Rynox: A dusty little mystery that moves way too fast

Is it worth your time?

If you like movies that feel like a quick, frantic trip through a pre-war office building, sure. If you need complex detective work or characters you can actually remember after the credits roll, maybe look elsewhere. It is a brisk watch, perfect if you have an hour to kill and want to see some very serious men in hats shouting about business deals.

The whole thing kicks off with Benedik acting like his life is over because of this Boswell Marsh guy. Honestly, the man is so jittery I wanted to reach through the screen and just tell him to sit down for a minute. He barely stops moving. It’s exhausting.

Then, suddenly, he’s gone. And Tony steps in. It’s funny how fast these corporate takeovers happen in movies from this era. One minute you’re a subordinate, the next you’re the boss and the police are looking at you like you might have hidden the body in the supply closet.

I found myself staring at the background furniture more than the plot. There is a desk in one scene that looks like it weighs more than the entire cast combined. It is these tiny, weird details that keep me hooked on these older, smaller films.

The mystery of Marsh is... well, it’s a bit thin. You can kind of guess where it’s going if you’ve seen enough of these, but that’s not really the point. It feels like a rough draft of the kind of stuff they perfected in later thrillers, like the tense atmosphere found in The Third Alarm, though this one lacks that same punch.

There is a scene where Tony is walking through a hallway, and the sound of his footsteps is just way too loud. Like, distractingly loud. I wonder if they just added that in post-production because the scene felt too quiet. It gave the whole moment a weird, hollow feeling, like he was walking through a cave instead of a law firm.

It’s not a film that tries to be deep. It’s not trying to win awards. It just wants to tell a story about a guy who dies, a guy who takes his chair, and a mysterious stranger who might not exist. Sometimes, that is enough.

• That one guy’s mustache is definitely the real villain here.
• The dialogue moves at a pace that suggests the actors were trying to catch a train.
• The lighting in the office scenes is suspiciously moody for a place that deals in commerce.

I wouldn't call this a classic. It feels more like a fragment of something else. But hey, it kept me watching until the end. That’s better than most things I find on the streaming queues these days. 🕵️‍♂️