there would be another twist coming.

Perhaps the clues provided aren't as heavy-handed as all that. Perhaps I've just seen waaaay too many mystery movies. For me, the overplaying of the hint of the killer's identity is the one weak spot in this otherwise average movie.