Showing posts with label Edna May Oliver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edna May Oliver. Show all posts

Thursday, March 12, 2020

'Half Shot at Sunrise' is more than halfway decent

Half Shot at Sunrise (1930)
Starring: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Leni Stengel, George MacFarlane, Edna May Oliver, and Jack Rutherford, and Edgar DeLange
Director: Paul Sloane
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A couple soldiers (Wheeler and Woolsey) are having the time of their lives AWOL in Paris during WWI, ducking MPs and happily hitting on every woman they see. When one of them  falls in love with the Colonel's teenaged daughter (Lee), and she decides to help his military career, things start to get complicated.


"Half Shot at Sunrise" is a supremely silly movie  that is light on plot but heavy on shenanigans and clever quips and offhanded double-entrendres. You'll hardly notice the lack of plot though, as Wheeler and Woolsey keep the jokes and tricks flowing non-stop, and when Dorothy Lee is added to the mix things get even wilder. If you like madcap military comedies, I think you'll enjoy this film quite a bit.

That said, it's not a perfect movie. The main drawback are the songs/musical numbers--which are . They are not all that good, and they interrupt the film's momentum and stop it dead in its tracks. I did enjoy the goofy dance routines that came with each song, but they were not enough to make up for the lameness of the music. These dragged my rating of this otherwise fun movie down from a low Eight to what was almost a Six on my 0-10 scale.

Another flaw was a serious romantic subplot involving the colonel's oldest daughter and a straight-laced Army lieutenant that ran along side the antics of the three main characters. While it served as a nice counterpoint to the Wheeler/Woolsey/Lee clown show, and brought a little dimension to some of the supporting characters, it really just made me wish for more of the clown show. It wasn't as damaging to the flow of the film as the weak musical numbers, but it didn't really add that much in the final analysis.

"Half Shot at Dawn" is one of nine films included in the Wheeler and Woolsey: RKO Comedy Classics Collection. That collection is a broad sampling of their films for RKO that stretches from the beginning of their contract until its end, and it includes some of their biggest hits.



Thursday, August 2, 2018

'Murder on the Honeymoon' needed work

Murder on a Honeymoon (1935)
Starring: Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Lola Lane, George Meeker, Spencer Charters, Dorothy Libarie, Leo G. Carroll, Arthur Hoyt, and Harry Ellerby
Director: Lloyd Corrigan
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

When a fellow passenger dies on a puddle-jumper flight to Catalina Island, vacationing school teacher Hildegarde Withers (Oliver) suspects foul play. She reaches out to her friend Inspector Oscar Piper (Gleason), who flies out to investigate as it appears to be a contract killing with connections back to New York City.


"Murder on a Honeymoon" is the third film to star Edna May Oliver and James Gleason as bickering sleuths, and it is yet another decline from the excellence that we saw in the first one, "The Penguin Pool Murder". While the beginning and end of the film are strong, almost everything in between is underdeveloped. There are several neat plot-threads inhabited by interesting murder suspects, but they are never completely followed nor even properly developed or connected. Worse, the characters of Withers and Piper are shells of their former selves. The mature relationship that we saw begin in "Penguin Pool" is nowhere to be seen and instead we're left with a pair of mean-spirited characters that makes you wonder at times why they even like each other.

As disappointing as this movie is on many fronts, when it's good, it's really good. Although poorly developed, the mystery of the film is solid in its foundation and the way Withers and Piper solve it is logical (even if it almost gets them killed). And speaking of getting killed, the film is at its best during a sequence where our heroes are investigating a closed casino and encounter some of the suspects there; it's well-filmed and well-written and all-around tense. The same is true for a scene where Ms. Withers is literally at the mercy of a contract killer. Finally, the Big Reveal of the murderer is handled in a different and thrilling way that what is typical for mysteries of this kind--there's no "let's get all the suspects together in a room", so it comes as a surprise. (The identity of the murderer may not be surprising if you've been paying attention, but that may make the scene even more satisfying for you.)

The acting is solid all around, with the supporting cast being so strong that it's a shame none of their characters are given more time in the spotlight. The film would have been a bit stronger if we'd seen more of the honeymooners referenced in the title (Dorothy Libarie and Harry Ellerby), as well as gotten a little more development and screen time for Lola Lane's mysterious fame-seeking (?) character.

While "Murder on the Honeymoon" is another step down in quality when compared to the launch of this series, it's still entertaining enough for you to take the time to watch. It's firmly at the low end of average, but it has just enough going for it.

Friday, June 22, 2018

It's an after-school killing with 'Murder on the Blackboard'

Murder on the Blackboard (1934)
Starring: Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Gertrude Michael, Frederick Voeding, Bruce Cabot, Tully Marshall, Regis Toomey, and Barbara Fritchie
Director: George Archainbaud
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Murder hits close to home when one of Miss Withers' colleagues (Fritchie) is bludgeoned to death in the school where she teaches. As she and her friend, Inspector Oscar Piper (Gleason) investigate, they learn that many of the school's faculty and staff had reason to commit the carefully planned murder.


"Murder on the Blackboard" is a fast-paced, bare-bones mystery film full of witty dialogue that wastes no time in getting going; operates with a minimum of characters--just enough to obfuscate the identity of the murderer but no so many to make the film feel overcrowded--and locations; and not a moment wasted with filler material or even subplots. (Well, there are a couple kinda-sorta subplots that tie directly into the solution of the mystery, but they are more accurately "stub-plots" they are so minor and barely developed.)

There was one big drawback to the economic nature of how this film was executed and that is that we didn't get any of the quieter moments that showed the mutual romantic attraction developing between Hildegarde and Oscar. I thought that was one of the more appealing aspects of the first film in the series, because it was unusual to see characters like these get to be anything but the gruff cop and frumpy old maid sleuth. All that's left in this film is a sense that they grudgingly respect each others intellect, despite their constant bickering. Also missing from this film is the chance for Oscar to show that he's actually a good cop and a solid detective... it's almost entirely Hildegarde's show and she solves the mystery all on her own.

Speaking of solving the mystery... I also found the "key clue" to be more than just a little far fetched. I can't really comment beyond that without spoiling the mystery, but I can't even imagine the notion that it was a clue occurring to anyone, let alone using it to zero in on the killer's identity... except in a case where the writer told the character to have the idea in the first place.

"Murder on the Blackboard," despite not being as good as "The Penguin Pool Murder", is entertaining  and well worth the roughly 70 minutes it will take you to watch it.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

'The Penguin Pool Murder' is a great start for Miss Withers

The Penguin Pool Murder (1932)
Starring: Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Clarence Wilson, Mae Clarke, Robert Armstrong, Donald Cook, and Guy Usher
Director: George Archainbaud
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

When a wife-beating, crooked stockbroker (Usher) is murdered, his wife (Clarke) and her one-time boyfriend (Cook) are the obvious suspects. Sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued school teacher Miss Hildegard Withers (Oliver), who found the body, thinks there's more to the situation, and she badgers Inspector Oscar Piper (Gleason) to keep digging into what seems like an open-and-shut case.


"The Penguin Pool Murders" is a breezy mystery with a cast so charismatic and likeable that one almost forgets the dark subject matter at its heart--spousal that may have led to murder. Because the cast is so likeable, I also find myself forgiving the film for, essentially, being a one-suspect mystery, and becoming evenmoreso when the character that I zero'ed in on as the murderer almost immediately starts becoming super-helpful with the investigation; the film is simply too much fun for that flaw to drag it down too much.

Another strength of the film is the interplay between the two main characters, Miss Withers and Inspector Piper. They start out with obvious disdain for each other, but when they realize that each is actually much smarter than they initially gave each other credit for, you can see the mutual respect develop between them... and by the end, a romantic relationship is under way. (And speaking of romance, the *obvious* one--the one we expect involving the young couple in the story--involves a couple nice twists that also make this film stand out.

"The Penguin Pool Murder" was the first of six films with Gleason as Inspector Piper, and of three with Oliver as Miss Withers. I hope every entry in the series is as strong as this one.