Super-Sleuth (1937)

Super-Sleuth stars Jack Oakie as a detective-playing actor who taunts the police for failing to catch a criminal that then targets him. This isn't a mystery - we know who the killer is early on. The only real mystery of the movie is the killer's motive, but don't expect an answer to that.Oakie is an amusing guy who plays his idiocy well, breezing down the street with - to quote a t-shirt - all the confidence of a mediocre white man.Edgar Kennedy does his usual schtick well, and Ann Sothern is likable even though she and Oakie have absolutely no degree of chemistry.The worst thing in the movie is a black servant who is a particularly egregious example of the way Hollywood turned African Americans into idiot children. It is painful to watch.I wouldn't go so far as to recommend this film, but Oakie does make it watchable.

I usually find movies of this era poorly written, over-acted, and the comedies not funny. This one is funny thanks to Jack Oakie. Ann Southern and the other actors did over-act, see.

In "Super-Sleuth", Jack Oakie plays an actor who plays movie detectives and is a fat-head and numb-skull. He thinks he's smarter than the police and he inexplicably insists on solving the Poison Pen murders all by himself--even though he's one of the killer's intended victims. Along the way, Oakie mugs and overacts in the way that folks loved back in the day--mostly because he didn't seem to take himself very seriously. Despite knowing NOTHING about solving crimes and mostly making a nuisance of himself through most of the film, he ends up stumbling into the solution--all by dumb luck (it sure ain't intelligence!).The solution to the crime is incredibly easy. So why did it take everyone to finally figure out that the creepy guy (Eduardo Cianelli) was behind it all?! Also, the scene with the gun near the end of the film is pretty stupid--and NO actor is that stupid and the f wax works section is pretty dumb!! Still, the film is amiable if not particularly surprising. Oakie's style is pleasant and the film modestly entertaining.

Somebody's out to kill Jack Oakie, a movie detective who seems intent on breaking into real life detective work. Other than the obvious critics who criticize his hamming, there's Ann Sothern, a studio employee who reluctantly ends up in most of his schemes, the cowardly Willie Best (cast again in a racial stereotype) and the sinister looking Eduardo Ciannelli, a spooky professor. There's really little amusement in this, that is until the ending confrontation in a haunted house where trapped doors and secret entrances keep the characters disappearing and reappearing. Edgar Kennedy adds another slow-burning detective with little sense and lots of temper to his credits. The finale may have you in stitches, but there's little else to laugh at in this weak programmer.