User Reviews

Edna May Oliver, (Hildegarde Withers) was a fantastic actress and her supporting actor was also a great actor, James Gleason, (Inspector Oscar Piper). In this film Hildegarde investigates a murder in a New York City School which involved a very pretty young teacher who was involved in some very dark secrets. There is a blackboard that plays a very important role in this murder mystery which was musical notes placed on a C staff which reveal an important clue to the person who committed this murder. Edna May Oliver and James Gleason give an outstanding performance with very quick wit of words between each other and it is also very comical and funny to watch two great veterans doing what just comes very natural for both of them. Don't miss this great film Classic from 1934.

This is a quintessential 'Late Show' movie, a low-key murder mystery with charming character actors in service to a mild plot. Edna May Oliver is the keystone of the picture, an elementary school teacher with a taste for adventure in murder mysteries. "Murder On The Blackboard" is a sequel to another Edna May Oliver-James Gleason picture so the characters are already well established. The pacing is brisk and the plot is well assembled, making for an enjoyable film.

One problem for viewers might be the C&C Movietime version of this film. That version has the first half-hour cut out, which saves time but butchers the narrative. Those who pick up the thread with Oliver's character searching for the body are missing about thirty minutes of important exposition.

Regardless of the editing, this is an amusing comic murder mystery deserving of your attention.

Murder on the Blackboard is the second of three Hildegarde Withers stories that Edna May Oliver and James Gleason were teamed for. Today the charm of these two people, two of the best character actors that movies ever saw carry this rather dated and melodramatic story.

One of the teachers at Edna's school, Barbara Fritchie, winds up very dead and she's quite the lively corpse as the perpetrator keeps moving the body in an effort to be rid of it. In fact the only way the crime is discovered is because that day Edna kept young Jackie Searle after school.

Unlike the Thin Man movies where you could have as many as ten suspects or more in a room as Nick and Nora reveal all, this is not MGM with their lavish productions. This is RKO and this studio had a limited budget for their films. We only have four suspects so your chances of guessing who did it increase quite a bit.

Edgar Kennedy as the dumb cop who gets clunked on the head and develops amnesia is his usual funny self. In fact he's the foil used to catch the murderer in the end. As for the end, I found it a bit melodramatic for my taste and let it go at that.

But for fans of the wonderful Edna May Oliver and the dependable James Gleason this film is a must.

MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD is good old-fashioned fun with Edna May Oliver, my favorite character actress of the '30s, sleuthing in Nancy Drew manner with James Gleason at her side as a crusty detective.

This time the amateur sleuth helps solve a case involving a murdered music teacher and gets herself into deep trouble with the killer who means business when he tries to throw an axe at her in a dark basement cellar. Edna May's brisk, no nonsense manner fits the character of Hildegarde Withers to perfection and she's never at a loss for a quick retort when Gleason becomes a bit overbearing. Their game of one-up-man-ship is what keeps the story moving briskly to a satisfying conclusion.

The fact that it's terribly dated in dialogue and situations is what gives this little mystery a quaint sort of charm. One of the better in a series of Hildegarde Withers murder mysteries.

If anybody thinks that teachers' lives are dull, you need to watch this film. Louise Halloran, the school's young music teacher, is found bludgeoned to death, by Miss Hildegarde Withers (Edna Mae Oliver), at the school. She has a student call Detective Oscar Piper (James Gleason), with whom she worked on the Pengun Pool Murder. First the body disappears, and Piper thinks Hildegarde crazy - that there never was a murder. But then the murderer makes some mistakes - digging a grave in the cellar, hitting another policeman over the head, trying to dispose of Louise's body in the school incinerator and not quite beating the police to it, and then escaping out of the school emergency exit chute. So now Oscar knows the crime is real - as Louise may have died from the blow to the head, but she would have died anyways since the medical examiner determines that she was dying from pernicious anemia of the bones at the time of her death, which could have been induced by slow poisoning. Could there have been two different killers, each one unaware of the other's plot? Hildegarde pretty much solves this crime herself. Being a Renaissance woman who notices everything and has a variety of hairpins to help with tricky locks helps her along.

And she'll need her powers of observation. Because everybody has a motive. Louise's roommate, fellow teacher Jane Davis, has won the Irish Sweepstakes with Louise and her death allows Jane to keep all of the money. Then there was a romance between Louise and teacher Addison Stevens the previous summer that Stevens broke up so he could take up with Jane. Then there is principal McFarland who tried to take up with Louise also, wrote her love letters, and Louise would not let him have them back. McFarland is married, but that hasn't put a damper on him going after the younger female schoolteachers. Finally there is the school janitor who has tunneled his way into a warehouse of booze and has been taking some and selling it to the schoolteachers. Louise refused to pay him right before her death, claiming if she outed him he'd be fired.

Basically it boils down to Oscar controlling the cops and Hildegarde controlling the investigation. After they succeed at solving the crime they are having breakfast at a diner, and let's just say that Oscar has the last laugh as Hildegarde's sensibilities are shocked about how long it takes to grieve the loss of a loved one before replacing that loved one with another.

I'd say this didn't seem quite as good as Penguin Pool Murder, because the first one was such a welcome surprise, but it was certainly a worthwhile entry.

An aside - At the conclusion of Penguin Pool Murder it was insinuated that Oscar and Hildegarde were on their way to get married after a very rushed pretty much mutual marriage proposal. Here they are just friends. Being a married couple would have painted the humor into a corner, and it works better with them being allied, maybe even being a little bit romantically interested, but never really doing anything about it. Recommended.

Decidedly dated, early mystery starring Edna May Oliver as the irrepressible sleuth Hildergard Withers, Murder on the Blackboard is all fun. Oliver excels as the wise-cracking "Lady" teacher sleuth who finds that a young, pretty music teacher has been killed in her school - as both have stayed late working. Oliver enlists the help of detective James Gleason(an always reliable character actor) and the one-liners between the two begin to ensue as the track down the murderer. The writing in this film is witty, sharp, and rapid-fire and both Gleason and Oliver do more than justice to their respective roles. The list of suspects is limited(really only four people) but amongst them are Bruce Cabot and Tully Marshall. Because it was made in 1934 it is somewhat stagy and creaky, but the film is elevated by the two acting leads. Oliver on screen is pure magic as she is able to look oh so dour and be oh so sarcastic at every turn. A crackling whodunit in the old-fashioned sense of the word.

Second entry in the Hildegarde Withers series sees teacher Withers (Edna May Oliver) discovering the body of a murdered fellow teacher in her school. After the police arrive, led by her beau Inspector Piper (James Gleason), they find the body has disappeared. So they investigate and eventually find the body in a particularly gruesome place for a 1934 movie. Now it's up to Hildegarde to ferret out the murderer.

As with the last Withers film, the real treat in watching is not with the mystery itself as much as Oliver's enjoyable performance and her banter with Gleason's Piper. Oliver's actually even funnier in this one than in the first movie. I think this is my favorite of the series. It's got a quick pace and lots of funny lines. The murder mystery part is pretty good too. Love the part where Withers explains the school's fire escape to Piper. Little stuff like that fascinates me when I watch older movies. There's even a diagram with directions!

This was the second of 3 films Edna May Oliver made at RKO starring as that indomitable school teacher/sleuth, Miss Hildegarde Withers. As always, Miss Oliver steals the show, sticks it in her handbag and walks off with it.

This time she attempts to track down a murderer right in her own New York City school. With her gimlet eye & no-nonsense manner, the killer never really stands a chance.

Miss Oliver, as always, is a joy to watch. James Gleason returns as the harried police detective Oscar Piper, now Hildegarde's boyfriend. Also on hand are Edgar Kennedy, Bruce Cabot & Tully Marshall. But, as in the other Withers films, Edna May is the real reason to watch.

It's a murder mystery in a school. Most of the kids have left except for Leland who is facing punishment from Miss Withers. She discovers music teacher Louise Halloran's dead body. Inspector Oscar Piper is summoned but the body is gone by the time the police arrive. The search for the murderer is afoot.

A school is a fascinating location for a murder. It comes with an interesting ticking clock. I like finding the gun early on. It does need to give more in introducing the characters at the beginning and it would help to give a tour of the school. I have never heard of this murder mystery series. Miss Withers is a great character and Edna May Oliver is great. Inspector Piper is rather average by comparison. This is a fun little murder.

There were many, many B-detective series films through the 1930s and 40s--ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Ellery Queen to Charlie Chan to The Falcon--and many, many more. Despite the wide variety, these film are quite similar and the plots are rather interchangeable. However, I always look forward to a Hildegarde Withers film starring Edna May Oliver, as her films, regardless of the plot, have a lot more going for them than the rest of the pack. That's because Ms. Oliver was simply a delight to watch--as her detective was given the snappiest and most sarcastic dialog and her delivery was always wonderful. While she appeared at first much like a Jessica Fletcher-style character, you soon discovered she wasn't so cuddly or sweet and was more of a "dame" in the best sense of the word.

This particular film is about a dead body that is discovered but then disappears at a school. Later, the body is found in the most grisly fashion and it's up to Miss Withers and her sidekick, the Inspector (James Gleason) to solve the crime. The film isn't quite as good as their previous film, THE PENGUIN POOL MURDER and interestingly enough they actually refer back to that case--something you don't often see in these films. Watch it--it's exciting, funny and different.

Sadly, despite the higher than usual quality of these films, Ms. Oliver only made three and the studio tried replacing her with Helen Broderick and Zasu Pitts--pale imitations of the original.

Miss Withers (Oliver) discovers the dead body of her colleague, music teacher Louise Halloran (Barbara Fritchie), in a schoolroom. She summons her old friend, Inspector Oscar Piper (Gleason), but by the time he arrives, the corpse has disappeared. Having watched the only entrance (other than a fire exit with an alarm), Miss Withers knows the killer must still be inside. When the police search the building, Detective Donahue (Kennedy) is knocked out in the basement. Meanwhile, Miss Withers notices various clues, including a tune on the blackboard in Halloran's classroom. The body is found being burned in the basement furnace. Then, the fire alarm goes off; the murderer has escaped.

Another solid Mystery featuring Hildergarde Withers and Inspector Oscar and they are exchanging comic banter like usual, and of course, also getting stuck in the case. The killer came as a surprise - the lead up to the unravelling of the fiend is sprinkled with so many clues and red herrings. It can be confusing at times, but Edna May Oliver and James Gleason are so fun to watch.

When talkies happened, there was a mad rush to make films of mysteries because they were enormously popular in the pulp trade. Series of published stories became movie serials as if by accident and it took nearly a whole decade for the movie industry to figure out a basic cinematic vocabulary apart from books.

So when you see something that worked during that transition, its worth figuring why. Almost always it was not because of anything in the film itself, rather the stage presence and usually humor of one or two characters.

This formula started in 1932 as one of the early talkies. It depended on the character of the nosey biddy and whatever humor could be milked from it. A cartoon cop was the foil, and a pretty effective one too.

In this, the second, his cartoonishness becomes self-referential. There are at least three major jokes in the thing where he talks about what he would do if he were a movie detective. One time, the schoolmarm treats him like he is irrelevant and he says: "What am I here, the costume designer?"

This was the same year that "The Thin Man" hit on a better, more dialog-driven comic formula that would lead to screwball. So this series flagged a bit, dragging on with different twists.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

There was a pair of three detective comedies starring Edna May Oliver and James Gleason, before Edna switched studios and the franchise cast replacement actors. If you like the pair of tough cop and wise schoolteacher, you can watch them solve crimes in The Penguin Pool Murder, Murder On the Blackboard, and Murder On a Honeymoon.

In this one, while disciplining a student, Edna discovers the dead body of a fellow teacher. She quickly sends for police detective James, who's still a bit resentful that she was so helpful during the penguin murder of their last picture. Together, they race against time to find the motive and the murderer. For me, the best part was getting to see two character actors taking the lead in a movie. The mystery and the production weren't really top-notch, but I always like seeing someone get a chance they don't normally get.

After I watched "Penguin Pool Murder" (1932) I wrote a review titled, "More of Miss Withers Please," so I can't tell you how pleased I was to see Edna May Oliver reprise her role as Hildegarde Withers, the teacher and crime solver.

In "Murder on the Blackboard," Miss Withers found a teacher named Louise Halloran (Barbara Fritchie) dead in her classroom. Miss Withers, being the perspicacious person she was, kicked into detective mode. Because she wasn't a detective by profession she called Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason), the inspector she solved the Penguin Pool Murder with.

The two of them would go on to chase down clues and suspects. Miss Withers was her normal nosy, yet helpful self. She is easy to like because she's comedically prim and proper, and always carries her umbrella. Her look and style was so different from many of the carbon copies they used for female leads back then. She was older, a little plain, and comical without being exaggerated or silly. I sort of put her in the category of a Marie Dressler or Alison Skipworth, except younger and thinner, but they were all atypical.

As Sade sang, "It's never as good as the first time." That's to say that "Murder on the Blackboard" wasn't as good as "Penguin Pool Murder," but don't let it stop you from enjoying Miss Withers again.

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MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD (RKO Radio, 1934), directed by George Archainbaud, returns Edna May Oliver as spinster schoolteacher turned crime solver, Hildegarde Withers, and James Gleason as her friend and inspector, Oscar Piper, roles they originated from PENGUIN POOL MURDER (RKO, 1932), also directed by Archainbaud. With successful crime sleuths as Charlie Chan or Philo Vance proving popular with movie audiences, Radio Pictures attempted a new series of its own, based on the magazine serial and characters created by Stuart Palmer. As the initial entry to PENGUIN POOL MURDER concluded with Withers and Piper contemplating marriage, this two year later sequel resumes with them as single individuals rather than a husband and wife team joining forces for another murder caper.

As the credits roll to the aerial view and underscoring to "East Side, West Side," of the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City and finally a classroom blackboard, the story gets underway at the end of a school day at 3:25 p.m., as Otto Schwitzer (Frederik Vogeding) a drunken janitor, starts his work day with his night's work as the students go home for the day. Plot development soon revolves around Jane Davis (Gertrude Michael), secretary to womanizing and married principal, Mr. MacFarland (Tully Marshall), wanting to have Joan accompany him for a movie and dinner. Joan's real romantic interest is with science teacher/ assistant principal, Addison Stevens (Bruce Cabot). Jane is also roommates with Louise Halloran (Barbara Fritchie), a music teacher, whose gun ends up in the hands of Jane while Louise is being blackmailed by Schwitzer, demanding she make amends for a bounced check from her he obtains. Hildegarde Withers (Edna May Oliver), a spinster schoolteacher, finishes her day by having her student, Leland Stanford Jones (Jackie Searle) remaining after school for gossiping about Louise Halloran and Mr. MacFarland. Hearing a noise in Halloran's classroom, Miss Withers looks about to find Miss Halloran's body on the couch in the cloak room. After sending Leland to get Inspector Piper (James Gleason), he and his assistants, Smiley North (Regis Toomey), Detective MacTeague (Tom Herbert) and Inspector Donovan (Edgar Kennedy), follow Miss Withersto the body only to find it has disappeared. Much to her surprise, Withers and Piper, both believing body and killer to still be in inside the school, find themselves involved in another baffling mystery following their recent Penguin Pool Murder case. Others in the cast include Gustav Von Seyffertitz (Max Von Immen, the coroner); and Jed Prouty (Doctor Levine).

Close to being slightly better or equal to the success of PENGUIN POOL MURDER, in which both movies keep audience guessing until its real surprise finish, MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD remains both entertaining and suspenseful during its fast-pace 72 minutes. Edna May Oliver and James Gleason make a grand team of crime solvers, with Oliver's Miss Withers always one step ahead of the Piper's theories. It's also Miss Withers who suspects the musical notes written on the blackboard by Halloran to be a clue to the killer's identity, hence its title. Thought mostly set inside the old public school building, there are some cutaways outside the school such as a hospital before summing it all up inside a diner.

While James Gleason gives a commendable performance, without Edna May Oliver, MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD would be just an ordinary mystery. Her quips and unique mannerisms provide humor and attention. Both Oliver and Gleason would team up one more time in MURDER ON A HONEYMOON (1935) before the Hildegarde Withers character was recast by Helen Broderick and later Zasu Pitts pitted against Gleason before the series of six installments would come to a close. As much as Broderick was agreeable as Oliver's substitute, Pitts would be all wrong playing Hildegarde, a casting error that could have been easily fixed by casting Pitts as Hildegarde's sister instead. Edna May Oliver could never be replaced. She's really one of a kind. (***)

Gossip, intrigue, jealousy—and murder? It's all happening in the dark old elementary school where Hildegarde Withers instructs the children by day and keeps an eye on her colleagues after school. But the murder mystery is secondary in this film; the real fun here is watching Miss Withers and Inspector Oscar Piper team up for another round of professional discourtesy and friendly insults—with, just by the way, a murder investigation thrown in.

Hildegarde and Oscar (as they have grown close enough to call each other) are of course played by the great Edna May Oliver and James Gleason. The verbal interaction between the two is delightful (Oscar: "Well, we caught him quicker than I thought." Hildegarde: "Almost anything could be done quicker than you think, Oscar."). The physical interplay between the two is just as much fun to watch—sometimes subtle, sometime broad, consistently mischievous. (The scene where they search classroom closets—Oscar opens a door and peers in, Hildegarde noses and squirms her way in around him, he pretends to shut the door on her—is just hilarious.)

The rest of the cast is fine; it's your basic array of suspects, more or less. Edgar Kennedy does lend notable support as an assistant detective. Poor Officer Kennedy—he gets conked on the head early in the picture and winds up in the hospital, then later in the movie is set up as bait! And of course no one listens to his protests….

My favorite Gleason line (to Oliver, of course): "Just because you found the body, you think you're Mrs. Sherlock Holmes!" Good fun for fans of great character actors.

Murder on the Blackboard (1934)

*** (out of 4)

The second of six films in RKO's Hildegarde Withers (Edna May Oliver) series has the wannabe detective working at a school when a music teacher is shot dead. Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason) is soon helping on the case, which features the usual suspects including one played by Bruce Cabot. I've got the first film in the series, Penguin Pool Murder, recorded but haven't watched it yet so this is the first film from the series that I've actually watched. There's nothing overly special about this film but it does stand apart from the countless other mystery films of the decade. For one, Edna May Oliver plays her role pretty well and while it's somewhat over the top she never goes way past that line to where the character becomes obnoxious. She manages to bring a few laughs to the film and keeps the film going throughout. The actual mystery is also done pretty well with some nice atmosphere trapped in the small school.

I TOTALLY AGREE with the last reviewer; you watch this for Edna May Oliver, not the story. Although this whodunit is fairly clever, thanks to author Stuart Palmer. Palmer said it was his eccentric history teacher who inspired him to create Hildegard Withers, NOT Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. That has been bantered about for years.

Probably next to iconic Ant Betsey in DAVID COPPERFIELD, Edna May Oliver is so fondly remembered for her portrayal of the wisecracking school teacher slash amateur detective in this short series by RKO. MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD was the second entry in the series and one of the most atmospheric, replete with some creepy scenes in an empty school building and its cobwebbed cellar. Enter the great character actor James Gleason as the ever frustrated, cigar chomping detective Piper who partners up with Hildegard to solve the death of a fellow teacher who has some skeletons in her closet.

Tag it an an old fashioned mystery with an outstanding cast of suspects. Bruce Cabot, post KING KONG fame, plays Addison, also Gustav van Seyfertitz as a doctor, a role he was very much at home with, occasionally the good guy. Look for veteran Gertrude Michael as Jane. She was quite popular in films at this time, usually as a tough cookie, later in tv on such shows as PERRY MASON and SEA HUNT. The "long" arm of the law is played by comedian Edgar Kennedy, who poses as the "next" victim, and Regis Toomey as Smiley. What luck!

Once again, guessing the culprit is not easy, and a kewpie doll to anyone who gets it first. That's the fun of it all. To note, this series had the look and feel of a Warner Brothers mystery, who was cranking them out fast and furiously about the same time, but did not have the likes of Edna May Oliver on their roster of stars. Her scene stealing double takes and wisecracks are movie classics, not eclipsed until the 1960s when Dame Margaret Rutherford starred in the Miss Marple whodunits.

Oliver would star in one more mystery, MURDER ON A HONEYMOON, the following year, and then it was on to super stardom in such classics as A TALE OF TWO CITIES. She also may have walked on the project when RKO decided to cut her salary in this film, though she was paid extra in the first movie. The games studios play.

So there you have it, a genuine diamond in the rough and fodder for late nights. Yes, it took awhile, but the series has been released on dvd via Warner Brothers (2013) for a new generation of armchair detectives.

I realize that this movie was made to run as a second feature in the day when a movie ticket got you two movies, a cartoon, a newsreel, and maybe something else. Still, I can't imagine that audiences really sat through all 71 minutes of this deadly dull, miserably written murder mystery.

It's so promising: James Gleason and Edna May Oliver, plus Edgar Kennedy. How could this not be funny? How? Because the script is terrible, with gaping holes and no sense of arc. The directing is no better.

Even fans of the two leads will get nothing out of this. Certainly no one else will. What a disappointment.

This is the first of three films that had the great pairing of Edna Mae Oliver and James Gleason in the roles of Hildegarde Withers and Oscar Piper. These three films are much better than the last three that starred James Gleason first with Helen Broderick and then with Zasu Pitts. It may be dated, but it still holds up as good entertainment even after all these years.