A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Great Film overall

good back-story, and good acting

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

One of the funniest movies I've seen in ages- featuring:Edward G. Robinson as a genial bootlegger going legit after prohibition with a brewery making horrible beer.Ruth Donnelly as his wife, trying to be teddibly refined.All the great character actors who played mugs in the 1930s playing it for laughs.A wild party4 corpses in the guest room closetA stuffy prospective father-in-lawAnd, best of all, Bobby Jordan as the beer-swilling Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom, the worst orphan in New York.Try it-- you'll like it!

Although he had played a variety of roles in his career up to 1938, Edward G. Robinson had become known for his gangster, criminal and tough guy roles. "Little Caesar" of 1931 was the blockbuster film and performance that set the typecast of Robinson for several years. He had done no comedy before "A Slight Case of Murder," but this film showed that he had a knack for humor. This film on DVD has a bonus featurette. In it, film historians and writers say that this was one of Robinson's favorite films. He thoroughly enjoyed making this film, breaking away from his typecast. He would go on to star in more crime, mystery and suspense films, but he also had some very good drama roles in biographies, war films and thrillers. He made three more comedies. Two had plots paired with crime: "Brother Orchid" of 1940, and "Larceny, Inc." of 1942. A good war comedy was "Mr. Winkle Goes to War" of 1944. I devote so much to Robinson here because his role is so different and refreshing, and he plays it to the hilt. It's clear that he enjoyed making this movie. And, while the best humor, and bulk of it in the film, is in his character of Remy Marco, a tremendous supporting cast piles more humor onto the heap. Ruth Donelly plays Remy's wife, Nora. Remy's three lugs are some of the best dopey characters in crime in movies around that time. Allen Jenkins plays Mike, Edward Brophy is Lefty, and Harold Huber is Giuseppe ("Jip"). Other comedy comes from Paul Harvey as Mr. Whitewood and Willard Parker as Dick Whitewood. Bobby Jordan plays Remy's vacation orphan guest, Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom. Many others in this huge cast have snippets of humor here and there. The movie is billed as a satire, and that it is. It's a spoof of racketeering and of the very gangland culture that arose during prohibition. The film is based on a Damon Runyan play. Runyan was known for his chronicling of life on the streets of New York, especially around Broadway; and the stories he wrote, many of which were made into stage plays and/or movies. E.G. Robinson never won an academy award, but he was a highly acclaimed actor for four decades. He was well liked off screen by his colleagues who found him to be a gentle soul. In his real life he was a refined person who could speak several languages. He was a serious collector of art, especially paintings. In his tough guy and criminal roles, his characters often were poorly educated guys who spoke street language. So, when one knows his real background, Robinson is very funny as he rattles off his dialog in this comedy satire. I can imagine him and others of the cast cracking up between takes, at some of the buffoonish dialog. Here are some of my favorite lines from this film. Remy, "Oh, and by the way – have Mike take the spittoons out of the living room.""Dear boss, we've tooken a half hour off. Mike." Remy, "Look at the way he spells tooken – with two o's."Norma, "I'm thinking of your father. He doesn't like ruffians. He's a pacifist."Remy, "Never treat a sucker like so much dirt when he's down. Play ball with him and you'll find you always get a little better edge in the end."Remy," And remember, you always come out on top with honesty, integrity, and a good hard right to the button."Mike tells Remy they found Dutch Schultz and three others bodies upstairs. "They were shot right in the middle of a game, and one of 'em had a king flush." Remy, "Which one of 'em had the king full, Little Dutch?" Mike, "Yeah." Remy, "I thought so. Lucky fink, that Little Dutch." The boys at Star of Good Hope Orphanage sing a song when their distinguished alumnus, Remy Marco, comes to visit. "How do you do, Mr. Marco, how do you do? All the happy little orphans welcome you. We are glad that you are here, 'Cause you always bring a cheer. How do you do, Mr. Marco, how do you do?"

. . . makes a nice companion piece to KIDNAPPING MR. HEINEKEN, which I saw a couple weeks ago. In A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER, Edward G. Robinson's "Gold Velvet Beer" tastes almost as bad as Heineken's. Unlike his Dutch counterpart, Robinson's "Remy Marco" character realizes that brewers of cheap, yucky, vomit-inducing beer require the priciest bodyguards money can buy IF they wish to walk around as free men. When a gang of five lies in wait for Remy, all of them get shot (and four of them die). When a gang of five kidnaps Mr. Heineken for weeks on end, no one gets shot. As Remy says, "Drink Gold Velvet--it's the tops!" Pabst has the Blue Ribbon, and Budweiser is the King of Beers. (Plus, you don't want to mess around with people surrounded by Clydesdales!) It's all enough to make Heineken green with envy.

Although the 1936 stage play by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay was only moderately successful (it ran only 70 performances), Warner Brothers bought it as a vehicle for Edward G. Robinson. Now that meant that before the camera turned, the movie had at least two strikes against it. Edward G. is not a comedian. He lacks a comic touch and is totally unconvincing as a brewer who has (1) never tasted his own beer and (2) never listened to innumerable complaints, made over a four-year period. He is in fact a totally unsympathetic character. The rest of the players try their best to take up the slack, but their acting is flat. They are not helped by the talky script with its strictly one-dimensional characterizations. Robinson proves another hindrance with his uncommunicative acting and his constant attempts to hog the camera and override everyone else's lines and bits of business. The movie was directed by Lloyd Bacon who tries to push the story along but is continually stymied by the camera-hogging Robinson's gross overacting. Edward G. doesn't just say his mediocre lines. He shouts them! Don't get me wrong, I like Edward G. – but not as the lead in a comedy. Available on a Warner Brothers DVD.