User Reviews

Marjorie Main and James Whitmore are Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone in this delightful 1950 comedy that was probably a second feature. I wish some main features were as good.

Let me get this out of the way first. George Carlin, before he became what he was most known for - political comedy, black comedy, etc. - was just a regular comic. He once referred to Marjorie Main as "that saucy little Italian tart." I can't hear her name or see her without remembering that.

Onto our story. Mrs. O'Malley lives in a Podunk town and wins $50,000 on a radio show. She has to take a train to New York in order to pick up her prize. Meanwhile, a womanizing, money-hungry attorney, Malone, is after a paroled embezzler who owes him $10,000. The man, Kepplar, was in prison for a robbery, but the money was never found. Malone is sure Kepplar has the money on him.

Kepplar jumps parole by boarding the same train on which Mrs. O'Malley is traveling. Malone jumps on as well, in hot pursuit. He's not alone in searching for Kepplar. It's a merry band: his ex-wife (Ann Dvorak) and a police inspector Tim Marino (Fred Clark).

Kepplar is murdered, and the murderer is trying to set Malone up to take the fall. With the help of Mrs. O'Malley in the berth next to his, the two of them start moving Kepplar around, all along trying to catch the killer.

Whitmore and Main are fabulous together, and Whitmore's comic timing is excellent. The dialogue is snappy and funny, and the slapstick is great. Fred Clark's serious and frustrated demeanor makes his scenes even funnier.

Phyllis Kirk is Malone's pretty secretary. Ann Dvorak, as Kepplar's ex-wife, is marvelous in a light role. This is a late-ish part for her she was most prolific in the '30s and '40s. It's a shame she didn't stay in films, but she would retire the next year.

This should have been followed up with more films featuring O'Malley and Malone. A shame it didn't.

If you spot this on TCM, don't miss it.

... that could have benefited from the leads having more chemistry, as did the mismatched crime-solving pair of the thirties, Hildegard Withers and Oscar Piper of the Penguin Pool Murder series. Mrs. O'Malley (Marjorie Main) owns/runs a boarding house in Montana and wins a radio contest by recognizing an obscure song, one her late drunken husband apparently sang after he jumped off a roof believing he could fly - thus his status as deceased. Part of her prize is a trip to New York.

Meanwhile, John Malone (James Whitmore) is a big city lawyer that makes good money but whose dissolute lifestyle has his business on the ropes. He gambles, drinks, and womanizes with wild abandon and only with his long-unpaid secretary getting ready to walk and the lights about to be turned off does he suddenly pay attention to his financial house. He thinks he's found a solution though. Steve Keppler, a man jailed for embezzlement whose parole Malone negotiated is getting out of jail and Malone is expecting a 10K fee from him. Also note that Steve Keppler has never given up the 100K that he stole, that he has supposedly hidden the money from his other partner(s) in the heist, and that he has a greedy ex-wife. Keppler skips town without paying off Malone or anybody else, supposedly with the 100K in tow. The police know Keppler's taken a train to New York, and they're aboard as is everyone else who's looking for him. Did I fail to mention Mrs. O'Malley is on this train too, in the compartment next to Mr. Malone? What follows is a murder on board the train with Malone looking like he's been framed and Mrs. O'Malley helping Malone try to solve the mystery before the police can nail him for the crime. Ms. Main holds up her end marvelously with her famous brand of rough verbal and physical comedy, and Mr. Whitmore does well too but for one annoying habit. His character ogles and sophomorically hits on every attractive woman he sees often before the last woman he hit on is two feet away. Mr. Malone needs more Bogart in his routine with women and less Harpo Marx, who is frankly who he reminds me of during these particular scenes.

Overall, this film is more humor than it is mystery, and it is pretty fast-paced. The introductory musical score sounds like something from 50's TV, which is what B features like this were competing with in 1950 with the "attack of the small screens" already eating into studio profits. I recommend this one for an amusing 70 minutes or so of fun.

Marjorie Main and James Whitmore are a delightfully offbeat team in this often riotous farce about a radio-contest winner who travels by train from Montana to New York as part of her prize, getting involved in a murder while riding the rails and attempting to solve it with help from a rumpled lawyer. Some of Main's exasperated one-liners are a hoot, and Whitmore's quick-witted panache provides the perfect counterbalance to Marjorie's brashness. They both shine, even though the plot itself isn't much and it does run a little long. Still, the slapstick is amusing, as are Main's caustic jibes. Worth finding. **1/2 from ****

James Whitmore and Marjorie Main made an interesting pair of sleuths of convenience as Whitmore an ambulance chasing criminal attorney and Main a radio contest winner wind up as allies on a train from Chicago to New York chasing a deadbeat client who owes Whitmore his fee.

The defendant is an embezzler and he's also thought to have the loot with him. Main and Whitmore find him though, very dead in Whitmore's compartment. Now the task is to find his murderer before the deceased is found.

Such various and sundry folk as an ex-partner Don Porter, an ex-wife Ann Dvorak, a secretary Phyllis Kirk are also on the train and a Chicago PD detective Fred Clark with his patented slow burn, the best this side Edgar Kennedy. And other passengers any one of whom could have been an unknown associate.

Main was at her raucous best and Whitmore seems to model his character on some of Pat O'Brien's fast talking types from the 30s. In fact O'Brien would have been good casting next to Main.

From MGM's B picture unit this was enjoyable mand unpretentious comic film.

MARJORIE MAIN and JAMES WHITMORE are the title characters in this comedy/mystery from Craig Rice that moves along at a brisk pace and gives both leads a fun time solving a crime.

The audience may not have as much fun, depending on how witty you may or may not think the proceedings are because the accent is on the comedy angle and many of the one-liners aren't loaded with enough ammunition. Fans of Marjorie Main will probably be delighted with her brass characterization but Whitmore gets a little tiresome in his over-confident manner, never at a loss for a flippant remark.

For what really is an MGM B-picture, the cast isn't bad at all. We have PHYLLIS KIRK, ANN DVORAK, DOUGLAS FOWLEY, FRED CLARK and DON PORTER rounding out a good supporting cast, although Kirk has only a brief role at the beginning. All of them handle the mystery/comedy material with professional ease in a story that has Main and Whitmore discovering two dead bodies while a train is enroute from Montana to New York and trying to solve the murder while eluding the efforts of detective Clark to get to the bottom of the matter. Much of the humor depends on their struggle to get a dead body back and forth into different compartments.

It's a breezy sort of B-film that passes the time pleasantly, nothing more, and at a brief running time of one hour and nine minutes probably played the lower half of double bills in '50.

Trivia note: The scene where Marjorie Main sings with a band is painfully funny (with the pain outdoing the laughter). Not for every taste.

Mrs. Hattie O'Malley (Marjorie Main) wins a radio contest for $50k and a trip to New York City. On the way there, she meets cash-strapped Chicago lawyer John J. Malone (James Whitmore). His client Steve Kepplar has just been released from prison and still owes him $10k. Kepplar supposedly stole $100k and the money is still missing. Everybody is looking for him or most specifically, for the money.

I would want Hattie and John to team up sooner and more consistently. It does turn into a fun screwball Weekend at Bernie situation. It's silly although it could get even more ridiculous. It's a solid duo.

Thanks to the recommendation of critic/friend I caught this obscure gem on Showtime in the mid-1980s and have cherished my tape ever since. Boisterous Marjorie Main and blustery James Whitmore are as inspired a detective-team mismatch ever to grace the screen. Set in a cross-country sleeping-car train ride, "Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone" is blessed with expert direction, a crackling script (based on a story by the wondrous Craig Rice, whose novel "Home Sweet Homicide" was the basis of another classic comedy/thriller), MGM's high-gloss production values, and, besides the endearing leads, a first-rate supporting cast (the luminous Ann Dvorak, lovely Phyllis Kirk, etc.) A swift, alternately hilarious and genuinely suspenseful 69 minutes, this forgotten treasure was intended to be the first of a series. A pity that no sequels were ever made. But TCM occasionally shows this gem, and don't miss it. And, amidst the laughter and chills, just try and guess whodunnit!

The script lags at times but it is full of fun lines. Despite its flaws there are a quite a few laugh out loud moments - mostly thanks to the cast.

It is an all star cast full of some comedic talents as well as some very lovely ingenues. James Whitmore is a fine actor but I don't think he was a master of comedy.

The real shame is Ann Dvorak isn't givem much to do. She was a fun comedienne at the height of her talent at this point.

If you enjoy silly old fashioned fun and quirky characters I think you will enjoy this. If you ignore some of the script's flaws you can enjoy this as an undiscovered jewel.

The original story that inspired this film -- "Loco Motive" -- was a collaboration between Craig Rice and Stuart Palmer, featuring her alcoholic Chicago lawyer detective, John J. Malone, and his New York old-maid schoolteacher sleuth, Hildegarde Withers; it was the first of several stories (collected as "The People vs, Withers and Malone") teaming the two, generally in ways calculated to enrage and/or frustrate Malone's Chicago nemesis, Captain von Flanagan or Hildie's long-suffering New York Homicide detective, Inspector Oscar Piper.

Presumably because of rights issues -- money, perhaps, though this could have been during the time that Palmer (due to a divorce settlement) was intentionally making as little money as possible -- The Miss Withers part was rewritten to eliminate her.

It wasn't till some time later that an attempt was made to bring Hildie to the screen on TV, embodied in the formidable person of Eve Arden.

Other than disappointing fans of Miss Withers or of the original story in and of itself, this is a decent enough film of it.

If you can't appreciate the quirky offbeat humor of the late 1940's-1950's then you will not be watching this but if you are looking for a fun off beat escape this will have you longing for some Ma and Pa Kettle!!

From start to finish Whitaker's role is of an obnoxious attorney whose "malpractice" produces an onscreen request for disbarment even before we meet his character.

This storyline is totally unbelievable but isn't that what makes comedies the funniest? There's a fun assortment of real "characters" whose connection with the main characters leads to mayhem and more.

There are mysteries to be solved and relationships to figure out with laughs throughout.

It was well worth the time .. pure 50's fun that I bet my parents totally enjoyed back in the day.