utgard14
Second entry in the Hildegarde Withers series sees teacher Withers (Edna May Oliver) discovering the body of a murdered fellow teacher in her school. After the police arrive, led by her beau Inspector Piper (James Gleason), they find the body has disappeared. So they investigate and eventually find the body in a particularly gruesome place for a 1934 movie. Now it's up to Hildegarde to ferret out the murderer.As with the last Withers film, the real treat in watching is not with the mystery itself as much as Oliver's enjoyable performance and her banter with Gleason's Piper. Oliver's actually even funnier in this one than in the first movie. I think this is my favorite of the series. It's got a quick pace and lots of funny lines. The murder mystery part is pretty good too. Love the part where Withers explains the school's fire escape to Piper. Little stuff like that fascinates me when I watch older movies. There's even a diagram with directions!
Michael_Elliott
Murder on the Blackboard (1934) *** (out of 4) The second of six films in RKO's Hildegarde Withers (Edna May Oliver) series has the wannabe detective working at a school when a music teacher is shot dead. Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason) is soon helping on the case, which features the usual suspects including one played by Bruce Cabot. I've got the first film in the series, Penguin Pool Murder, recorded but haven't watched it yet so this is the first film from the series that I've actually watched. There's nothing overly special about this film but it does stand apart from the countless other mystery films of the decade. For one, Edna May Oliver plays her role pretty well and while it's somewhat over the top she never goes way past that line to where the character becomes obnoxious. She manages to bring a few laughs to the film and keeps the film going throughout. The actual mystery is also done pretty well with some nice atmosphere trapped in the small school.
MartinHafer
There were many, many B-detective series films through the 1930s and 40s--ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Ellery Queen to Charlie Chan to The Falcon--and many, many more. Despite the wide variety, these film are quite similar and the plots are rather interchangeable. However, I always look forward to a Hildegarde Withers film starring Edna May Oliver, as her films, regardless of the plot, have a lot more going for them than the rest of the pack. That's because Ms. Oliver was simply a delight to watch--as her detective was given the snappiest and most sarcastic dialog and her delivery was always wonderful. While she appeared at first much like a Jessica Fletcher-style character, you soon discovered she wasn't so cuddly or sweet and was more of a "dame" in the best sense of the word.This particular film is about a dead body that is discovered but then disappears at a school. Later, the body is found in the most grisly fashion and it's up to Miss Withers and her sidekick, the Inspector (James Gleason) to solve the crime. The film isn't quite as good as their previous film, THE PENGUIN POOL MURDER and interestingly enough they actually refer back to that case--something you don't often see in these films. Watch it--it's exciting, funny and different.Sadly, despite the higher than usual quality of these films, Ms. Oliver only made three and the studio tried replacing her with Helen Broderick and Zasu Pitts--pale imitations of the original.
bkoganbing
Murder on the Blackboard is the second of three Hildegarde Withers stories that Edna May Oliver and James Gleason were teamed for. Today the charm of these two people, two of the best character actors that movies ever saw carry this rather dated and melodramatic story.One of the teachers at Edna's school, Barbara Fritchie, winds up very dead and she's quite the lively corpse as the perpetrator keeps moving the body in an effort to be rid of it. In fact the only way the crime is discovered is because that day Edna kept young Jackie Searle after school.Unlike the Thin Man movies where you could have as many as ten suspects or more in a room as Nick and Nora reveal all, this is not MGM with their lavish productions. This is RKO and this studio had a limited budget for their films. We only have four suspects so your chances of guessing who did it increase quite a bit.Edgar Kennedy as the dumb cop who gets clunked on the head and develops amnesia is his usual funny self. In fact he's the foil used to catch the murderer in the end. As for the end, I found it a bit melodramatic for my taste and let it go at that.But for fans of the wonderful Edna May Oliver and the dependable James Gleason this film is a must.
AD
