Penguin Pool Murder (1932)

A good mystery story based on the novel by Stuart Palmer and directed by George Archainbaud. A school teacher and a police inspector join forces to discover the murder of a man found dead in a penguin pool at an aquarium. It moves at a good pace with salty dialogue and able acting leading to the final courtroom revelation. Only seventy minutes but worth every minute.Playing the school teacher turned detective Hildegarde Withers for the first time (two further films followed with her in the lead) Edna May Oliver is perfectly cast. Not quite the prim school teacher she appears to be, Oliver gives the character depth and feeling. Supporting her as the police inspector is James Gleason, irascible at first but grows in admiration for Miss Withers. The beautiful Mae Clarke is wasted as the wife of the murder victim. In minor but effective roles are Edgar Kennedy, Rochelle Hudson and Gustav von Seyffertitz. (Great name!)There were six Hildegarde Withers films in the thirties and one TV film in the seventies. Hopefully the other films are as good as this.

Penguin Pool Murder from 1932 stars Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Mae Clarke, and Donald Cook. It's a B movie, the first of the Hildegarde Withers series.While Miss Withers is with her students at the aquarium, the body of a stockbroker, Gerald Parker, is found in the penguin tank.His wife Gwen (Clarke) is suspected, as she had a boyfriend (Cook) there at the time.The inspector on the case, Piper (Gleason) has to put up with a witness -- Miss Withers, who else -- who has all kinds of opinions and advice. He soon comes to appreciate her keen sense of observation.Short and lively, this is entertaining, with Oliver and Gleason giving vivid characterizations. I am looking forward to seeing more in this series.

Schoolteacher Edna May Oliver brings her class to the aquarium. A dead man tumbles into the penguin tank before their eyes. The kids vanish, and Oliver spends the rest of the picture teaming up with police detective James Gleason to solve the murder. It's a quick and sometimes hilarious case.Gleason locks up about half of the cast over the course of the film; eventually he's positive he's got the right man and vows to turn in his badge if he's wrong, to which Oliver responds: "If you turned in a badge every time you suspected the wrong person in this case, the department would have to have a special trophy room for them." Gleason is not discouraged ("Don't mind the badge situation, I can take care of that") but he has gradually come to value her ideas and ingenuity.It's a lively partnership between two gruffly charming characters—the two stars are excellent, and are both at their best when on the screen together.A fun supporting cast includes Robert Armstrong as a lawyer who appears somewhat mysteriously; Mae Clark and Donald Cook as attractive young suspects who may or may not fall (or be) in love; the wonderful Clarence Wilson, he of the bald head, mustache, and eternal twitch, as aquarium manager Bertram B. Hemingway; and the great Edgar Kennedy as—naturally—a bewildered cop. (Officer Kennedy is completely bald in this one rather than just on the dome. Odd.) The final minute of the picture is priceless, with Oliver and Gleason watching an exonerated pair of suspects emerge from jail into the courtyard below his office window, and then discussing what's next in their careers. A couple of sequels, thank you!

***SPOILERS*** Excellent detective movie involving spinster teacher Hilderard Martha Winters, Edna May Oliver, solving a murder mystery that New York's police top detective Oscar Piper, James Gleason, couldn't even get a handle on.It's when stockbroker Gerald Parker, Guy Usher, is found dead after being dumped in the Battery Park Aquarium's penguin pool that it's the late Gerald Parker's wife's Gwen's, Mea Cark, former boyfriend Philip Seymour, Donald Cook, who's suspected in his murder. Gwen planning to leave Gerald after he slapped her was to secretly meet Seymour at the aquarium to restart their love affair until Gerald, who followed her there, unexpectedly showed up! In a scuffle Seymour knocked Gerald cold and the last thing you know he's in the penguin pool as dead as a doornail!With top cop Oscar Piper showing up at the scene of the crime he doesn't have any trouble getting a confession out of Seymour in Gerald's murder. As it turned out teacher Hildegarde Winters was taking her students on a field trip to the aquarium and being as observant as she is saw things differently. Catching a pickpocket Chicago Lew, James Hermond, in the act with her umbrella Hildegarde also was framed by the killer by using her hat-pin that he stole, during all the confusion, to do poor Mr. Parker in! That's after both Gwen & Seymour left him laying unconscious on the stairs above the penguin pool!It's Hildegard's common sense and brilliant detective work that in the end uncover Gerald Parker's murderer who's own arrogance and hubris ended up doing him in! Something that Hildegard noticed about Gerald's killer that top NY city police department cop Oscar Piper had no clue about was that he in fact had a good reason for doing Gerald in: love & money. The most despicable thing that Gerald Parker's killer did was beside trying to implicate Hildergarde in his crime in make up a cock & bull story in that she was in fact his,Gerald Parker's, secret lover back in her home town in Iowa who took revenge on him, by murdering Gerald, for leaving her.***SPOILERS***Of course the witty and on the ball Hilderguard expected this line of questioning from that low down rat and was more then ready for him with a big surprise of her own. The surprise that the killer unknowingly himself supplied for her by proving that he, not Hildegarde Seymour or Gwen, in fact murdered Mr.Parker! That in a trap that both Hildegarde and Piper set for him that he fell lock stock and barrel for!