The Dummy Talks – 1943 | 106 mins | Drama, Crime, Musical | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Murder mystery with a music-hall background that makes an engaging second feature. A number of genuine variety acts add a flavour of the period, although they provide rather too much of the film’s running time. British character actor Jack Warner, dubbed “blue pencil”, up till then was a stage and radio comedian, here makes his film debut with top-billing above Claude Hulbert.

Set at the Empire Theatre, during an act by clairvoyant Marvello, his assistant approaches a man in the centre box and requests the mind-reader to read out the number from a £5 note belonging to a member of the audience – but the mystery man transpires to be a Scotland Yard detective and the number to be that of a counterfeit note. One of the performers, ventriloquist Russell Warren (Manning Whiley), knows the counterfeiter is Jimmy Royce, and unless his sister Peggy agrees to marry Warren – he threatens to inform the police.

Meanwhile,daft Special Reserve policeman Victor Harbord (Claude Hulbert) is also mulling about backstage looking for the forger, but regular Police Inspector Piers Harriman (G.H. Mulcaster) is also on hand and uncovers the dead body of Warren in his dressing room. Harriman uses a bell-boy pretending to be the ventriloquists dummy to trap the killer.