Lightning Strikes Twice (1934) review - Loud, cheap, and kind of a blast

Look, if you want a tight, logical mystery where clues actually mean something, please stay far away from this one. 🕵️‍♂️

But if you love those noisy, slightly unhinged 1930s comedies where everyone speaks at 100 miles per hour, Lightning Strikes Twice is a fun little hour of nonsense.

It is the kind of movie you put on a rainy Sunday when you do not want to think at all. People who hate theatrical, screamy acting will absolutely loathe it though.

The plot is a total mess, honestly. Ben Lyon plays Brewster, a guy who is just trying to get married but gets dragged into a fake murder mystery cooked up by his friends.

Or wait, maybe it is a real murder? To be fair, the movie itself does not seem to care about the mystery either.

It is mostly just an excuse to have people run in and out of rooms, hide in closets, and scream at the top of their lungs.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Lightning Strikes Twice (1934) through its definitive frames.

There is this one incredibly long scene where Ben Lyon tries to hide a "body" behind a curtain, and the foot keeps sticking out. It goes on for so long that it starts to feel awkward rather than funny, but then it somehow gets funny again.

The real reason to watch this is the supporting cast, who are all acting like they are in completely different movies. Pert Kelton is a total joy as the sassy maid who does not give a single damn about the chaos around her.

She has this flat, nasal voice that cuts right through the high-society shouting. Every time she is on screen, the movie gets instantly better.

Then you have Laura Hope Crews playing the aunt. She is doing her usual flustered, bird-like routine, waving her hands around like she is trying to swat invisible flies.

It is the same energy she brought to other films of the era, though maybe a bit more unhinged here. At one point, she gasps so hard I thought her corset was going to snap.

RKO was pumping these quickies out constantly back in 1934. They had their massive hits like King Kong to pay the bills, so they could afford to let their B-unit go wild with stuff like this.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Lightning Strikes Twice (1934) through its definitive frames.

It has that same cheap, echoey sound design you find in other early thirties programmers like Stormy Seas. You can literally hear the actors' shoes clacking loudly on the wooden studio floor.

I love that stuff, honestly. It makes the movie feel like a filmed play where the actors might accidentally knock over the set if they turn around too fast.

There is a bit with a cop near the end that makes absolutely no sense. He just kind of wanders into the house, says some lines, and then the movie remembers it needs to wrap up in five minutes.

The resolution is so fast you might miss it if you blink. They basically just explain everything in a giant block of dialogue and then boom, roll the credits.

It is definitely not a masterpiece. But it has a weird, frantic energy that modern comedies just do not have.

Some observations I scribbled down:

• Thelma Todd is in this but she barely gets anything to do, which is a massive waste of her talent.
• Why does everyone in 1934 wear hats indoors even when they are supposedly relaxing?
• The main character's mustache looks like it was drawn on with a weak pencil.
• The "clues" in this mystery are literally just people dropping things and pointing.

If you like pre-code weirdness and do not mind a plot that holds together with scotch tape, give it a look. Just do not expect it to change your life.