Betty Hutton sang of "Murder She Said", and Angela Lansbury became internationally famous for "Murder She Wrote". For funny lady Joan Davis, solving murders really only happens through chance, giving her laughs as she goes out of her way who is crudely blowing needles into the victim's heart. Yes, these grizzly crimes get goggles, pairing Davis up with rubber legged cop Leon Errol. Now free of the dual roles in the "Mexican Spitfire", he goes from his recently deceased hot tempered partner Lupe Velez to dizzy Joan, finding just as much trouble with her as he did in that long running RKO series.
This is an amusing programmer with pure silliness taking over any resemblance to reality. The situations get more and more bizarre, but lead the way to TV sitcom style pairings with Davis and Errol a multi gender variation of Lucy and Ethel, Eve and Kay, Laverne and Shirley, to mention a few. Davis almost blows up visitor William Gargan when he cones to ask her (as the daughter of a famous female detective) to help solve the case. Later, Davis and Errol interrupt a live performance to warn a possible victim, only managing to destroy the performance. Davis has further confusion with a sound effects machine. Laughs come fast and furious, as several bizarre characters become involved, creating more unintentional mayhem.
It's nice to see Donald McBride cast against type, playing a newspaper editor rather than a dumb, slow burning cop. There's a beautiful version of the 1940's standard "For All We Know" for collectors of memorable war themes. Davis and Errol play nicely off each other, but this was their only appearance together. Davis remained on at Universal for another comedy, the even better "She Wrote the Book". Twists in the story give Joan some great material to react to, and some great pranks to be unintentionally responsible for, like a speeding piano we are told she was helping to move. Davis's brand of comedy is sweet music to me, not a sour note to be found.
This is an amusing programmer with pure silliness taking over any resemblance to reality. The situations get more and more bizarre, but lead the way to TV sitcom style pairings with Davis and Errol a multi gender variation of Lucy and Ethel, Eve and Kay, Laverne and Shirley, to mention a few. Davis almost blows up visitor William Gargan when he cones to ask her (as the daughter of a famous female detective) to help solve the case. Later, Davis and Errol interrupt a live performance to warn a possible victim, only managing to destroy the performance. Davis has further confusion with a sound effects machine. Laughs come fast and furious, as several bizarre characters become involved, creating more unintentional mayhem.
It's nice to see Donald McBride cast against type, playing a newspaper editor rather than a dumb, slow burning cop. There's a beautiful version of the 1940's standard "For All We Know" for collectors of memorable war themes. Davis and Errol play nicely off each other, but this was their only appearance together. Davis remained on at Universal for another comedy, the even better "She Wrote the Book". Twists in the story give Joan some great material to react to, and some great pranks to be unintentionally responsible for, like a speeding piano we are told she was helping to move. Davis's brand of comedy is sweet music to me, not a sour note to be found.