Who Done It? (1942)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Erle C. Kenton

Writers:

Stanley Roberts (story)
Stanley Roberts (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 November 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery

Plot:

Two dumb soda jerks dream of writing radio mysteries. When they try to pitch an idea at a radio station...

Plot Keywords:

Radio | Murder | Transcript | Whodunit | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Bud Abbott	...	Chick Larkin / Voice of Himself on Radio
Lou Costello	...	Mervin Q. Milgrim / Voice of Himself on Radio
Patric Knowles	...	Jimmy Turner
William Gargan	...	Police Lt. Lou Moran
Louise Allbritton	...	Jane Little
Thomas Gomez	...	Col. J.R. Andrews
William Bendix	...	Det. Brannigan
Don Porter	...	Art Fraser
Jerome Cowan	...	Marco Heller
Mary Wickes	...	Juliet Collins
Ludwig Stössel	...	Dr. Anton Marek

Runtime:

USA:77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #8632)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

This was the first Bud Abbott and Lou Costello film that did not contain musical numbers. As a result, it was shortest film that they had made to date.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Juliet is telling Mervyn that he can buy her some ice cream after the radio broadcast but that she had to go take care of radio business, her voice is heard but her lips don't move. When she turns around after entering the studio, she says something, but it isn't heard.

Quotes:

Mervin Q. Milgrim: [nauseous] I gotta go back upstairs and get something...
Chick Larkin: What have you gotta get?
Mervin Q. Milgrim: My stomach...

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997) (V)

Murder At Midnight

Who Done It finds our intrepid duo as soda jerks who want to be mystery writers and work on the Murder at Midnight Show. Bud and Lou go to a broadcast just in time to witness the real murder of the head of the network, Thomas Gomez.

So what do our two geniuses think to do? They decide to impersonate police officers and try and capture the criminal themselves. Interfering with a police investigation is an offense unto itself, but when Abbott and Costello do it, it's strictly for laughs.

The two cops who don't think it's that funny are William Gargan and William Bendix. Supposedly Costello was not happy with Bendix playing the dim bulb detective because he was getting more laughs than him. Mary Wickes who plays the secretary of Thomas Gomez also said she did not get along with Costello on the set.

The actual murderer turns out to be a very peripheral character who only had a couple of inconsequential lines before he's unmasked at the end. I tend to think there was probably more of his part, but it was edited out. Not that there are not a host of suspects like Patric Knowles, Jerome Cowan, Don Porter, Ludwig Stossel, and even Wickes and Louise Allbritton.

One actor who did not get any billing, but should have because he was very funny constantly getting the better of poor Costello was Walter Tetley who played the fresh mouthed young elevator operator. What he did to Costello bordered on sadism.

Who Done It is a fine slapstick burlesque of all these mystery films that all the studios were putting out back then. I guess it said that if even Abbott and Costello can solve a case anyone can.