I came here after watching Bowery At Midnight and being thoroughly entertained, I wanted to know what else I missed from Lugosi after all these years of the standard 30 or so of his films that are wildly known of. I also didn't want to watch something too good in case I wanted to watch something with my wife later, so Murder By Television was chosen as my next film to watch. It's readily available online along with 90% of Lugosi's films since those are public domain material. I'm surprised at all the positive reviews as this is one of his worst films I've ever watched. I guess those are from die hard Lugosi fans? It's not that Lugosi is all that bad, although his accent is horribly thick in this one and he's supposed to be playing a federal agent, yeah OK, but the rest of the cast is horrendous. What really struck me was that for a film made in 1935 it really plays like a film from 1929 or 30. I know it's only a difference of 5 or 6 years but the quality of the film products greatly improved in that time frame even for poverty row productions, just not here. I was thinking it was made earlier and not released until 1935 but Hattie McDaniel dates it to around 1935 I guess. BTW, her role is terrible as a stereotype black maid, oh my god, this film is bad all around, with one exception; it shows actual television equipment from the 30's! So if you are a tech geek into that it's worth viewing for that. I don't think the actual television pictures are real but I'm pretty sure the camera with the rotating sphere is as I read that was one of the methods used to achieve a frame rate. The trivia on this film says it is real equipment from the University of Los Angeles and worth twice the price of the film's cost! Watch it to see Lugosi I guess and for the very early Television equipment and expect to be underwhelmed by the rest. BTW, what was the running gag about the guy who kept getting thrown out? I never caught the punchline to that and the guy was in at least 3 scenes! I was thinking he was a reporter but there had to be some kind of punch line there that is gone from the prints available, although as bad as this film is even with it's jokes maybe that was the only joke. 2 stars (out of 10) for the TV history alone. Ranks as one of my least favorite Lugosi films along with Vampire Over London (1952) which is also unwatchable after 1 time. The Ed Wood Lugosi stuff is much better then this, that's how bad we are talking.

Although the crime feature "Murder By Television" has a couple of good points, it is really only fair (at best) overall. Bela Lugosi makes the best of a somewhat atypical role for him, and at times the thoughts and speculations about early television are of some interest. Otherwise, the production, the characters, and most of the cast are all nondescript. The story just never fits together very well, and it also never really hits full gear.Lugosi plays the assistant to an inventor who is supposed to have pioneered a form of early television that is full of valuable possibilities. The invention is coveted by a number of outside interests, and the murder mystery that results is caught up with the intrigue surrounding the invention. It sounds like an intriguing setup, and it could have been, but the script doesn't make very good use of it. Both the dialogue and the story could easily have been much better.Lugosi adds presence to any role, and his is easily the most interesting of the characters for that reason, but he is still limited by the material. Besides Lugosi, the most talented performer in the cast is Hattie McDaniel, and she also is severely limited by her character, who is there only to provide some slight comic relief, which comes at the unfortunate character's expense.This won't have any appeal at all for anyone who is not a fan of its genre, and even for those of us who usually enjoy these old B-features regardless of their quality, it is, unfortunately, only barely worth watching.

This movie is just bad beyond belief. The acting is horrid, while the cast is simply reciting lines with little feeling. I do wonder where they got these people. The actors just chop up the dialog like a salad. The television idea is just that, with no real sense of development in a hopeless, lifeless plot. The lack of a music track in 1935 is not uncommon, but some sort of musical score was really needed in a suspense movie of this type. I had wanted to see his movie for years. Now I can honestly say I am sorry did. As many a horror movie philosopher has said, somewhere in the middle of an endlessly dark night, "There are some things that are best left alone." This movie, sadly, is one of them. May it rest in peace.

(Some Spoilers) Dull whodunit about a televised murder that wasn't planed by the person putting on the show. James Houghland, Charles Hill Mailes,is an idealist when it comes to his new invention of being able to transmit a TV signal across the world. Approched by agents from an unnamed country about buying his new technology he tells them to get lost which makes them very mad at him. Having a demonstration that evening of his new invention Houghland puts the people assembled there to sleep with a long and boring monologue about how we can now see events all across the world on his TV gadget without any relay systems.As Houghland gets to tell us about the continent of Africa and it's inhabitants, as were watching this all on what looks like a 32 inch black & white TV screen, Houghland suddenly looks as if he's either having an attack of indigestion or that he slipped on a banana peal and dies! This believe it or not was the most exciting scene in the whole movie. It's determined that Houghland was murdered, even though there wasn't a mark on him, and the police are called in and seal off the mansion where this TV demonstration was taking place to prevent the murderer from escaping. Bela Lugosi plays a duel role of sorts in the film by being identical twins who are so identical that they have the same first and last names: Arthur Perry. Perry being a top engineer to Houghland in helping him create his new TV invention was on the scene at the time of his death and is suspected of murdering him. It turns out that it was his twin brother, also named Arthur Perry, who was there impersonating him the real Arthur Perry, and trying to cash in, by selling out Houghlands secret by getting an offer he couldn't refuse $100,000.00. This from a rival communication bigwig Donald Jordan, Charles K. French, and then going to work for him. Perry is soon exonerated of the crime of murdering his boss Houghland by being murdered himself by the person who murdered Houghland. By now the movie is going nowhere with the cast just standing around looking off screen for directions from the obviously lost in space director. Then all of a sudden as if he rose from the dead Perry, the other twin brother, appears as if nothing happened to him! He was undercover in the mansion during the entire incident. It turns out that not only is he the one who helped Houghland in his new TV invention but is also a agent for what looks like the FBI and breaks the case wide open. By Perry exposing the killer Dr. Henry Scofeld, Huntly Gordon, who was working for a foreign government who wanted to buy Houghlands invention; but were given the finger by him instead. Using an interstellar frequency, a death ray, Dr. Scofield activated it as Houghland was giving his televised speech that interacted with the TV signal that eventually killed him. With that Dr. Scofield is arrested and casually led away by two plain clothes policemen. Who looked like their going out to dinner with him instead of taking him into custody for murder! With the movie finally over we and the movie cast can now all get back to something far more exhilarating like breathing oxygen. Unbeliveably boring film with a very restrained Bela Lugosi who seemed to have trouble, like everyone else in the movie, staying awake. The ending of the film where Bela, Arthur Perry, slowly and methodically reacted the entire scene of Houghlands death, that was secretly filmed by him, was as complicated as a class in advanced quantum psychic at Harvard University.