"The Most Exciting Murder Is the Least Unusual"

"Mysteries in the Theater."
Appeared in: The Literary Digest (September 16, 1922).
Online HERE.

From the film version of the play

Here's a critic, writing in the heyday of the stage play, who firmly believes less is more in the staged mystery. Short excerpts:

PLAYS ARE SUBJECT TO EPIDEMICS. Just now it is mystery that is supposed to be drawing the tired amusment seeker. The theater provides him with thrills for jaded nerves and takes him into its confidence on an "honor" basis, asking him not to divulge the point of the mystery to intending visitors to the play, so that their pleasure shall not be spoiled.  . . .

. . . "It is not a healthy sign for the future of these plays of mystery that writers find it necessary to surround their incidents with so much irrelevant aid to bewilderment."  . . .

. . . "The most exciting murder is the least unusual."  . . .

. . . "Detective stories are like Herbert Spencer's ideal style, impressive in ratio to their lack of effort."  . . .

. . . "Mystification by the simple and every-day means of life is the most enduring and striking."  . . .

. . . "It is for the good playwrights therefore that they are urged to bear in mind the value of such simple means of creating their effects."  . . .

Category: Detective fiction criticism (theatrical division)