One of Columbia’s pre-code mysteries, Adolphe Menjou stars as Thatcher Colt, a New York Police Commissioner. The film is based on Anthony Abbot’s novel About the Murder of the Night Club Lady, which introduced Commissioner Thatcher Colt before Columbia brought him to the screen. This movie was followed by The Circus Queen Murder (1933) and later The Panther’s Claw (1942), continuing the Thatcher Colt screen presence (Menjou in the first two, different casting in the third).
Mayo Methot, the “Night Club Lady,” later became Humphrey Bogart’s third wife, and their marriage was notorious for heavy drinking and explosive fights, earning the couple the tabloid nickname “the Battling Bogarts.”
A Letterboxd reviewer highlights that “The Night Club Lady” features “the most extensive and exploratory use of the zoom lens” they’ve seen in a film of its period, saying it feels “like something from three or four decades later.” (Letterboxd)
