zardoz-13 Edward G. Robinson of "Little Caesar" fame plays a big-shot bootlegger in director Lloyd Bacon's "A Slight Case of Murder" who struggles to earn money legitimately now that Prohibition has been repealed. During Prohibition, our mobster hero raked in the dough with illegal beer that was too hideous to drink. Since Remy Marco's beer was the only booze in town, people had to guzzle it. Now, since Prohibition has ended, Remy is finding it difficult to turn a profit on his beer that everybody reviles. You see, Remy doesn't imbibe so he doesn't know how dreadful his beer is. At this point in his career, Marco has hit rock-bottom. He cannot pay his bills. Furthermore, he has to pull his beautiful daughter Mary (Jane Bryan of "Marked Woman") out of an expensive Parisian boarding school and bring her home. Later, he finds himself in hot water with the bank because he owes $462-thousand. They give him 24 hours to come up with the cash, so Remy carts the family off to Saratoga. The scheming bankers want to appropriate Remy's brewery. They agree to meet Remy in Saratoga. Before our hero leaves town, Remy picks up an orphan, Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom (Bobby Jordan of "Spook Busters"), from the Star of Good Hope Orphanage. Douglas is a sticky-fingered pickpocket. While Remy is on the way to his Saratoga residence, a group of gunsels await Remy's arrival. They have a falling out among them, and one gunman, Innocence (Joe Downing of "Invisible Stripes") mows down his former accomplices. Unfortunately, Innocence isn't able to leave the house because Remy and his family and friends barge in to celebrate. What poor Remy isn't prepared for occurs when Jane introduces her dad to State Policeman Dick Whitewood (Willard Parker) and he is even more surprised when he learns that Mary and Dick are about to be married. The humor hits the mark and this comedy doesn't let you down. Clocking in at 85 bare minutes, "A Slight of Murder" ranks as a memorable gangster epic.

rspencer-909-101250 This movie falls securely into the beat-it-you-mugs style of lovable gangster films, fairly common in the '30s. The dialog is rife with all that faux street-tough lingo (ex., "Say, when do we tie on the feedbag?" for When do we eat?), made famous by the Dead End Kids and countless others. I happen to think it's pretty hilarious, but that's just me.This is also a "screwball comedy." Now if you'eve ever wondered about what makes a comedy "screwball," well, the key might be a storyline that disdains all the pedestrian limits imposed by a too rigid attention to the realistic and believable. In other words, to borrow a famous example, Laurel and Hardy, say, are carrying a piano across a rope bridge over a raging river. Half way across, they meet a gorilla. You get the idea.Anyway, I saw this movie when I was a teenager and thought it was one of the best of its era. Seeing it now, I still like it a lot, although it's perhaps not top-shelf. If Frank Capra had made this, the secondary storyline (gangster's daughter wants to marry a policeman!) would have been primary, and the primary storyline (gangster bootlegger, now that Prohibition is over, decides to try to be a "legit" businessman) would have been secondary, and it would have been a better movie (provided of course you had Jean Arthur and James Stewart in the roles of the young lovers). But really, there's a lot to like here.

bkoganbing A Slight Case of Murder had its origins on the Broadway stage where this play by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay flopped miserably with only 69 performances in the 1935 season. It certainly adapted better for the screen when Warner Brothers bought it for one of their gangster stable, in this case Edward G. Robinson.The story concerns a gangster Remy Marko who is trying to go straight and get out of the bootleg beer racket now that Prohibition has been repealed. It was a problem faced by any number of people who were not Lucky Luciano or Meyer Lansky.In Robinson's case he's decided to go legitimate and brew beer legally. Of course no one has the heart to tell him that the stuff he's been peddling for years has been nothing but swill, not even his family, Ruth Donnelly and Jane Bryan, nor his closest associates Allen Jenkins, Harold Huber, and Ed Brophy. While all this is going Robinson and the family and friends go to his summer home near the Saratoga racetrack where a big robbery of the bookie's money has taken place. This was in the days before the para-mutual machines and track bets were taken at the sight by legal bookmakers. The gang decides to hide out in what they think will be Robinson's deserted home.Daughter Jane Bryan is romancing state trooper Willard Parker, a prospect the going straight Robinson still finds appalling. No less so than Paul Harvey, Parker's nervous blue-blood father. All these elements mix well for a very funny screen comedy. Robinson who was really getting tired of all the gangster parts, seems to be enjoying himself, referring to himself constantly in the third person, and earning quite a few laughs and keeping up with some of the best scene stealers around. Ruth Donnelly keeps up very well who most of the time remembers she's now supposed to be respectable, but every so often slips back to her familiar background.The guy who really is funny here is Paul Harvey. He's mixing with people he's not used to and it's putting quite an evident strain on him. One of the running gags in A Slight Case of Murder is how bad the beer Robinson makes. He never drinks himself so he doesn't know and no one is brave enough to tell him. Damon Runyon who probably sampled every kind of illegal liquor available during Prohibition, knew well the kind of rot gut that was peddled. The classier places imported stuff from across the border, but the dives used whatever they could get. Marko's lousy beer was something drinking people during Prohibition knew well from. A Slight Case of Murder is one of the few films that ever dealt with that fact albeit in a comic way.Though the plot situations are certainly dated, the talent of this very good cast is timeless.

bsmith5552 "A Slight Case of Murder" is a delightful gangster comedy written by the legendary Damon Runyon and directed by Lloyd Bacon. It's also a nice change of pace for star Edward G. Robinson who gets to display his comedic talents as he spoofs his gangster image.Remy Marco (Robinson - in an obvious spoof of his "Rico" character in "Little Caesar") is a bootlegger who has made his fortune running illegal beer during prohibition. When prohibition ends, Marco proudly announces that he's going to be strictly legit, believing that he will no longer need strong arm tactics, and that he will continue to rake in the money from legal sales. What he doesn't realize is that because he's never actually tasted his own brew, is that it tastes awful.Now that the public can buy well brewed better tasting beer legally, Marco sees his fortune disappear over the ensuing four years. On the verge of bankruptcy, he finds himself in debt over a half a million dollars and has to deal with two predatory bankers Post (John Litel) and Ritter (Eric Stanley) who are trying to foreclose on him.Marco's daughter Mary (Jane Bryan) has returned home and plans to marry the bumbling State Trooper son, Dick Whitewood (Willard Parker) of business tycoon Paul Harvey. Marco and his wife Nora (Ruth Donnelly) plan to host an engagement party at their country house in Saratoga. What he doesn't know is that a rival gang has heisted $500K from bookies and are holed up in Marco's house.With his three stooges, Mike (Allen Jenkins), Lefty (Edward Brophy and Gip (Harold Huber), Marco learns that four of the five gangsters have been murdered and their bodies left in a guest bedroom while the fifth hangs around trying to escape with the money. The satchel containing the money is found by an orphan with the distinguished moniker of Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom (Bobby Jordan), who had been brought by Marco from the orphanage for the weekend.And then the fun starts.Robinson proved that he could play comedy and ranked this film among his favorites. But Warner Bros. saw him as a gangster and so he had difficulty breaking away from that genre. After he left Warners in the early forties, he turned in a number of great performances notably in "Double Indemnity" (1944) and two FRitz Lang classics, "The Woman in the Window" (1944) and "Scarlett Street" (1945). Oddly enough, he returned to Warners Bros. in 1948 to play gangster Johnny Rocco in "Key Largo" (1948).