Shortly after receiving a big wooden crate, a movie star discovers that the crate contains far more than just bolts of fabric. It also contains the body of a murder victim. In a panic, she telephones a friendly newspaper journalist...
"The corpse came C. O. D." is a light-hearted mix of thriller/detective and comedy. It's probably best described as entertaining but forgettable, both with regard to the thriller and the comedy aspect. The passage of time has imbued the Hollywood setting with an additional period charm.
In the movie, a male and a female journalist from rival newspapers investigate the same murder case. Both protagonists are the heroes of the movie, but one shudders at the thought of real-life journalists behaving in the same way. Polluting the crime scene, pocketing evidence and scooping the police may look cute on celluloid, but it is a sure-fire way to guarantee the collapse of any criminal trial. From this point of view journalists such as these could be seen as the allies of the criminals they purport to hunt.
Still, much of the above reads like knowing satire aimed at Hollywood's entertainment industry. You and me and the postman would notify the police immediately if we noticed something criminal ; within the demented hothouse atmosphere of Hollywood it might make more sense to notify a studio boss, a newspaper journalist or a public relations specialist. And why level criticism, say, at a crew of journalists and photographers making themselves at home near the corpse of a murdered man ? In an environment obsessed with both images and image, these people would only be performing an essential service, much like electrical linemen maintaining a pole or construction workers repairing a street.
Note the joke where a comely brunette housemaid shows off her charms while sitting on the crate ; it says a lot.
"The corpse came C. O. D." is a light-hearted mix of thriller/detective and comedy. It's probably best described as entertaining but forgettable, both with regard to the thriller and the comedy aspect. The passage of time has imbued the Hollywood setting with an additional period charm.
In the movie, a male and a female journalist from rival newspapers investigate the same murder case. Both protagonists are the heroes of the movie, but one shudders at the thought of real-life journalists behaving in the same way. Polluting the crime scene, pocketing evidence and scooping the police may look cute on celluloid, but it is a sure-fire way to guarantee the collapse of any criminal trial. From this point of view journalists such as these could be seen as the allies of the criminals they purport to hunt.
Still, much of the above reads like knowing satire aimed at Hollywood's entertainment industry. You and me and the postman would notify the police immediately if we noticed something criminal ; within the demented hothouse atmosphere of Hollywood it might make more sense to notify a studio boss, a newspaper journalist or a public relations specialist. And why level criticism, say, at a crew of journalists and photographers making themselves at home near the corpse of a murdered man ? In an environment obsessed with both images and image, these people would only be performing an essential service, much like electrical linemen maintaining a pole or construction workers repairing a street.
Note the joke where a comely brunette housemaid shows off her charms while sitting on the crate ; it says a lot.