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"Slightly Honorable" is a rather strange but enjoyable film. I say strange because it's a serious drama about crime and murder...yet the movie also has an oddly comedic bent to it.

The story begins with the Highway Commissioner dying in an auto accident on a poorly maintained road. This ironic beginning is there to acquaint the audience with the fact that there's a lot of corruption in local government. And, it's not just the Commissioner but the District Attorney as well as the publisher of the local newspaper (Edward Arnold). When once of John Webb's old lady friends is murdered, Webb (Pat O'Brian) is out to determine who did it...and he assumes Cushing and his cronies are behind it.

The film never can be taken all that seriously because it never really takes itself seriously. This isn't a complaint so much as telling you about the style...but it is a bit of a problem with the film takes a dark and unexpected turn near the end. Best see it to see what I mean. Overall, a modestly enjoyable film....nothing about it says must-see, but it will keep your attention.

Quite amazing for a B movie!!! Travis Banton was Paramount's top clothes designer in the early thirties. He designed dresses for Marlene Dietrich, Claudette Colbert, Kay Francis and Carole Lombard among others.

John Webb, an attorney, (Pat O'Brien) is invited to a party by Alma (Claire Dodd), an old girlfriend, who is now the mistress of Cushing (Edward Arnold). He meets an annoying singer Ann (Ruth Terry), who he later rescues from the paws of a drunken guest. When Webb finds Alma murdered, he determined to "square" it but can't shake the irritating Ann. Helped by his sassy secretary (Eve Arden) and dopey associate (Broderick Crawford), he is stymied by District Attorney Joyce (oily Alan Dinehart) who is in pretty thick with Cushing. Suspects pile up - Alma's ex husband George (Douglas Dumbrille), even Ann puts her foot in it by implicating Webb!!! As one of the reviewers implied, Ann and Webb would have to be the odd couple of the century. In real life he would never find happiness with an air head like her!!! When Webb's secretary is found dead (Eve Arden didn't get much of a chance to strut her stuff), suspicion puts Webb on the top of the list. Evelyn Keyes has a bit as the new secretary and Phyllis Brookes also has a small part as Cushing's beautiful daughter. Things come to a head in a little Texas cemetery.

The film is excellent because of the superior quality of everyone associated with it. The cast was top notch - aside from Pat O'Brien you have Edward Arnold, Broderick Crawford, Douglas Dumbrille and Alan Dinehart, one of the most suave villains of the 30s. Then on the female side you have the beautiful Claire Dodd, Phyllis Brooks, sassy Eve Arden and the lovely Evelyn Keyes (who would have been excellent as Ann, not nearly so annoying as Ruth Terry). Tay Garnett was a real "man's" director who was at home with action adventures ie "China Seas" (1935) and "Trade Winds" (1938).

Claire Dodd, is definitely my favourite bad girl. When she appeared in a film, good girls like Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak and Helen Twelvetrees had some pretty anxious moments - she even played Della Street in a couple of early Perry Masons. Whoever she played she always looked a dream. Phyllis Brooks had been a McClelland Barclay model and although she was decorative her acting skills were almost non existent. Evelyn Keyes was more noted for her wit and racy memoirs but she was extremely vivacious and it was always nice to see her in movies.

Recommended.

The overriding story of the film - the murder of a well-known party girl (Claire Dodd) whose body is discovered by crusading attorney John Webb (Pat O'Brien) who also happens to be a former boyfriend - and things don't look good for our hero who is instantly murder suspect number one. Furthermore Webb is trying to get the goods on graft king Vincent Cushing (Edward Arnold). Webb thinks Cushing did the murder and set him up to take the fall, and thus spends the rest of the movie trying to clear his name. The movie is well-paced and everything is moving along in an interesting fashion when every few minutes - like interference on a radio channel - in pops Ruth Terry's character and her incessant yammering. She has her eye set on Webb from the moment she sees him although she says she's 18 and he looks old enough to be her father. She lies about her background, so why couldn't she be lying about her age? If Webb were smarter he'd be equally as worried about getting involved in a statutory rape rap as he is murder. What girl of 18 gets dressed up in a revealing gown, goes to a party full of known hoods, and then is shocked when one puts the moves on her? Or doesn't have the sense to NOT take her dress off in front of a grown man when she's alone in his apartment? She's either 13 or she doesn't have all of her marbles.

I waste so much time on Terry's character here because it distracts from what could have been a very good film. I took off two stars just for the annoyance factor alone. Other than that - and its a big "that" - the film is a great noir with an interesting twist at the end. Robert Osborne said that director Tay Garnett became ill during filming and Walter Wanger had to finish the film out himself with Garnett very upset at the end result. I can only guess that Mr. Garnett's objections were the same as mine.

Fast talking lawyer Pat O'Brien sets out to do a job—on the level, but only for the money, it seems. The "job" is fighting the highway monopoly controlled by smooth talking crime boss Edward Arnold. Broderick Crawford is O'Brien's law partner and pal; they set out to take down Arnold and his empire.

Sounds like a solid drama, but…soon silly girl singer Ruth Terry is telling O'Brien "I like you" at a party. He half-heartedly discourages her enthusiastic advances on him, and he doesn't quite believe that she's eighteen years and two months old, as she says; however, she persists in chasing him around for the rest of the movie, wearing down his resistance and distracting him from the real plot—

A woman is murdered and the few clues point toward O'Brien. Who really did the murder, and why is O'Brien being framed? –There's the mystery O'Brien has to sort out, with assistance (and frequent interference) from partner Crawford, from the kid singer Terry, and from the cops—who may be Arnold's stooges.

Bizarre humorous touches distract somewhat from the mystery plot; for example, the scene in which all of the suspects remove their shoes to be examined for blood stains, and Edward Arnold has an embarrassing hole in the toe of his sock. Terry and O'Brien giggle madly…even though the corpse is still lying in the next room. It just doesn't quite fit.

I would have liked to see more of three other women characters: Claire Dodd as an early victim (intimate friends with more than one suspect), Eve Arden as O'Brien's secretary (smart and ready), and Phyllis Brooks as Arnold's daughter (conscience crying out as she learns about her father). All are very good in too small roles.

We do get plenty of Ruth Terry…who is actually very good herself, except that hers and O'Brien's relationship never really convinces, the chemistry never really gels. Unfortunately for her, she comes across as rather annoying.

One truly chilling moment involves a discovery at a desk—a shock that is totally unexpected and perfectly executed.

Otherwise, the plot is passable, the cast a bunch of pros, the dialog zippy—and the romance and humor a little oddball. Fun—just a little unsteady.

Ever get stuck watching a movie and you couldn't wait until it ended? This was one of the few that I've seen. Excruciating is a good word. Only a great cast saves it from a lower rating - makes you wonder what they could have done with better material.

"Slightly Honorable" can't decide if it's a comedy or a mystery picture and fails on both levels - not funny and not very mysterious. Ruth Terry is 'cute and perky' but is an annoying presence. Eve Arden is wasted, as is Edward Arnold. Pat O'Brien does his best but it's not enough. The disjointed storyline is not believable and not worth recounting.

If this picture is shown on a rainy day and you have nothing to do, find a good book.

Pat O'Brien and Broderick Crawford are a couple of attorneys and political enemies of Boss Edward Arnold who's grown rich on all kinds of graft. They're starting to have people listen to them until a couple of murders get pinned on O'Brien. They're on the defensive after that until those murders are solved.

Tay Garnett manages to strike the right blend of humor and drama to Slightly Honorable. O'Brien, Crawford, and Arnold do well in very familiar roles to them.

One thing that truly was annoying was juvenile Ruth Terry. She's fresh out of bobby sox and O'Brien's a man of the world. Now if she was something slinky and sexy like Lauren Bacall was with Humphrey Bogart or even sophisticated like Myrna Loy with William Powell, the attractiveness would make some sense. But she's frankly just one royal pain. I can't figure out why O'Brien would possibly be interested in her.

Still it's an interesting plot that the audience will find intriguing.

I couldn't sit through the bad jokes, mildly okay acting and boring story - I simply could not finish watching this film. I mean patty-cake?! They were playing patty-cake! Is that suppose to be funny? I mean it's two lame characters that I don't care about so I didn't even enjoy that scene... really if it were characters that I liked I might have, and most likely would have, found humor in it but as it is that great scene had me fed-up with the film.

Some people like this film while others of us found it boring, I'm in the latter group. It's far from a must see comedy mystery but I'm sure entertaining for some audiences - I'm just not one of them.

If you are super bored one evening and catch this one on it might provide something to watch - it's just not a great watch.

2/10

Frank Presnell's first of three crime novels, "Send Another Coffin", is the basis for this film, completed the year following publication of the original, featuring flinty Ohio attorney John Webb (Pat O'Brien) with his wife Ann (Ruth Terry), the duo patterned somewhat upon Dashiell Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, although Webb is less suave than Nick and more eager to stir political pots. A corrupt state politician, Vincent Cushing (Edward Arnold), is the principal target for Webb's reforming urge, and when Cushing's mistress Alma (Claire Dodd), erstwhile flame of Webb, is murdered, nearly all of the major characters seem to have a motive, including Webb, who faces most of the heat from the homicide investigation although he perceives himself to be "slightly honorable" when compared with those about him. The work includes a strong comedic element along with its murder mystery and socially conscious themes. Vivacious Terry, with her patented energy and spirit, steals the film in what she states is her favourite role, a part for which she is promised by producer Walter Wanger and director Tay Garnett that the former night club singer/dancer will be spotlighted in a musical specialty number, and that she is, one that is perfectly woven into the screenplay, this while under personal contract to Howard Hughes who loans her to Wanger for this production. A cardinal pleasure inherent with film reviewing is discovery of works that have not received an amount of recognition that they deserve, and that is the case in this instance, for it is a piece that includes among its attributes sparkling dialogue, skillful acting and, especially, that mastery of narrative pace and rhythm that marks the best efforts from Garnett who here cunningly blends details for his established mise-en-scène within the script, as is his custom. Even without his foremost mannequin, Marlene Dietrich, Travis Banton's gowns are noteworthy and there is a strikingly illustrative score from Werner Janssen.

SLIGHTLY HONORABLE (United Artists, 1939/40), a Walter Wanger Presentation, directed by Tay Garnett, might sound like a domestic drama about a troubled marriage of infidility, but is actually a mystery-comedy based upon the novel, "Send Another Coffin" by P.G. Presnell. Starring Pat O'Brien, on loan-out assignment from Warner Brothers Studio, it offers him a rare opportunity to perform on screen sporting a mustache, but being no threat to actor, Clark Gable. With mystery-comedies quite popular during the 1930s, SLIGHTLY HONORABLE is no different, with the exception as to how the mystery gets solved.

Opening Title: "Eight thousand miles to the southland lies a tiny island paradise - far from greed, the graft and the corruption that harass our modern civilization --- but that's 8000 miles away!" The story begins with visuals of radio announcers followed by a car sliding off a curvy road leading to the death of Clarence Buckman, corrupt highway commissioner who has fallen victim to the accident. Pallbearers at his funeral are John Webb (Pat O'Brien), lawyer; Russel Sampson (Broderick Crawford), his assistant; and Vincent Cushing (Edward Arnold), described as "the evil head of the state's political machine." During the course of the story, John meets Ann Seymour (Ruth Terry), a nightclub singer who happens to be 18 years (and two months!). A feisty yet gabby individual, she gets into a rumble with the owner, Pete Gordenia (Bernard Nedell) to a point of having her dress torn with John coming to her defense. After taking her to his apartment, John soon offers her $100 for a new dress before sending her home. Alma Brehmer (Claire Dodd), John's old flame with a jealous ex- husband, George Taylor (Douglass Dumbrille), is found murdered at her Fenner Apartment penthouse with a dagger in her back. A series of similar killings involving daggers soon take place. With John attempting to clear his name from being the prime suspect, he ends up finding out more than he bargained for during his investigation, especially with flying daggers with threatening notes in his office, and near arrests from Commissioner Joyce (Alan Dinehart), Inspector Fromm (Addison Richards) and Captain Graves (Cliff Clark), who believe John's the guilty party.

Others seen in the cast include: Phyllis Brooks (Sarilla Cushing, the daughter); Janet Beecher (Mrs. Cushing, wife and mother); Eve Arden (Miss Ater, Webb's wisecracking secretary); Ernest Truex (P. Hemmingway Collins, secretary of the Citizen's Better Government League); Evelyn Keyes (Miss Vilissigen); Willie Best (Art, the elevator operator); John Sheehan (Mike Daley, the drunk), among others. Edward Arnold, who gave a memorable supporting performance as a corrupt politician in both Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (Columbia, 1939) and MEET JOHN DOE (Warner Brothers, 1941), resumes a similar character here as a corrupt newspaper publisher with political connections, but isn't on screen long enough for an actor whose name comes second billed in the casting credits. Standout performances goes to Broderick Crawford, breaking away from dopey characters enacted early in his career, and Eve Arden, being a welcome screen presence (as always). Evelyn Keyes has little to do in a rare comedic role as a daffy secretary. Ruth Terry, playing a gabby showgirl, could be annoying at times, yet she's far from being shy nor modest when it comes to undressing herself in front of a man (O'Brien) she hardly knows,with the lawyer being "embarrassed" through the proceedings more than once.

An agreeable mixture of comedy and mystery that's not as well known as some other films of this nature. After years of being shown on late night commercial television dating back to the 1950s, SLIGHTLY HONORABLE later became a public domain title that was frequently broadcast on public television and available on video cassette in the 1980s (and decades later on DVD), usually in shorter 75 minute edition. It wasn't until Turner Classic Movies aired a restored and complete 86 minute clearer picture edition of SLIGHTLY HONORABLE (TCM premiere: December 9, 2011), that the movie got to be shown uncut for the first time in years. In complete form, SLIGHTLY HONORABLE moves swiftly enough to become satisfactory entertainment for those who may find the movie sightly funny, slightly mysterious or slightly honorable. (**1/2 daggers)

An attorney and his partner get caught up in a series of murders involving a crooked businessman and his crony district attorney. In fact suspicion is cast on the attorney himself as he threads his way through the thicket.

Comedy mysteries were popular during this period. The sophisticated Thin Man series was probably the best, though the many amateur sleuth series on lesser budgets also proved popular, e.g. Charlie Chan, The Saint, et al. This movie attempts the same ground, but tries to work in too many elements. Trouble is they fail to build in effective fashion. The whodunit part never really gels since little time is given to assessing the suspects, while the comedic part fares better with some good snappy lines. However, the comedic part is overridden by cutie Terry's antics that are way overblown and finally annoying. Clearly some restraint was needed, but a firm hand was lacking. Apparently credited director Garnett took sick and impresario Wanger had to step in. That may account for unevenness of the overall result.

Nonetheless, O'Brien lends the proceedings what credibility there is, while a young Crawford gets to show an uncharacteristic and somewhat comedic side. In fact the supporting cast includes many sinister faces from the period—Fowley, Richards, Dumbrille, Dodd. Now I'm as broad-minded as most movie fans, but pairing 41-year old O'Brien with teenage Terry acting like a 10-year old appears a risky bet for audiences even now. Plus, having her drop her dress moment to moment may be amusing but struggles against the questionable context. Looks like their pairing was trying to get as far away from Nick and Nora as possible.

All in all and despite the promising elements, the package is simply too unwieldy to hold together. Too bad.

I agree with another reviewer, although pretty and fun, Ruth Terry interrupts an otherwise coherent movie. Halfway through it gets silly. People were trampling all over crime scenes and nothing made sense. I found it a good time to turn it off.

What a surprise. This film, which showcases the under-remarked comic skills of Pat O'Brien is a genuine treat which belongs right up there with "The Front Page" (with O'Brien and James Cagney) its remake "His Girl Friday" and the best of the 'Thin Man' series. Director Tay Garnett is probably best known for directing some of the better series in the early days of television ("Bonanza", "The Untouchables" "Naked City", "Rawhide")and at least two film classics ("The Postman Always Rings Twice" , "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court"). After seeing this film one can only guess that the reason his name is not as well known as that of Sturgess or Capra or even Wilder is that he moved to television at a time when that medium was seen as a real threat to the film industry and thereby encountered some resentment. How else to explain the fact that "Slightly Honorable" is not mentioned on more 'Best' lists?

O'Brien is probably more likable (and believable as a semi-romantic lead) here than in almost any of his other films. Always effective in serious dramas he reminds us of how versatile some of our greatest stars of middle period American cinema (Cagney, John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn,Clark Gable) were-switching effortlessly from drama to comedy in a way that seems to be beyond the scope of some later stars.

Much the same can be said for Ruth Terry who would own this film were it not for the strength of her co-star's performances. Terry retired before she was 45 years old. By that time she was reduced to bit parts but a look at her work here will have you shaking your head in wonder at how that happened.

A great performance from Broderick Crawford and standout supporting turns from Eve Arden and Claire Dodd (among others) crackerjack pacing and set design,snappy clever and first rate dialogue combine to make for a wonderful hilarious film that deserves a wide audience and a restoration treatment to enhance the sometimes muddy soundtrack and occasional glitch in the currently available print. Do NOT hesitate to rent this one.

By the way, contrary to IMDb's spell checking feature "dialogue" is NOT a misspelling. Look it up.

this is one of those pleasant surprises that makes buying cheap films you've never heard of before so much fun. the first thing that came to mind as this film unreeled was how much fun the dialogue was. this is the blue collar version of the thin man. what it lacks in dry humor and sly irony, from nick and nora, is made up for in sheer fun. ruth terry is terrific as pat o'brien's wannabe girl. her energy is almost manic, and o'brien plays off it perfectly as the straight man to her ditzy rambles. the rest of the cast doesn't let you down either. arnold, arden and broderick crawford play their parts without flaw. the mystery, per se, is pretty average; realizing that you must wonder why more 'average' plots don't fall into the hands of talented directors, writers and cast and go on to be really good films. my only sorrow is in the DVD i have, the alpha video version #alp4644d. if you can find another print, get it. the visuals are OK, at least i have seen much worse, but the sound track is dreadful. about half of the film i couldn't understand, and i still loved it.

Macroscopically, this movie is surprisingly entertaining, with crackling dialogue and charming performances by O'Brien and Crawford. Under closer scrutiny, the plot really doesn't hold up, nor do a number of character's motivations, but O'Brien's effortless cool covers a multitude of sins and the THIN MAN comparisons are apt. Overall, an underrated old-fashioned big ensemble good time the way they used to craft them back in the 40s. This isn't as good as Garnett's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and you won't gain much insight into the human condition or require a handkerchief, but you will laugh and you will be amused. One of the highlights from a 50 - pack of public domain crime dramas called "50 Dark Crimes" currently available for super cheap (how I discovered it), and like that inexpensive offering, worth far more than the price of admission.