Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

jaydeetee-19255 During Prohibition, Gold Velvet Beer was a big seller, along with being darn right illegal. But when the Prohibition laws were repealed the beer sales hit rock bottom. The brewery owner, Remy Marco (Edward G. Robinson), can't quite understand why the bar owners (who earlier gladly stocked his beer) refused to continue purchasing his product ('taste the beer Remy, taste it').He asks the brewery's 'managerial team'(a bunch of stumble-bum hoods)to get him the answer to the sudden turn of events ('taste the beer Remy, taste it'). Oh, they know the answer but are afraid to tell the big boss.Marco is forced to sell off all his assets and go into debt to keep the brewery afloat. With only days remaining before the banks would call in his loans, Marco takes his family (along with his 'managerial team') to Saratoga, hoping to get new financial backing. Along the way, he stops at an orphanage to pick-out an orphan, one who would be treated with a short vacation with the Marco family.Once the Marco's and company finally reach Saratoga, things go from bad to worse. The orphan is played by a young Bobby Jordan, one of the early Eastside Kids...and he is a handful...a laugh-out-loud handful. And dead bodies start showing up everywhere, all while poor Remy is desperately trying to get that financial backing.Remy may not have enjoyed the ensuing events, but I sure did...I'm giving it '9 Gold Velvets'...'taste the beer Remy...taste it'

edwagreen That great theme of Damon Runyan: Society mixing it up with those who aren't exactly high class. Again, we see this theme in "A Slight Case of Murder."Edward G. Robinson and Ruth Donnelly are fabulous here as husband and wife trying to go straight with the end of prohibition. With it all, you can't take the past from them, no matter how much you try.Four years after going straight, Robinson's brewery has hit rock bottom. Nobody wants to tell the boss that the beer he serves is absolutely terrible.Robinson goes back to the orphanage he grew up in to take the worst child for a month in his summer place. Watch for Margaret Hamilton, one year before her witchcraft in the memorable "Wizard of Oz."As for this film, it has everything, mistaken identity, associates of Robinson, who are a riot by themselves, a wayward brat who proves his mettle, their wonderful daughter engaged to a police officer, his snobbish father caught up in all the mayhem.

bkoganbing A Slight Case of Murder had its origins on the Broadway stage where this play by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay flopped miserably with only 69 performances in the 1935 season. It certainly adapted better for the screen when Warner Brothers bought it for one of their gangster stable, in this case Edward G. Robinson.The story concerns a gangster Remy Marko who is trying to go straight and get out of the bootleg beer racket now that Prohibition has been repealed. It was a problem faced by any number of people who were not Lucky Luciano or Meyer Lansky.In Robinson's case he's decided to go legitimate and brew beer legally. Of course no one has the heart to tell him that the stuff he's been peddling for years has been nothing but swill, not even his family, Ruth Donnelly and Jane Bryan, nor his closest associates Allen Jenkins, Harold Huber, and Ed Brophy. While all this is going Robinson and the family and friends go to his summer home near the Saratoga racetrack where a big robbery of the bookie's money has taken place. This was in the days before the para-mutual machines and track bets were taken at the sight by legal bookmakers. The gang decides to hide out in what they think will be Robinson's deserted home.Daughter Jane Bryan is romancing state trooper Willard Parker, a prospect the going straight Robinson still finds appalling. No less so than Paul Harvey, Parker's nervous blue-blood father. All these elements mix well for a very funny screen comedy. Robinson who was really getting tired of all the gangster parts, seems to be enjoying himself, referring to himself constantly in the third person, and earning quite a few laughs and keeping up with some of the best scene stealers around. Ruth Donnelly keeps up very well who most of the time remembers she's now supposed to be respectable, but every so often slips back to her familiar background.The guy who really is funny here is Paul Harvey. He's mixing with people he's not used to and it's putting quite an evident strain on him. One of the running gags in A Slight Case of Murder is how bad the beer Robinson makes. He never drinks himself so he doesn't know and no one is brave enough to tell him. Damon Runyon who probably sampled every kind of illegal liquor available during Prohibition, knew well the kind of rot gut that was peddled. The classier places imported stuff from across the border, but the dives used whatever they could get. Marko's lousy beer was something drinking people during Prohibition knew well from. A Slight Case of Murder is one of the few films that ever dealt with that fact albeit in a comic way.Though the plot situations are certainly dated, the talent of this very good cast is timeless.

blanche-2 Edgar G. Robinson has the hounds yapping at his rear in "A Slight Case of Murder," a very funny 1938 comedy from Warner Brothers. Robinson sends up his gangster image as Remy Marko (who speaks of himself in the third person), who is a legit brewer now that Prohibition has been repealed. He has a daughter (Jane Bryan) in one of the best schools in Europe. However, his brewery has been steadily failing because his beer tastes horrible - and no one's told him. The bank is calling his half a million dollar mortgage, his daughter comes home engaged to a state trooper, and when he arrives at his country home, one of his men finds four dead bodies who had been playing cards in an upstairs bedroom. On top of all of this, he's chosen a young boy from his alma mater, an orphanage, to spend the summer in Saratoga. Let's put it this way - the head of the orphanage asked that this kid, Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom, be released from the cellar in order to accompany Remy. No bright spots anywhere.Robinson is a riot as a complete thug who believes he should be President of the Community Chest, and Ruth Donnelly is good back-up as his wife who yells at the gangsters who surround her if they don't call her ma'm and act like servants. When their daughter's fiancé arrives in uniform, the couple is thrown into a complete panic because they think the police want them for something. When his well-to-do parents arrive, Remy agrees to accept them even though they have a cop in the family, to the complete effrontery of the boy's father. Then the four dead bodies - who are believed disposed of on the various porches of Remy's enemies - show up again, and the orphans finds the spoils of a robbery.It's non-stop chaos and giggles. Robinson plays his part like he's Little Caesar and he's fabulous. Allen Jenkins is very good as one of his henchmen, and Jane Bryan, who would quit her career to marry the owner of Rexall Drugs, is lovely as his daughter. Her fiancé, played by tall, athletic Willard Parker, may be recognizable to baby boomers from "Tales of the Texas Rangers." Here, he's serious and uptight, which the role calls for, and seems older than his 26 or so years.Extremely enjoyable and really shows that Robinson, like Bogart and Cagney, could do just about anything.