Murder, He Says

I've seen Murder He Says many times and it's a pretty funny film. Fred MacMurray had never done that kind of belly laugh comedy before and I'm sure that Walt Disney must have screened this film and that he was certainly capable of it when he made him Disney's number one male star starting with The Shaggy Dog.

But every time I watch it, I keep thinking this was a property developed for Bob Hope. All of the mixed up adventures with this rube Fliegle family are pure Hope. Imagine Hope instead of Fred MacMurray in the lead and I'm sure you'll agree with me.

My guess is that Hope was busy entertaining the troops and Paramount had this thing ready to go and prevailed upon another of their contract players to step in.

As a pinch hitter though, Fred MacMurray batted in a big old home run with this one.

By the way that tune that is the key to where the buried treasure is will be rattling around in your brain for weeks.

Murder, He Says (1945) : Brief Review -

George Marshall gives a "glowing" touch to "The Ghostbusters" (1940) days, minus Bob Hope hysteria. Remember James Whale's classic gothic horror-comedy "Old Dark House" (1932) and Bob Hope's "The Cat and the Canary" and "The Ghostbusters"? Murder, He Says is something like that, but you have no Bab Hope going hysterical with his trademark chatter and jokes. Of course, you can't have Fred MacMurray as his replacement, but this wasn't even supposed to be one of those comparisons. Look at it as a fresh film, and you have a super entertainer in front of your eyes. Murder, He Says is a mix of murder mystery and comedy, and then you have a slight touch of horror as well. MacMurray plays a trotter poller, looking for one of his colleagues who went missing. He goes to the haunted-like house of the nutty and murderous Fleagles family and finds himself in a jam. A dying granny tells him a secret of $70, 000 of bank loot, and he can't make a head or tail out of it. Bonnie, a jailbird who has had a successful jailbreak, is after the money and arrives at the house at the right time. Wait, do we have a real Bonnie? Let's not spoil the fun. So, things get mixed up in the house, and the search for money turns the family members against each other. Meanwhile, fake Bonnie has her own agenda, and we have a scientist with a powerful glowing liquid to make things mystical and intriguing. The script, the screenplay, and the character fit well in the funny mess together, and we certainly enjoy the chaos. Seeing Fred MacMurray in such a funny role was a big surprise to me. I have always seen him in intense and classy roles. Helen Walker brought that Bonnie accent well, but the character wasn't well-written. Marjorie Main was deadly, and Jean Heather sounded cutely dumb. Marshall's trademark scenes were visible here. He actually made them look different and did quite well there. Overall, a healthy entertainer.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Classic comedy starring Fred MacMurray as a pollster who shows up at a hillbilly family's house looking for another pollster who went missing in the area. He finds himself knee-deep in trouble with the hillbillies, who are a clan of criminals looking for some money that only their dying grandmother knows the location of -- and she only wants to tell Fred. Things get even more crazy when Helen Walker shows up, claiming to be the Bonnie Parker-esque member of the family who recently escaped from prison.

It's a very funny movie with MacMurray in rare form as the poor guy who stumbles into a weird situation and can't wait to get out of it. The bit where he pretends to talk to a ghost to fool the dumb twins is priceless. At one point in the movie there's a clever gag where MacMurray's character comes upon an idea involving an organ because he saw the same bit in The Ghost Breakers, which was another Paramount comedy directed by George Marshall. Another great scene has MacMurray doing his version of Dorf decades before Tim Conway. Helen Walker is lovely and does a fine job but her part is mostly a straight one with few laughs. Marjorie Main is wonderful as a sort of dark version of her famous Ma Kettle character. Peter Whitney is lots of fun playing a set of dimwitted but violent twins. The rest of the cast includes Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Barbara Pepper, and a scene-stealing Mabel Paige as the grandmother. It's a good comedy with a terrific cast. Probably could've trimmed ten minutes in the middle but it doesn't hurt the pace too much. Definitely worth a look.

Pollster Pete Marshall (Fred MacMurray) is up in the mountains looking for his missing colleage. He is directed to the Fleagle clan led by Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson (Marjorie Main). On her death bed, the matriarch reveals to only him clues to a hidden $30k stolen loot. He is supposed to show the criminal Bonnie Fleagle, but he barely understands the clues himself. Claire Matthews (Helen Walker) comes looking for the money while pretending to be Bonnie. This starts off with a bit of fun with MacMurray. Then the plot turns convoluted and it becomes a Scooby-Doo mystery. It doesn't all work but it is enjoyable fun.

I'm 52, and, along with my younger sister and brother, saw this movie, when I was a kid. It remains one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and I've seen an awful lot of movies. After seeing it the first time, and literally screaming and crying with laughter at much of it, my siblings and I would search the TV Guide as soon as the magazine arrived at our house hoping to find Murder He Says among the listings for the coming week. Once or twice a year, we would be beside ourselves with glee to find it. It was an absolute treat for us.

Many of its scenes are indelibly etched in my memory: Fred MacMurray with Grandma; the scene at the large, lazy-susan dinner table, with everyone trying to move the table one way or another to get the poisoned food away from them; the scenes in the basement toward the end of the movie, and, especially, the scene when Fred MacMurray is caught in the basement coal bin by Bonnie Fleagle (unquestionably, one of the funniest scenes in movie history.

It's a movie that is both frightening and extremely funny. Directed by George Marshall, who also directed several other favorites of mine: Destry Rides Again (Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich; a 1939 classic); Fancy Pants (Bob Hope) and The Mating Game (Tony Randall, Debbie Reynolds).

Yes, it's improbable and, I'll grant you, silly. It is also, IMHO (in my humble opinion) a great movie. Yes, great...so there!!