Ben Hendricks, Jr. Movies

Slight Case of Murder is a breakneck-paced comedy starring Edward G. Robinson as a tough but good-hearted bootlegger. When Prohibition is repealed, Robinson faces a financial crisis: His beer tastes so awful that no one wants to drink it legally. As an additional headache, Robinson is under scrutiny from the Law, which is waiting to slip the cuffs on him for the slightest infraction. He arrives at his rented Saratoga mansion with his wife (Ruth Donnelly), daughter (Jane Bryan) and adopted son (Bobby Jordan), only to discover that a killer has left four corpses in his bedroom. Robinson and his stooges are forced to hide the bodies before his future son-in-law (Willard Parker), who happens to be a cop, tumbles to the dilemma. Based on a stage play by Howard Lindsay and Damon Runyon, A Slight Case of Murder a just as entertaining in the 1990s as it was fifty years ago (please ignore a tepid 1953 musical remake titled Stop, You're Killing Me). Surprisingly, this film was not a favorite of star Edward G. Robinson, who felt that director Lloyd Bacon rushed through the material without taking full advantage of its comic potential. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this wartime drama, cavalry private Dennis Murphy purchases a nervous horse, Sergeant, after it is deemed unfit for military service. With patience and love, Murphy trains his horse into a champion and later proves his worth by sneaking the steed into England where he enters him in the Grand National. He wins. The plucky private also wins the affection of the colonel's daughter. This film is based on a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Whenever things got slow at 20th Century-Fox, the studio revved up its old reliable "three girls looking for millionaires" plotline. Three Kansas sisters (Loretta Young, Marjorie Weaver and Pauline Moore) use a small inheritance to set themselves up in a Manhattan penthouse. Figuring that Young has the best chance of snaring a rich husband, she is allowed to pose as a wealthy heiress, while Weaver and Moore pose as her servants. Young wins Joel McCrea, who isn't as rich as everyone thinks. Weaver ends up with a rancher (David Niven) who likewise is cash poor. But Moore hits the jackpot with a slow-witted working stiff (Stu Erwin) who turns out to be the only millionaire in the bunch. Three Blind Mice was remade (with much of the dialogue intact) as the 1941 musical Moon Over Miami, then re-remade in period costume as Three Little Girls in Blue (47). In 1953, elements of Three Blind Mice were combined with the basic plotline of the 1932 comedy The Greeks Had a Word for Them--and the result was How to Marry a Millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The "suspense" in the RKO Radio musical comedy Music for Madame lies in whether or not golden-voiced Operatic tenor Nino Martini will be permitted to sing. En route to Hollywood, Tonio (Martini) is hoodwinked into serenading a wedding party while a gang of jewel thieves clean out the place. The crooks head for the hills, but not before threatening to murder Tonio if he ever sings again (his voice, you see, is the only clue the police have to go by). While pondering the future of his career, our hero falls in love with beautiful Jean (Joan Fontaine) and is sorely tempted to express his ardor in song. Music for Madame was Jesse L. Lasky's first RKO production -- and very nearly his last when the picture lost $375,000 for the studio. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this high-seas adventure, an assistant state's attorney must serve a subpoena upon a wealthy yacht owner. To do this the fellow must sign on as a crew member for a race across the Pacific to Hawaii. The yacht is filled with wealthy passengers. Trouble ensues when the craft is rammed by a gun smuggler's windjammer. The snooty passengers are rescued and taken aboard the smuggler's craft. At first they are ungrateful and boorish, but then the passengers begin realizing that their lives are in the attorney's capable hands and begin pitching in to help. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Adapted from the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman play, Stage Door is a comedic portrait of the theatrical community in New York. Katharine Hepburn stars as Terry Randall a young woman who comes from a wealthy, socially connected family. Aspiring for a career on the stage, Terry opts to see if she can make it on her own gumption and moves into a boarding house with several other wannabe Broadway starlets attempting to make a mark for themselves in show business. Terry's sassy roommate Jean (Ginger Rogers) just might get the opportunity to do that when she meets a lecherous producer, but at what cost? Unamused by Terry's attempts to pull herself up by her bootstraps, her father offers her an opportunity for a starring role in a show that's sure to fail. Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, and Ann Miller are among the other residents of the boarding house. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Is it any surprise that hoydenish child star Jane Withers plays the title role in The Holy Terror? This time she plays Corky Wallace the irrepressible daughter of Naval Air Service Lt. Commander Wallace (John Eldredge), spending her spare time staging all-aviator musical shows. One of these entertainments takes place in a café which, unbeknownst to our heroine, serves as a rendezvous for a gang of foreign spies. The villains provoke a brawl with the servicemen, in hopes of getting the café closed down so that they can conduct their sinister activities in secret. But Withers gets wise to their scheme, and with the help of her aviator pals she literally smashes the spy ring once and for all. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this outdoor drama, a plucky young woman inherits her father's logging business and decides to try running it, even though she knows nothing about it. In her innocence, she fires all her trustworthy workers and instead hires a band of slick talking hoods who immediately try to cheat her. Fortunately, a handsome logger and his trusty axe come to save her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

After retiring from a boxing career, Johnny Cave (James Cagney) accepts an appointment to serve as head of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. However, when he discovers that his organization is full of corruption and lies, he sets out to uncover the scam, much to the dismay of his girlfriend, Janet (Mae Clarke), and his underhanded coworkers. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

After six years' worth of tragic and noble roles, Irene Dunne began a new phase in her career as a top comedienne in Theodora Goes Wild. She plays a prim small-town schoolteacher, raised in an oppressive environment by two maiden aunts. Seeking surreptitious adventure, Dunne writes a steamy romance novel in her spare time--which becomes a scandalous best-seller. Heading to the big city to meet her publisher, Irene has a fling with the artist (Melvyn Douglas) who has designed the dust jacket for her book. Though on surface a Manhattan sophisticate, Douglas is just as trapped as Dunne had been in her small town; he's saddled with a nasty wife and insufferable parents. Both Douglas and Dunne free themselves of those who'd hold them down, and find happiness together. To round out the happy ending, Dunne's small town, which had ostracized her for writing her "hot" novel, welcomes her back with a brass band when the book puts the town on the map. If Theodora Goes Wild doesn't seem quite as funny now as it did in 1936, it is only because most of its satirical targets (notably the shocked spinster aunts) have ceased to exist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Another of MGM's Wallace Beery-Jackie Cooper assault on the tear ducts, O'Shaugnessy's Boy casts Beery as oafish but lovable circus animal trainer Windy O'Shaughnessy. Believing himself happily married to acrobat Martha (Sara Haden), Windy is shocked to discover that Martha has walked out on him with their young son Stubby (Jackie Cooper). Conditioned by his nasty mother and nastier aunt (Leora Maricle) to think that Windy is a no-good, Stubby grows up despising his father, who has been reduced to a mere circus roustabout. Windy's comeback with a brand-new animal act coincides with his lachrymose reconciliation with his beloved so -- but not before one of those nick-of-time rescue scenes so beloved by MGM's scenario department. Cast as "Stubby as a Child" is Spanky McFarland, who like Jackie Cooper was a member of Hal Roach's Our Gang Kids. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The second of Kermit Maynard's "Mountie" actioners for Ambassador Pictures, Northern Frontier was a major improvement on the first (The Fighting Trooper), which in itself wasn't such a bad picture either. On behalf of the Feds, Royal Mountie McKenzie (Maynard) joins a gang of counterfeiters. The story becomes a bit hard to believe at this point, since McKenzie is so clean-cut and heroic that it's a wonder the villains aren't tipped off to his true identity from the get-go. Magnificently photographed in Northern California, Northern Frontier was ostensibly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood (whose name was automatically attached to practically every Mountie movie ever made!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on Frederick Hazlett Brennan's play Battleship Gertie, Miss Pacific Fleet is short and snappy "gobs and gals" affair. At the urging of gold-digging showgirls Gloria Foy (Joan Blondell) and Mae O'Brien (Glenda Farrell), goofy promoter Augustus Frietag (Hugh Herbert) comes up with a "Miss Pacific Fleet" contest, with each 10-cent purchase at a seaside amusement park representing one vote. Hundreds of sailors participate in the voting process, including Kewpie Wiggins (Allen Jenkins), who hopes that his "goil" Gloria will emerge the winner -- whereupon she and Mae will confiscate the money collected and skeedaddle to New York. Naturally, there are a few snags in this scheme, especially when the girls both fall for handsome marine sergeant Tom Foster (Warren Hull). Marie Wilson pilfers most of the film with her standard dizzy-dame routine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi