It Couldn't Have Happened (But It Did) is a messy little whodunit

Is it worth your time?

If you have a weird itch for 1930s B-movie mysteries, then sure, dive in. It’s perfect for someone who likes theater-set crimes where everyone talks like they are in a radio drama. If you need tight pacing or characters that actually behave like human beings, you’ll probably hate it. It’s a bit of a relic, honestly. 🕵️‍♂️

The whole thing kicks off with a double murder. Two producers end up dead, which is a pretty bold start even for a movie like this. The playwright then takes it upon himself to solve the case, which is a classic trope that usually leads to a lot of awkward scenes in dimly lit offices.

Watching this felt a bit like watching The Return of Sophie Lang in terms of its general low-stakes energy. There is a lot of pacing back and forth. Someone is always looking suspicious by a velvet curtain.

Oddly specific details

• The lighting in the second act is surprisingly moody for a movie that clearly had five dollars to spend.
• One of the actors keeps adjusting his tie in a way that suggests he forgot his lines five seconds ago.
• The dialogue is just... really fast. Nobody speaks like this in real life.

There is a scene near the middle where the playwright is questioning a witness, and the camera lingers on a prop phone for way too long. It’s almost funny. You can feel the director trying to build suspense, but it just lands as a slightly empty moment. It’s the kind of imperfection that makes these old things endearing, I guess.

It’s not as polished as Midnight Morals, but it has a charm. The cast seems like they are having a decent time, even when the script forces them into some truly ridiculous corners. I kept waiting for someone to point out how obvious the killer was, but that never happened. Because that would be too easy.

The pacing gets weirdly frantic in the last fifteen minutes. It’s like the writers realized they were running out of film stock and just decided to cram every remaining clue into one room. It’s not graceful. It’s barely coherent. But it gets the job done.

You can tell it’s an old-school mystery when the detective explains everything in one long monologue while everyone else just stands there nodding. Nobody ever interrupts! Real life is never that helpful. 🎞️