A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

A Slight Case of Murder
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Written by Earl Baldwin and Joseph Schrank from a play by Damon Runyan and Howard Lindsay
1938/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing

[box] Nora Marco: Why isn’t he in B-E-D?

Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom: Because I want more to E-A-T, you old C-O-W.[/box]

Edward G. Robinson is always a pleasure to watch but I didn’t get any laughs out of this gangster comedy.

When Prohibition ends, Remy Marco (Robinson) decides to become a legitimate brewer and employ his gang members as salesmen.  Only problem is he has never tasted his own beer and his men are afraid to tell him it is wretched.  After four years, Remy is half a million dollars in debt and the bank is ready to foreclose.  He leaves for his summer house in Saratoga, after stopping at the orphanage where he grew up to take the worst boy he can find for the summer.

When he gets to Saratoga, Remy discovers that a gang has robbed all the bookmakers for the race track of $500,000.  When he gets to the house, four dead robbers are in one of the bedrooms.  In the meantime, his daughter has become engaged to a very rich state trooper whose father comes to check the family out.  Hijinx ensue.  With Margaret Hamilton in a very small role as the matron of the orphanage.

This tries to be madcap but was a miss in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9y2t5foX0E

Trailer