Stop, You’re Killing Me *** (1952, Broderick Crawford, Claire Trevor, Virginia Gibson, Bill Hayes, Margaret Dumont ) – Classic Movie Review 10,885

Director Roy Del Ruth’s 1953 black comedy WarnerColor film Stop, You’re Killing Me stars Broderick Crawford as Remy Marko, a racketeering Prohibition-era hood who tries to clean up his act by opening an honest brewery after the repeal of Prohibition, but the beer tastes so bad he can’t give it  away! Bad beer, four stray corpses, a heist and a horse race ensue as Crawford finds murderers and their victims determinedly dogging his every step.

Crawford is excellent in a tailor-made role in this busy and quick-moving but, alas, only moderate adaptation of a Damon Runyon story, lacking enough edge and bite, and low on snap, crackle and pop. It is a black comedy but director Del Ruth and writer James O’Hanlon also throw in broad comedy, songs and a touch of drama, but the result is a bit of a hotch-potch of half-baked ideas and missed opportunities.

Too gentle and bland though it is, it does have its attractive ingredients and engaging moments, however, and the appealing cast is the main saving grace. Claire Trevor is also excellent as Nora Marko, and there are Margaret Dumont, Sheldon Leonard, Harry Morgan and Howard St John to admire and enjoy too.

It is based on the 1935 play A Slight Case of Murder by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay. Warner Bros had already filmed the play as the 1938 A Slight Case of Murder starring Edward G Robinson.

It was shot at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, from mid June to late August 1952.

Also in the cast are Virginia Gibson as Mary Marko, Bill Hayes as Chancellor ‘Chance’ Whitelaw, Margaret Dumont as Mrs Harriet Whitelaw, Sheldon Leonard, Joe Vitale, Harry Morgan, Howard St John, Charles Cantor, Stephen Chase, Don Beddoe, Henry Slate, Jack Pepper, and Louis Lettieri.

Stop, You’re Killing Me is directed by Roy Del Ruth, runs 86 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by James O’Hanlon, is shot in WarnerColor by Ted McCord, is produced by Louis F Edelman and is scored by Ray Heindorf.

Bill Hayes turned 95 on June 5, 2020. William Foster Hayes III (born June 5, 1925) is an American actor and #1 singer, as his version of the song ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett’ hit the top of the charts in the spring of 1955, was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, sold over two million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. He originated the long-running character of Doug Williams on NBC’s Days of Our Lives. His character was killed off in the spring of 2004 but turned up alive on a tropical island and went home to his wife.

Jack Pepper, who plays the tenor singer, was Ginger Rogers’s first husband (1929 – 1931). He had a hit vaudeville act with Frank Salt called Salt and Pepper. He is the father of actress Cynthia Pepper. Sadly he is not Pepper at all, or even Jack, he was Edward Jackson Culpepper.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,885

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