''A Slight Case of Murder'' is a 1938 American comedy film directed by

Lloyd Bacon Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director he made films in virtually all genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, an ...

. The film is based on the 1935 play by

Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To ...

and Howard Lindsay. The offbeat comedy stars

Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...

spoofing his own gangster image as Remy Marco.

Plot

With the end of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholi ...

, bootlegger Remy Marco ("Marko" in a sequence of the film, and in the closed captioning) becomes a legitimate

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer ...

; but he slowly goes broke because the beer he makes tastes terrible, and everyone is afraid to tell him so. After four years, with bank officers preparing to foreclose on the brewery, he retreats to his Saratoga summer home, only to find four dead mobsters who meant to ambush him, but were killed by their confederate whom they meant to betray. More and more problems begin to pop up in the life of the former bootlegger, as he has taken in a bratty orphan, and his daughter comes home with a fiancé that turns out to be a state trooper. Marco solves the biggest problem by hiding the corpses in a closet and convincing the state trooper to "be a hero and shoot through the door". The trooper is hailed as a hero for capturing four desperate men single handed.

Cast

Critical response

The movie continues to receive positive reviews. A ''Classic Film Guide'' review calls it "a satisfying comedy, which is enhanced by some great character work by veteran supporting players":

Allen Jenkins Allen Curtis Jenkins (born Alfred McGonegal; April 9, 1900 – July 20, 1974) was an American character actor and singer who worked on stage, film, and television. Life and career Jenkins was born on Staten Island, New York, on April 9, 1900. ...

Edward Brophy Edward Santree Brophy (February 27, 1895 – May 27, 1960) was an American character actor and comedian, as well as an assistant director and second unit director during the 1920s. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he frequently ...

, and Harold Huber as members of Remy's former gang gone legitimate; Margaret Hamilton as Mrs. Cagie, director of the orphanage where Marco grew up; and

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

as Marco's daughter's prospective father-in-law.

Adaptations

The story was remade as ''

Stop, You're Killing Me :''There was also a Two Ronnies mini-series of this name.'' ''Stop, You're Killing Me'' is a 1952 black comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Broderick Crawford and Claire Trevor. Premise The surprise appearance of four corpses interf ...

'' (1952) with

Broderick Crawford William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Willie Stark in ''All th ...

and

Claire Trevor Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...

. On April 8, 1945, ''Old Gold Comedy Theatre'' presented an adaptation of the film on NBC radio. The 30-minute program starred Edward G. Robinson and Allen Jenkins. On January 24, 1954, it was presented on NBC Star Playhouse starring Edward G. Robinson. Although not an adaptation,

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

's movie '' Oscar'' (1991) bears a resemblance to the plot (minus the corpses), and all three movies can trace their ancestry to

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

's '' The Bourgeoise Gentleman''.

References

External links