That Slight Case Of Murder!

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 25, 2 December 1938, Page 14

That Slight Case Of Murder!

— tA Slight Case of Murder." Warner Bros. Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Starring Edward G. Robinson, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly. First release: Wellington, Becember 2.] EPEAL has come, ¢¢ R : see. It ain’t Prohibition no longer. Yeah, you mugs, we’re goin’ straight. We’re on the up and up. So park your shootin’ irons. Sure, we "re goin’ to sell our beer. But y’ gotta get this right. Y’ gotta be real salesmen. "y? gotta "wash behind ya ears; y’ gotta wear clean collars; y’ gotta shave. We’re legitimate, see, We ain’t illegitimate no more.’ Thus Edward G. Robinson in the vole of reformed beer-baron Remy

Marko in Warners’ glorious farce, "A Slight Case of Murder." He is speaking the language of Damon Runyon; and the temptation is strong within me to continue writing this review in Runyonese, But it’s a bit of a strain to write, a bit of a strain to read (though not to hear) and it wouldn’t really do justice to one of the most original, most wildly hilarious pictures to have come from America. It’s rather superfluous to mention America. You couldn’t possibly imagine any other country in the world producing this picture. For that matter, nobody but Damon Runyon could have written it, and I doubt if any studio except Warners would have had _ the courege and imagination to film it. For that, much thanks. Virtue Rewarded HE story first. Repeal spells the end of boot-legsing for Remy Marko and his "mugs." But is he dismayed? Not a bit of it. He’ll go legitimate: he’ll run a brewery and be respectable. Marko is as proud of his new-found honesty as a small boy with his first pair of fong pants; but virtue is his sole reward. For Marko’s a teétotaller, see, and it’s just one part of the joke that not till the end of the story does he realise that his beer ‘tastes like bad furniture polish. But the public has realised it all along-which is why, after four years of honest dealing, Marko is faced with foreclosure of the brewery mortgage. Dear Little Douglas O forget about money troubles, Marko takes his family and henchmen to his country-house at Saratoga for a quiet holiday, pausing just long enough to collect the toughest little guy in the world from Marko’s "Alma Mater" (a reformatory). It’s his habit once a year to reward the star punil of the place with a vacation; but this time for a change he asks the headmistress for her worst specimen. "Pierre," she says, "take three of the older boys with you, go down to the cellar, nnicck Dougias, and bring him to my | study." So the incredible beer- | drinking, cigar-smoking Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom is added to the family party. On arrival at Saratoga, Marko makes several disconcerting discoveries. The spare bedroom is occupied by four neatly-plugged and quite dead gangsters. "In another room reposes half a million dollars, the -booty from a thotd-up. Elsewhere, but he doesn’t know it, is a fifth gangster, very much alive, the cause of the four corpses. And to cap it all, Marko’s gently-educated daughter gees and gets herself engaged to a husky State Trooper. Marko may have gone honest, but if there’s one thing he and his "mugs" can’t abide it’s the sight of a policeman. It’s in their blood. tt just ain’t natural, see, to like a copper, Those Corpses ITILL, a live copper for son-in-law is less embatrassing than four dead gangsters in the spare bedroom. People might misunderstand; therefore, to avoid explanations, Marko and "niugs" hit on their grand and glorious idea of planting corpses on the doors of local residents they dislike! With yelps of glee they deal them out, while Allen Jenkins{‘Feft' out ofthe fun to" Id6ok after

little Douglas-sits at home and sulks. No sooner are the corpses distributed than it is discovered there’s a 10,000 dollar reward for each of them (dead or alive). The henchmen rush out and gather up the bodies, bring them back to the Marko house, hide them in a closet without telling Marko about it. There they stay while a wild party goes on downstairs, while the murderer snoops from room to room, while Marko frantically tries to find money to save his brewery. Not Gruesome F I’ve described the story in some detail up to this point, it’s because I feel it’s only right to warn you what to expect in "A Slight Case of Murder." But the

finale you must discover for yourselves. All I’ say is that it contains the best last line of dialogue since talkies began. . In normal circumstances, 4 story mainly based on the inconvenience of having four corpses lying round the house sounds like entertainment of the grimmest kind. But "A Slight Case of Murder" is exactly the opposite. It is not just a wildly funny farce full of delirious complications and _ side‘issues (all developed clearly and concisely). It is also expert satire on the American gangster (or the popular idea of the American gangster), and the social climber; as well as a liberal education in the rich and racy language (or rather argot) of the U.S.A. Jolly Good Cormpany ‘HE film is aiso a triumph of comedy characterisation. . If space permitted I would wax enthusiastic in detail over Edward G. Roebinsen’s joyous burlesque on all the gangster roles he has ever played straight; over the exquisite dumbness of Allen Jenkins; the incredible comical toughness of young Bobby ("Dead End") Jor dan; and over Ruth Donnelly’s invaluable contribution to the picture as Marko’s wife-a_ hardboiled matron with a heart of gold, desperately striving to maintain her veneer of refinement against enormous odds. But it is enough to say that these, and other characters, are all the best of good company. Perhaps I’m making a mistake, perhaps "A Slight Case of Murder" is just what they call a "critic’s picture" because it’s so unusual. Yet I don’t think so.