gridoon2018 Whatever its other virtues (or flaws) may be, "The Penguin Pool Murder" is historically significant for introducing into the cinematic world what is quite possibly the first ever female - amateur, in this case - sleuth (if there is an earlier one, please name it; Torchy Blane came a few years later). She is a middle-aged school teacher, not exactly attractive, but sharp-tongued and sensibly-minded. The plot is sufficiently unpredictable and carefully pieced together as a puzzle. However, the film gets too slow at times. Mae Clarke appears in a very sexy, slinky dress in her first scene, but she's covered up the rest of the time. If you like this film, I especially recommend any of the 4 Margaret Rutherford Marple films made in the 1960s - and vice versa. **1/2 out of 4.

vincentlynch-moonoi It was only 1932 when this was made, just 5 years after talkies were first invented. And, for that era, when films often had creaky scripts that didn't always make a lot of sense, and crime dramas were very formulaic, this film is an exception. A decent script, a clever story, and good direction.The real treat here is watching Edna May Oliver, a gem of a character actress. I've enjoyed her in every feature film in which she appeared as a supporting actress. But here, she's the star. And, what a pip! Her sharp tongue and double-takes here are delightfully funny. And, her interactions with James Gleason are just wonderful.Oliver plays a spinsterish school teacher here who helps solve a murder that takes place at the New York City Aquarium. It's a clever plot and kept me guessing more than many later mysteries. And, there are even penguins! Well worth a watch!

sol ***SPOILERS*** Excellent detective movie involving spinster teacher Hilderard Martha Winters, Edna May Oliver, solving a murder mystery that New York's police top detective Oscar Piper, James Gleason, couldn't even get a handle on.It's when stockbroker Gerald Parker, Guy Usher, is found dead after being dumped in the Battery Park Aquarium's penguin pool that it's the late Gerald Parker's wife's Gwen's, Mea Cark, former boyfriend Philip Seymour, Donald Cook, who's suspected in his murder. Gwen planning to leave Gerald after he slapped her was to secretly meet Seymour at the aquarium to restart their love affair until Gerald, who followed her there, unexpectedly showed up! In a scuffle Seymour knocked Gerald cold and the last thing you know he's in the penguin pool as dead as a doornail!With top cop Oscar Piper showing up at the scene of the crime he doesn't have any trouble getting a confession out of Seymour in Gerald's murder. As it turned out teacher Hildegarde Winters was taking her students on a field trip to the aquarium and being as observant as she is saw things differently. Catching a pickpocket Chicago Lew, James Hermond, in the act with her umbrella Hildegarde also was framed by the killer by using her hat-pin that he stole, during all the confusion, to do poor Mr. Parker in! That's after both Gwen & Seymour left him laying unconscious on the stairs above the penguin pool!It's Hildegard's common sense and brilliant detective work that in the end uncover Gerald Parker's murderer who's own arrogance and hubris ended up doing him in! Something that Hildegard noticed about Gerald's killer that top NY city police department cop Oscar Piper had no clue about was that he in fact had a good reason for doing Gerald in: love & money. The most despicable thing that Gerald Parker's killer did was beside trying to implicate Hildergarde in his crime in make up a cock & bull story in that she was in fact his,Gerald Parker's, secret lover back in her home town in Iowa who took revenge on him, by murdering Gerald, for leaving her.***SPOILERS***Of course the witty and on the ball Hilderguard expected this line of questioning from that low down rat and was more then ready for him with a big surprise of her own. The surprise that the killer unknowingly himself supplied for her by proving that he, not Hildegarde Seymour or Gwen, in fact murdered Mr.Parker! That in a trap that both Hildegarde and Piper set for him that he fell lock stock and barrel for!

calvinnme ... are the two lessons that this great little precode teaches us. The first lesson I think modern audiences know well, but the second we forget frequently, especially when it comes to romance.The story is not a remarkable one. Socialite Gwen Parker (Mae Clarke) is unhappily married to stockbroker Gerald Parker (Guy Usher), and she has a lover. Both her lover and her stockbroker husband are broke. Only the stockbroker's life insurance remains as an asset. As the film opens, we also see that the curator of a local aquarium is angry with Gerald Parker because he thinks he ruined him and swindled him as well. We then see Gwen talking to her lover on the phone, but we never actually see who he is. Gwen has an altercation with her rightfully jealous husband that ends with him striking her. She then decides to leave him.Later that day Gwen meets Philip Seymour (Donald Cook) at the local aquarium. Gwen's husband suddenly appears and accuses Philip and Gwen of being lovers. A scuffle between the two men breaks out and Philip knocks Gerald Parker unconscious and tells Gwen to wait for him downstairs in the aquarium. Philip then takes Gerald upstairs and the last thing we see of that scene are Philip's hands moving toward the unconscious man's throat. A few minutes later Gerald's dead body falls from above into the aquarium's penguin pool.Seems pretty cut and dried doesn't it? Well it isn't at all.Add to all of this schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers (Edna Mae Oliver) is in the aquarium at the time of the murder with her students conducting a tour of the exhibits, and that she has quite the penchant for solving mysteries as well as agitating the detective on the case, Oscar Piper (James Gleason), and you have a great little precode mystery here.What really makes this film stand out is the chemistry of the leads, Gleason and Oliver. Here are two middle-aged people, of middling income and less than middling looks in the conventional sense, yet I'll watch this film repeatedly just to see the two interact. You can see a respect and even attraction grow between these people despite the caustic remarks that they trade. Then there are those great precode one-liners from Oliver, not the kind of stuff you'd expect from a prim and proper spinster such as Hildegarde.Highly recommended as an excellent start to a good series of mystery films starring Oliver and Gleason.