While the Patient Slept

When is a Nurse Keating film not a Nurse Keating film? When it's a Hildegarde Withers film. If you liked this one, you'll love the first four of the Hildegarde flicks from RKO. 'While the Patient Slept' is taken from the first Hildegarde story, 'Penguin Pool Murder'. Penguin Pool's plot is different (except for being a humorous murder mystery, but the main characters are the same, and while penguins are the trademark of author Stuart Palmer, here they've substituted a green elephant.

I now have a copy of this movie, and that completes both my Nurse Keate and Hildegarde Withers collections. Speaking of rip-offs, if you like the 'Thin Man' Series, try "The Ex-Mrs. Bradford" and "Star Of Midnight," both with William Powell, Bradford with Jean Arthur and Midnight with Ginger Rogers. RKO got Powell on a loan-out and took full advantage of it.

Another little programmer from Warner Bros., complete with authentic old dark house ingredients--lots of atmospheric rain, thunder and lightning to tell a tale of a household full of jealous inhabitants, one of whom (the least likely, of course) is a murderer.

Aline McMahon does nicely as a proper nurse engaged to take care of an ill old man and soon finding herself deeply involved in solving the mystery. Guy Kibbe plays another one of his gruff but lovable detectives with dull-witted Allen Jenkins as his not too helpful sidekick.

Ray Enright was an old hand at directing these sort of things, a dependable director at Warner Bros. who gets some amiable results from a story which is a good mixture of humor and murderous doings. The finale has all the usual suspects gathered for the unveiling of the murderer--but none of it is quite convincing, even while it entertains and passes the time quickly.

WHILE THE PATIENT SLEPT in the creepy old house, his alert nurse looks for clues that will help catch a killer...

Fast-moving & fun, this is another example of the comedy crime picture that Warner Brothers was so expert at producing. Casts & plots could be shuffled endlessly, with very predictable results. While this assembly line approach created few classics, audience enjoyment could usually be assured.

Intricately plotted, the film boasts excellent production values & a finely sustained spooky atmosphere. Clutching hands, hidden passageways, resentful relatives, suspicious servants & sudden death all make this a prime entry into the Old Dark House genre of suspense films. However, there are enough solid laughs to help lighten the mood.

Aline MacMahon, as a starched no-nonsense nurse, shows once again why she was one of the finest character actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. Her facial expressions & body movements are perfectly controlled and constantly entertaining to watch. Arch & angular, she has the right riposte for any situation, but she is also warmhearted & fearlessly brave. From her very first scene, Miss MacMahon puts the picture in her pocket & walks off with it.

Chubby Guy Kibbee & loudmouthed Allen Jenkins both add considerably to the entertainment as the cops assigned to the murder case. The suspects consist of a whole gaggle of cousins, including pretty Patricia Ellis, stalwart Lyle Talbot, prissy Hobart Cavanaugh & spiteful Dorothy Tree - as well as mysterious butler Brandon Hurst & the family lawyer, Henry O'Neill.

The MacMahon & Kibbee characters reappear in THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18 (1938) and MYSTERY HOUSE (1938), although portrayed by other performers.

MacMahon never disappoints and that's true here again. This movie is terrific... funny, with clever repartee, and fast paced! MacMahon and Kibbee have great chemistry.

To other reviewers who complained that this film is "derivative" or that the plot and setting are "unoriginal," I'd like to remind you that this movie was made in 1935...just how many times have these scenarios been played out before and after this particular film? As Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) said about storytelling: "There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages."

This film is highly entertaining and absolutely worth 66 minutes of your time!

This is among the better entries in the comedy/mystery genre popular in the 1940s. No one liked the person murdered. Many people had reason to do him or her in. All are assembled in creepy surroundings.

Apart from a plot that's easy and logical, what sets this apart is Aline MacMahon. She plays a nurse who happens to be in the house and who helps the police solve the crime.

MacMahon was unique in Hollywood history. Though only in her thirties here, she was already playing an old maid. Yet she had an occasional fling at glamor roles. And she was an exceptionally good actress, with a haunting beauty.

Her rather heavy-lidded eyes seem to bore right through her co-players, here as elsewhere. ZaSu Pitts had a somewhat parallel career. But at least Erich Von Stroheim saw her as a beauty and a great actress.

Maybe MacMahon really couldn't have done it. But I think she had the potential for far greater roles than she was given. As strange as this probably sounds, I can see her, decades later, as the tragic Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night." (She would surely have been better than Katharine Hepburn, an actress, I often liked, in that role.)