The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Alfred E. Green

Writers:

Nat Perrin (writer)
S.S. Van Dine (story)

Release Date:

2 June 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery

Plot:

The zany plot follows nitwit Gracie Allen trying to help master sleuth Philo Vance solve a murder. Allen's...

Plot Keywords:

Philo Vance | Sergeant | Sequel | Character Name In Title

Cast

Gracie Allen	...	Gracie Allen
Warren William	...	Philo Vance
Ellen Drew	...	Ann Wilson
Kent Taylor	...	Bill Brown
Jed Prouty	...	Uncle Ambrose
Jerome Cowan	...	Daniel Mirche
Donald MacBride	...	Dist. Atty. John, Markham
H.B. Warner	...	Richard Lawrence
William Demarest	...	Sgt. Ernest Heath
Judith Barrett	...	Dixie Del Marr
Sam Lee	...	Thug (as Sammy Lee)
Al Shaw	...	Thug
Richard Denning	...	Fred
Irving Bacon	...	Clerk
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James B. Carson	...	Hotel manager
Monte Collins	...	Master of Ceremonies
Rube Demarest	...	Reporter
James Flavin	...	Turnkey
Horace McMahon	...	Gus (waiter)
Addison Richards	...	Detective

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

S.S. Van Dine wrote the Gracie Allen Murder Case in 1938 to introduce his real life friend, Gracie Allen, into a Philo Vance Murder Mystery. George Burns made a appearance in the novel as the head perfume-smeller at the In-O-Scent Perfume Corporation, but is not in the movie version of the novel.

Movie Connections:

Follows The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

Poisoned Vapors

If you are interested in the arc of development of the mystery gene, follow the Philo Vance series.

When they started, they were complex puzzles, incredibly complex and imaginative. They had a hard time conveying elements of the mystery cinematically (instead of by exposition), but they tried and sometimes succeeded. They were important and sometimes entertaining as well.

But when a narrative form is mature, it starts to die, the tension to evolve being exhausted. Then what usually happens is that some comic layer is applied, humor being our storehouse of packaged tension.

Here we have Philo Vance essentially at the end, with the bare skeleton of a mystery, serving as a rack for Gracie's dumb comedy act. If you don't know Gracie, it really is the comedy of stupidity. She gets everything wrong. We are supposed to laugh both at the character, who unconvincingly pretends to be pretty and therefore dumb. Thankfully, sex isn't part of the formula.

Its a character that actually worked when with husband George because he was so amazingly patient and loving, the humor was in the apparent normalcy of her. Here, she's abnormal. The actual jokes are all verbal humor and have some power outside of the character. Its a comic tradition we seem to have lost because it depends on people actually listening to words and having some sense what is correct. The Marx brothers used this as well. No one does today, but there is something similar in spoof movies which misquote movie "language."

The mystery involves poisoned vapors.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.