THE INTRUDER (1933)
Article 1892 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-20-2006
Posting Date: 10-17-2006
Directed by Albert Ray
Featuring Lila Lee, Monte Blue, Gwen Lee

A murder of a diamond thief occurs onboard a ship. When a detective gathers together the suspects, the investigation is interrupted by the sinking of the ship. The detective, the suspects, and some crew members all end up stranded on an island with a roving gorilla and a wild man.

This one is just plain weird. It’s trying to be a mystery, but the whole desert island sequence distracts from the main story. I don’t know who’s in the gorilla outfit on this one, but except for a sequence where he inadvertently saves the lives of the two women by distracting their captor, he plays little part in the action. The scene stealer in this one are Mischa Auer as the Wild Man who keeps the skeletons of his wife and a man he hates (her lover?) in his cave; at one particularly weird scene, the wild man, in a fit of anger, pulls a knife and begins attacking the skeleton of his enemy; though it makes me wonder how he interacts with the skeleton of his wife, I’m glad they didn’t bother to show it. Arthur Housman is also a bit of fun as the comic relief character, a drunken smartass. It’s enjoyable enough in its own strange way, but don’t get hung up on trying to follow the mystery too much.