El misterio del camerino

Warner Brothers made some amazing Hildegarde Withers mysteries starring Edna May Oliver. Unfortatunely, Oliver left the studio after making a few of them and the studio tries making a few more of these films with a different woman in the lead. While the substitutes weren't bad, they lacked the wonderful qualities that made the Oliver films fantastic. "Forty Naughty Girls" is one of these Oliver-less films the studio made to try to recapture the magic...and it's the last of second films with Zasu Pitts in the lead.

The story begins with Oscar (James Gleason) and Hildegarde (Pitts) going to see the Broadway show "Forty Naughty Girls". Not surprisingly, during the show there is a murder...and since it happens behind the scenes, the pair investigates while the play continues. Oscar thinks he's figured it all out...the playwright stole the play from a dead author. While this is true, it seems too easy...and it's only about 15 minutes into the movie. Surely there's more to it than this. And, when a second body is discovered, it's obvious that there's more. Can Hildegarde unravel this mess?

This film is a bit unusual because Hildegarde is not that prominent in the story. Much of if shows Inspector Oscar Piper going through his investigation...with Hildegarde showing up here and there to help. Overall, however, it's quite enjoyable even if it was relatively Hildegarde free! An interesting case and well written...but also not quite up to the quality of the older Oliver ones.

Most of the earlier reviewers obviously did not like this one much, but I think it was actually a rather enjoyable movie, which mixed three very popular genres of that era: murder mystery, musical theater story and screwball comedy. No, of course it is far from being great, but it is an entertaining little whodunit.

The murder mystery part of the plot is nothing special, but it is fine, definitely better than the earlier Hildegarde Withers outing, Murder on the Blackboard, which, during the book-to-screenplay transfer lost all that made it originally good. The musical numbers never get center stage (and honestly, aren't very good either), but the comedy works fine and the fast moving plot easily holds it all together.

As always, James Gleason is great as the grumpy detective and I actually like ZaSu Pitts' Hildegarde quite a bit. While Edna May Oliver seems to be everyone's favorite Hildegarde Withers she was always too much for me and I like both Helen Broderick and Ms. Pitts a lot more in the role. As for the rest of the cast: they are doing OK, but they are nothing noteworthy, except maybe Tom Kennedy, who plays a bumbling police officer that hauntingly similar to his role in all those Torchy Blane movies. Obviously it wasn't much of a success in its time either as it was the last of the series, which is too bad as I would definitely love to watch a few more films with witty ZaSu as the elderly hobby detective who solves the crimes instead of the grumpy inspector.

Edited: One of the reviewers stated that this is a remake of the "German language film named Premiere". Since writing my original review I managed to track down and watch that movie and the reviewer is clearly wrong. Besides both being about murders happening during a musical show there aren't many similarities with the script, the culprit, the motives and pretty much everything being totally different. Not to mention this movie is based on a 1934 short story while Premiere was released in 1937.

However it turns out that Premiere (which is a truly excellent film by the way) is clearly a remake of 1934's Hollywood movie, Murder At The Vanities.

RKO Radio Pictures released Forty Naughty Girls during 1937 to capitalize on Showgirls of 1934. Unfortunately, the script does not afford the actors nor director much opportunity and the result is perfunctory and at times pedestrian.

James Gleason is Homicide Inspector Oscar Piper out with girlfriend Hildegard Withers played by Zasu Pitts, at a Broadway performance of Forty Naughty Girls, produced by Ricky Rickman. Murders commence shortly after the play opening. Oscar and Hildegard move from the audience to backstage investigations.

Quickly we learn that publicist Edward "Windy" Bennett is having an affair with leading lady Rita Marlowe played by Joan Woodbury, who has just become engaged to producer Rickman. Also, Windy Bennett is extorting money from playwright Tommy Washburn. And, then Windy Bennett is found dead, shot in the back of the head.

Subsequently, Washburn is shot and killed. Rita Marlowe is the initial suspect and then the evidence points to a stagehand who happens to be her father.

Since this film has a running time of only 63 minutes, action propels the plot and there are numerous twists and turns. However, none move you to the edge of your seat. Director Eddie Cline must have had a tight shooting schedule because this is a proverbial race to the finish line. While casually amusing the story suffers from numerous shortcomings especially character development. Also, the humor barely rises above simple.

Marjorie Lord as showgirl and singer June Preston is adequate which is dictated by the script.

This was never intended to be anything more than a second feature and that is all it will ever be. Nothing bad, nothing great.

EDNA MAY OLIVER is the missing ingredient in this feeble murder mystery with JAMES GLEASON as Inspector Piper attending a theater with his friend ZASU PITTS (as Hildegarde Withers), but soon in charge of investigating a double murder.

This backstage comedy/mystery tries to follow the pattern of other such mysteries featuring Gleason and Edna May Oliver, but fails to register strongly enough in either the laugh department or the serious stuff.

It has the feel of a low-budget programmer shot in ten days with no chance for character development or original plotting. Even revelation of the murderer is handled in such a low-key way that any viewer will be half asleep before the solution even occurs.

Not recommended for fans of this series.

... whoever is responsible for this travesty was very naughty and deserves to be grounded. It takes a great deal of effort to make either James Gleason or Zasu Pitts boring - in fact I'd never seen it happen before - but this film did it.

This film was supposed to be a continuation of the James Gleason/Edna Mae Oliver crime mysteries starting with Penguin Pool murder in 1932. Those two had great chemistry and were a believable pair both in the sleuthing and possibly even romantic categories. The zingers and one liners flew in their films, even after the production code came in. Here Zasu Pitts is replacing Ms. Oliver as schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers as she and detective Oscar Piper (James Gleason) step out together to watch the show "Forty Naughty Girls". Beforehand there is a set-up of situations that show the eventual murder victim causing trouble for various people associated with the show. When he predictably turns up dead, Piper and Withers are on the scene to solve the mystery. The problem is, from that point forward they are not really acting as a team as they were before. They seem to be operating independently and just bump into each other as a matter of circumstance or slapstick.

The show that acts as a backdrop for the mystery just doesn't seem very naughty or even funny for that matter, the suspects are not very interesting or memorable, and our two leads are poorly served by the entire mess. If you want to see what this crime series was at its peak watch "Penguin Pool Murder", "Murder on the Blackboard", or "Murder on a Honeymoon". If you want to see James Gleason and Zasu Pitts be entertaining, watch just about anything they ever did but this.