IMDb RATING
6.9/10
1.4K
YOUR RATING
Shady stockbroker and abusive husband Gerald Parker is found dead in the penguin pool of a NYC aquarium after being knocked cold by his wife's boyfriend.Shady stockbroker and abusive husband Gerald Parker is found dead in the penguin pool of a NYC aquarium after being knocked cold by his wife's boyfriend.Shady stockbroker and abusive husband Gerald Parker is found dead in the penguin pool of a NYC aquarium after being knocked cold by his wife's boyfriend.
Clarence Wilson
- Bertrand B. Hemingway
- (as Clarence H. Wilson)
Gustav von Seyffertitz
- Von Donnen
- (as Gustav Von Seyffertitz)
William Le Maire
- MacDonald
- (as William LeMaire)
A.S. 'Pop' Byron
- Jailer Strauss
- (uncredited)
Edith Fellows
- Little Girl at Aquarium
- (uncredited)
Chuck Hamilton
- Policeman Jack - at Jail
- (uncredited)
Mary Mason
- Parker's Secretary
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe New York Aquarium, where the Penguin Pool Murder is set, was located on the southern tip of Manhattan in Battery Park from 1896 until it was closed in 1941. It has been located in Coney Island since 1957.
- GoofsThe boom's shadow appears on a column behind Edna May Oliver when Miss Withers is looking through the aquarium at night.
- Quotes
Hildegard Withers: [to telephone operator who is putting on thick make-up] Now that you've got your disguise on, I would like to ask you a few questions. That is if you talk through all that make-up.
- ConnectionsFollowed by Murder on the Blackboard (1934)
Featured review
Things are not always as they appear and appearance isn't everything...
... 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.
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.
helpful•201
- AlsExGal
- Sep 26, 2010
- How long is Penguin Pool Murder?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 10 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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