Hildegarde Withers Mystery Collection

Edna May Oliver

Robert Armstrong

James Gleason

Mae Clarke

Donald Cook

Edgar Kennedy

Clarence Wilson

James Donlan

Gustav von Seyffertitz

William Le Maire

Joe Hermano

Guy Usher

Rochelle Hudson

Wilfrid North

Sidney Miller

A.S. Byron

Edith Fellows

Chuck Hamilton

Mary Mason

Dorothy Vernon

Lowell Brentano

Stuart Palmer

George Archainbaud

Willis Goldbeck

David O. Selznick

Hugh McDowell Jr.

Ray Lissner

Jack Kitchin

Fred Schuessler

Robert Margolis

Kenneth Macgowan

Henry W. Gerrard

Dick Stockton

Max Steiner

Russell Metty

Harry Redmond Sr.

Willard Barth

Comedy

Mystery

Romance

The Penguin Pool Murder

RKO Radio Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

There is something Marple-esque about Edna May Oliver's portrayal of the meticulous, no-nonsense, schoolteacher "Miss Withers". There's also something hideous about some of the fish in the aquarium where the police discover the corpse of the pretty universally disliked "Parker". It turns out that his wife (Mae Clarke) has a boyfriend (Donald Cook), and that both were present at the time of death. Looks like a bit of a no-brainer for "Insp. Piper" (James Gleason) but his chance meeting with the razor-sharp mind of the prim and proper "Withers" soon makes him think again. Despite his initially polite disdain, he realises that she is quite an insightful assistant as this turns out to be anything but as straightforward as everyone had hoped. The mystery itself is also very much in the vein of Agatha Christie - loads of red herrings and a victim about as popular as toothache. The production is kept moving along by some pacy direction and some pithy banter between the two investigators. Will they get to the bottom or not? Never in doubt, but not really important - this is a drama about characters and Oliver and Gleason gel well and engagingly for seventy minutes of sparring, spatting and... solving.

English

Penguin Pool Murder (Preview Clip)