A Slight Case of Murder **** (1938, Edward G Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Willard Parker, Ruth Donnelly, John Litel) – Classic Movie Review 10,886

Warner Bros’ inventive and witty 1938 vintage black and white crime comedy film A Slight Case of Murder is great fun, with ideally cast Edward G Robinson on top comic form sending up the usual characters he plays in serious movies of the era.

Warner Bros’s clever, inventive and witty 1938 vintage black and white crime comedy A Slight Case of Murder is great fun, with an ideally cast star Edward G Robinson on top comic form sending up the usual characters he plays in serious movies of the period, basically spoofing his own gangster image.

Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay’s effervescent play comes to the screen with Robinson as Remy Marco, the post-Prohibition gangster trying to go straight after Prohibition repeal. Remy Marco is now a legitimate brewing magnate whose beer tastes like bathwater and whose friends naturally want to do him in. Soon he has foreclosing bankers, a dead-end-kid orphan, his daughter’s state trooper fiancé, the corpses of four gangsters and half a million in loot on his hands.

A Slight Case of Murder is propelled entertainingly along by a lovely screwball black comedy script, fast-paced and fizzy direction from Lloyd Bacon, and bubbly performances from a lovely cast of expert farceurs such as Jane Bryan, Willard Parke, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins, John Litel, Harold Huber, Edward Brophy, Bobby Jordan, Eric Stanley, Paul Harvey, Bobby Jordan, Joseph Downing, Margaret Hamilton and George E Stone to keep the froth up.

Most outstanding among the veteran supporting players are Allen Jenkins, Edward Brophy and Harold Huber as Remy’s old gang now gone legitimate; Margaret Hamilton as Mrs Cagle, the director of the orphanage where Marco grew up; and Paul Harvey as Mr Whitewood, the prospective father-in-law of Marco’s daughter.

Also in the cast are Bert Hamilton, Jean Benedict, Harry Seymour, Betty Compson, Joe Caites, George Lloyd, John Harmon, Harry Tenbrook, Duke York, Pat Daly, John Hiestand, Bert Roach, Harry Cody, Ben Hendricks, Ralph Dunn, Wade Botelier, Myrtle Stedman and Loia Cheaney.

It is based on the 1935 play A Slight Case of Murder by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay. Warner Bros filmed the play again as the 1953 Stop, You’re Killing Me starring Broderick Crawford as Remy Marko.

A Slight Case of Murder is directed by Lloyd Bacon, runs 85 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Earl Baldwin and Joseph Schrank, is shot in black and white by Sid Hickox, and produced by Hal B Wallis and Sam Bischoff, is scored by Heinz Roemheld (uncredited), Donnie Dunagan, Jack Scholl and Leo F Forbstein, and designed by Max Parker.

Release date: February 26, 1938.

The cast are Edward G Robinson as Remy Marco, Jane Bryan as Mary Marco, Allen Jenkins as Mike, Ruth Donnelly as Nora Marco, Willard Parker as Dick Whitewood, John Litel as banker Mr Post, Edward Brophy as Lefty, Harold Huber as ‘Gip’ (Giuseppe), Eric Stanley as banker Mr Ritter, Paul Harvey as Mr Whitewood, Margaret Hamilton as Mrs Cagle, Bobby Jordan as Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom (aka The Orphan), Joseph Downing, George E Stone, Bert Hamilton, Jean Benedict, Harry Seymour, Betty Compson, Joe Caites, George Lloyd, John Harmon, Harry Tenbrook, Duke York, Pat Daly, John Hiestand, Bert Roach, Harry Cody, Ben Hendricks, Ralph Dunn, Wade Botelier, Myrtle Stedman and Loia Cheaney.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,886

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