Never considered a major movie star in comedies, Milton Berle nonetheless proves his mettle in this fast-paced amusing murder mystery, encompassing his talents honed in vaudeville and reaching full flower a decade later on television.
With Mary Beth Hughes playing his wife and "straight man" role, Berle bulls his way nonstop through what seems like nonsense and near double-talk but ultimately making sense as a mystery writer who unfortunately acts out his stories in real life much to the consternation of Hughes and everybody else.
Revolving around an endless stream of old jokes, vaudeville routines, silly slapstick and stolen shtick (at a couple of points Berle has the audacity to launch into vintage Abbott & Costello routines the audience will immediately recognize) is the sort of MacGuffin murder mystery complications fans of that genre love to ponder. The art here is to take something seemingly complicated and spinning out of control but make it easy for a mass movie audience to follow and be titillated by. The climax of the film even takes place in a courtroom with Berle on trial for a murder that he concocted out of one of his own cockamamie stories, in which he pulls rabbits out of a hat to solve the crime that would even make Perry Mason blush.
Modern comedies in this vein often screw up by being too clever by half, as witness the recent "Knives Out!" series. I'm thinking of one that I particularly enjoyed a generation or so ago, the Tony Perkins/Stephen Sondheim scripted (wow!!) "The Last of Sheila", way too sophisticated for its own good. With Berle's unlimited energy on display this is great fun.
With Mary Beth Hughes playing his wife and "straight man" role, Berle bulls his way nonstop through what seems like nonsense and near double-talk but ultimately making sense as a mystery writer who unfortunately acts out his stories in real life much to the consternation of Hughes and everybody else.
Revolving around an endless stream of old jokes, vaudeville routines, silly slapstick and stolen shtick (at a couple of points Berle has the audacity to launch into vintage Abbott & Costello routines the audience will immediately recognize) is the sort of MacGuffin murder mystery complications fans of that genre love to ponder. The art here is to take something seemingly complicated and spinning out of control but make it easy for a mass movie audience to follow and be titillated by. The climax of the film even takes place in a courtroom with Berle on trial for a murder that he concocted out of one of his own cockamamie stories, in which he pulls rabbits out of a hat to solve the crime that would even make Perry Mason blush.
Modern comedies in this vein often screw up by being too clever by half, as witness the recent "Knives Out!" series. I'm thinking of one that I particularly enjoyed a generation or so ago, the Tony Perkins/Stephen Sondheim scripted (wow!!) "The Last of Sheila", way too sophisticated for its own good. With Berle's unlimited energy on display this is great fun.