Watch A Slight Case of Murder For Free

The Worst Film Ever

Sadly Over-hyped

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

. . . makes a nice companion piece to KIDNAPPING MR. HEINEKEN, which I saw a couple weeks ago. In A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER, Edward G. Robinson's "Gold Velvet Beer" tastes almost as bad as Heineken's. Unlike his Dutch counterpart, Robinson's "Remy Marco" character realizes that brewers of cheap, yucky, vomit-inducing beer require the priciest bodyguards money can buy IF they wish to walk around as free men. When a gang of five lies in wait for Remy, all of them get shot (and four of them die). When a gang of five kidnaps Mr. Heineken for weeks on end, no one gets shot. As Remy says, "Drink Gold Velvet--it's the tops!" Pabst has the Blue Ribbon, and Budweiser is the King of Beers. (Plus, you don't want to mess around with people surrounded by Clydesdales!) It's all enough to make Heineken green with envy.

Although the 1936 stage play by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay was only moderately successful (it ran only 70 performances), Warner Brothers bought it as a vehicle for Edward G. Robinson. Now that meant that before the camera turned, the movie had at least two strikes against it. Edward G. is not a comedian. He lacks a comic touch and is totally unconvincing as a brewer who has (1) never tasted his own beer and (2) never listened to innumerable complaints, made over a four-year period. He is in fact a totally unsympathetic character. The rest of the players try their best to take up the slack, but their acting is flat. They are not helped by the talky script with its strictly one-dimensional characterizations. Robinson proves another hindrance with his uncommunicative acting and his constant attempts to hog the camera and override everyone else's lines and bits of business. The movie was directed by Lloyd Bacon who tries to push the story along but is continually stymied by the camera-hogging Robinson's gross overacting. Edward G. doesn't just say his mediocre lines. He shouts them! Don't get me wrong, I like Edward G. – but not as the lead in a comedy. Available on a Warner Brothers DVD.

Edward G. Robinson was Little Caesar, a tough guy to be taken seriously. But he made fun of the tough-guy image with this film, A Slight Case of Murder. It seems a bunch of gangsters who were his enemies, held up a bank and went out to his hide-out to settle a score with him. But one of them double-crosses them all and shoots them and leaves their dead bodies for Eddie to discover, wanting to take the loot with him. But, before he could make a break for it, he has to hide in the house, when Eddie and his men show up. Therefore he's always around, hiding from room to room. And, the men try to dispose of the bodies, but find out there's a reward for them, dead or alive. Meanwhile Eddie's daughter is getting married, but what she doesn't know is the new line of work her fiancé has picked, that of a state patrolman. The law getting into Eddie's family! He'll hit the roof. A particular highlight is when Eddie and his wife have a party, inviting the in-laws, and actress Ruth Donnelly, who's his wife and is very good in her role, tries to act so upper-class and trying to make a good impression on her guests. I had seen the film years ago, not knowing this was a parody of the genre and didn't care for it, but this time around I couldn't stop laughing. I think a viewer's high expectations of a film may hinder the enjoyment of it if it's not as good as you wanted or not what you thought you were getting. But, if you want a spoof of the gangster's life and troubles, look no further than this "slight case of moider."

Edward G. Robinson stars as an ex-bootlegger who tries to go straight after the repeal of Prohibition. The problem is he decides to stay in the beer business, not knowing his beer is swill. Making matters worse, his dopey daughter is back from school in Europe and her boyfriend is a cop. All hell breaks loose at his rented summer house in Saratoga Springs when the family, his stooges, and some unlucky bank robbers all converge during a big house party. What fun! Ruth Donnelly is good as the wife, Margaret Hamilton has fun as the orphanage director, Bobby Jordan (as little Douglas) is hilarious, as is Paul Harvey as the dyspeptic father. Good cast all around includes Allen Jenkins, Harold Huber, Jane Bryan, Willard Parker, John Litel, and Edward Brophy. Carole Landis is one of the party guests, and the great Betty Compson, an Oscar nominee for The Barker, has a bit part as dark-haired Loretta on the piano bench. Best of all, however, is Robinson who is totally at home in this zany comedy.