On Trial for Murdering Himself

 

My wife was mocking me--MOCKING ME, I SAY--about the number of B-movies I've recorded off of TCM that I haven't gotten around to actually watching yet. So one night recently, while she was needle-pointing (and working on a pattern that didn't involve Star Trek or dinosaurs, so what's the point?), I watched one.

The movie was South of Suez (1940) and it didn't involve needle-point at all. It picks up in Africa, where violent-tempered Eli Snedecker owns a diamond mine and John Gamble (George Brent) works as his foreman. Gamble is good at his job, but trouble is afoot. He is openly critical of Snedecker's brutality towards the workers and Snedecker's wife is coming on to him. He rejects her, but she pulls a Genesis--Chapter 39 on him and Gamble is out of a job. 

But, when Snedecker tries to buy the claim of an alcoholic Englishman named Roger Smythe, Gamble interfers. He knows Smythe is being offered a raw deal, so he stops the sale and goes to work for Smythe.

Soon, a large star-shaped diamond is found on the Smythe claim. Shenanigans ensue and before long Snedecker has murdered Smythe and framed Gamble in a failed effort to get the diamond. Gamble, with that diamond and a number of others in his pocket, is forced to go on the run.

The movie then jumps ahead five years and switches the scene to London. Using the diamonds as a stake, Gamble is now a rich man with a new identity. But he also wants to track down Smythe's daughter and somehow give her a share of his fortune. But, when he does locate her, he discovers she is obsessed with finding her father's killer--the now "missing" John Gamble. Naturally, he falls in love with her.

The movie depends on jumping from one unlikely situation to another, but it has fun doing so. In fact, it successfully stretches credulity even farther when Gamble has a chance to fake his own death, but then ends up getting accused--in his new identity--of murdering himself. Snedeker has shown up in London and is the chief witness against him. 

As unlikely as the events of the film are, they do string together in a logical manner. With a competent cast and good direction, South of Suez is more fun than a barrel full of non-Star Trek related needle-point projects.