Murder on the Blackboard

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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