Film Review
Unlikely as it may seem, Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple is not the
most deliriously eccentric amateur sleuth to have invaded the
movies. Oh, no. Thirty years before, Edna May Oliver
revelled in the role of the definitive spinster 'tec, in a series of
comedy-mysteries for RKO that began with
The Penguin Pool Murder.
Oliver brings Stuart Palmer's fictional creation to life with just as
much fun and vigour as Rutherford later did with her famous Agatha
Christie portrayal, her only on-screen rival being a seriously cute
little penguin who (alas) had nothing whatever to do with the murder.
The Penguin Pool Murder is
hardly the most challenging of murder mysteries. If you haven't
correctly identified the killer by the end of the second reel you've
probably been asleep or else suffering the effects of a full frontal
lobotomy. The film may not tax the brain cells but it provides
plenty of exercise for the laughter muscles, the main point of interest
being the bizarre relationship that develops between Edna May Oliver's
Miss Withers (an anarchist in petticoats) and James Gleason's
dim-witted police inspector. These two characters provide most of
the entertainment value, lobbing withering putdowns at each other like
hand grenades as they go about crazily complicating the easiest murder
investigation in history.
For a film that is for the most part formulaic and predictable there
are some nice subversive touches, such as the twist at the end where
the juvenile leads fail to deliver the expected happy ending.
Partnered by James Gleason, Edna May Oliver would return as the
indefatigable Miss Withers in
Murder
on the Blackboard (1934) and
Murder
on a Honeymoon (1935), after which she surrendered the role to
lesser comedy performers Helen Broderick ZaSu Pitts.
Oliver lent her talents to over a dozen films subsequently,
including
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
and
Pride and Prejudice (1940),
before her premature death in 1942.
© James Travers 2013
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Gwen Parker meets Philip Seymour, an old flame of hers, at a New York
aquarium to ask for money so that she can leave her tyrannical husband,
stockbroker Gerald Parker. The aquarium's director, Bertrand
Hemingway, has recently been swindled by Parker and so makes an
anonymous phone call, informing him of his wife's secret
assignation. Parker naturally mistakes Seymour for his wife's
present lover and threatens him. Seymour reacts by punching him,
rendering him unconscious. A short while later, Parker's lifeless
body is found floating in a penguin pool. Seymour confesses to
prevent Gwen, the obvious murder suspect, from being arrested but one
person, an interfering schoolteacher named Hildegarde Withers, is
certain that neither of these can be the killer. Determined to
resolve the mystery, and thereby prove her own innocence (since her
hatpin was used as the murder weapon), Miss Withers gatecrashes the
police investigation, and proves to be an invaluable ally to Inspector
Oscar Piper...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.