A Scarlet Week-End: A Messy, Old-School Whodunit

Should you watch A Scarlet Week-End? If you are the kind of person who enjoys clicking through dusty film archives on a rainy Tuesday, sure. If you want a tight, logical mystery, stay far away.

It’s one of those movies that feels like it was filmed in a living room while the neighbors were trying to sleep. The tension is almost non-existent, but the outfits are pretty wild.

The plot is standard stuff. Husband cheats, husband dies, wife looks guilty. It plays out like a stage play that forgot to leave the stage. Chubby Colman is there, looking perpetually concerned, which is honestly the right mood for the whole production.

There is this one scene where they are all standing around a table arguing about who killed the guy. It goes on for so long that I started counting the patterns on the wallpaper. Why are there so many doors in this house? People keep walking in and out like they’re in a low-budget farce.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of A Scarlet Week-End (1932) through its definitive frames.

It’s not quite as charming as The Haunted Honeymoon, which at least knows it’s being a bit silly. This movie really wants you to think it’s a serious thriller. That’s the funny part.

Notes from the couch:

• The lighting in the second act is so dark I had to turn up the brightness on my laptop.
• Every time someone enters a room, they pause for three seconds too long. It’s like they’re waiting for an applause that never comes.
• The dialogue is stiff. Like, really stiff. Nobody talks like that unless they’re reading from a script they don't quite understand.
• The way they handle the "murder weapon" is almost laughable. It just pops up out of nowhere.

There’s a strange energy to the whole thing. It’s not exactly bad, but it’s certainly not good in any way a normal person would define it. It’s just… there.

If you've seen enough of these, you know the rhythm. You know exactly when the "twist" is coming, even if the movie tries to hide it behind a very loud curtain. 🕵️‍♂️

Honestly, I spent half the time wondering if the actors were just trying to get through the day so they could go home and have dinner. There’s a lack of fire that’s hard to ignore.

Still, it’s a quick watch. You won’t lose your whole evening on it. Just don’t expect to remember the ending by tomorrow morning.