A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

That great theme of Damon Runyan: Society mixing it up with those who aren't exactly high class. Again, we see this theme in "A Slight Case of Murder."Edward G. Robinson and Ruth Donnelly are fabulous here as husband and wife trying to go straight with the end of prohibition. With it all, you can't take the past from them, no matter how much you try.Four years after going straight, Robinson's brewery has hit rock bottom. Nobody wants to tell the boss that the beer he serves is absolutely terrible.Robinson goes back to the orphanage he grew up in to take the worst child for a month in his summer place. Watch for Margaret Hamilton, one year before her witchcraft in the memorable "Wizard of Oz."As for this film, it has everything, mistaken identity, associates of Robinson, who are a riot by themselves, a wayward brat who proves his mettle, their wonderful daughter engaged to a police officer, his snobbish father caught up in all the mayhem.

This movie falls securely into the beat-it-you-mugs style of lovable gangster films, fairly common in the '30s. The dialog is rife with all that faux street-tough lingo (ex., "Say, when do we tie on the feedbag?" for When do we eat?), made famous by the Dead End Kids and countless others. I happen to think it's pretty hilarious, but that's just me.This is also a "screwball comedy." Now if you'eve ever wondered about what makes a comedy "screwball," well, the key might be a storyline that disdains all the pedestrian limits imposed by a too rigid attention to the realistic and believable. In other words, to borrow a famous example, Laurel and Hardy, say, are carrying a piano across a rope bridge over a raging river. Half way across, they meet a gorilla. You get the idea.Anyway, I saw this movie when I was a teenager and thought it was one of the best of its era. Seeing it now, I still like it a lot, although it's perhaps not top-shelf. If Frank Capra had made this, the secondary storyline (gangster's daughter wants to marry a policeman!) would have been primary, and the primary storyline (gangster bootlegger, now that Prohibition is over, decides to try to be a "legit" businessman) would have been secondary, and it would have been a better movie (provided of course you had Jean Arthur and James Stewart in the roles of the young lovers). But really, there's a lot to like here.

In the early days of his career, the late great Edward G.Robinson, often took on roles which for him were a change of pace. Here is a good example. One of the most memorable character roles he portrayed, was the tough guy character "Rico" in 'Little Ceasar' ruler of his tiny empire. However that was when gunmen ruled the town and bootleg whiskey was all the rage. However as with every era, Prohibition was soon repealed and as in this film, the bootlegger went straight. Edward G. Robinson is now tough, legitimate and respectable, Remy Marco. Together with his wife, Mary Marco (Jane Bryan) daughter, Nora Marco (Ruth Donnelly) and his old gang plan on making a go of the new lifestyle, a brewery, making domestic beer. However, trappings of his former life follow. Several hoodlums plan on ambushing him at his Saratoga home, but end up as excess baggage and Marco must deal with them as well as an uninvited State Trooper and son-in-law visiting him at that very moment. In addition, Marco has invited a juvenile delinquent and 'Dead End Kid' Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom (Bobby Jordan) to come and learn how to be an upstanding citizen. The hilarity of this film is a mad-cap series of quick changing comical situations which invite humor only if one remembers how serious the 1930's were. Much more interesting is the quick thinking dialog between the characters as they adapt to life after criminal prohibition. ****

I guess this was considered "hilarious" back in 1938 but I don't it would be thought of that way today. It's a good example of how humor changes through the decades. A lot of comedies from the "classic era" sound really corny and stupid to us today. I imagine folks will say the same 60 years from now about today's humor.That isn't to say there aren't some funny moments in this movie. There are, but just not as many as I was expecting after reading the "hype" about the film. The story centers around a crook, "Remy Marco" (Edward G. Robinson supposedly spoofing his role as "Rico" in the 1930 movie "Little Caesar.") Marco is in the bootlegging business. He refers to himself in the third person all the time. When prohibition ends, "Marco" goes legit with his beer business. What he doesn't realize, because he never tastes the stuff, is that his beer stinks. Once the public has more of a choice on what to drink, his brewery sales go down the tubes.The movie has many sidebars, if you will, such as a big heist, four dead guys in his house, a wise-guy orphan kid taken into Marco's house, Marco's daughter marrying a state trooper, on and on. Those keep things lively.There are lots of wild and wacky scenes so I can see why this probably was a fun movie for the folks back in the '30s and even for some people today. It is entertaining, I have to give it that, but a little bit too dated for me.