Mr. and Mrs. North

Publisher Jerry North (William Post Jr.) returns home exhausted from a business trip only to be stunned when he and his scatter-brained wife, Pam (Gracie Allen), find a dead body in a closet.

The subsequent investigation reveals that Pam has surprising knowledge about an affair between a friend and the wife of the murdered man.

The police question Jerry, Pam and a wide array of suspects from a door-to-door salesman to a secretary to a patent attorney, before deciding that Jerry is the killer.

Mr and Mrs North is a fun mystery in the vein of the Thin Man series, however Gracie North towers over her husband with her endless waffling - I felt that William Post, though adequate enough, didn't match her or be a good foil; their chemistry was sort of lacking, but nevertheless it's fun with a good list of suspects and nice one liners. Gets tedious towards the end, though.

Gracie Allen and William Post, Jr. are the Norths in "Mr. and Mrs. North," based on the characters created by Francis and Richard Lockridge. Actually, all the studio did was take the names and attempt to make them into Thin Man ripoffs. I read a lot of Mr. and Mrs. North books, and all I remember is that they drank like fish and had a college-age son.

This is a fun mystery, with Gracie being Gracie, but William Post, Jr. is not quite right for her. Of course her ideal partner was George Burns, who looked upon her antics with wry humor. Post kind of sighs and gives up. Also given the way he acts, it's kind of hard to figure out why they got married.

Felix Bressart is a riot as the Fowler Brush Man who is summoned to the D.A.'s office and keeps introducing himself as "The Fowler Brush Man" and getting thrown out of every office. Great to see a young Virginia Grey, too, and Jerome Cowan, Tom Conway, Fortunio Bonanova as the landlord, and Paul Kelly as the detective on the murder case. He cringes every time he hears the name "Mrs. North." You might too, so watch at your own risk.

I usually love THIN MAN-style husband-and-wife detective stories and the great Gracie Allen's scatterbrain schtick, so I looked forward to seeing Gracie play Pam North in MR. AND MRS. NORTH (M&MN), adapted from Frances and Richard Lockridge's novels as well as Owen Davis's Broadway play. Great cast, too, with Gracie being supported by such solid players as Paul Kelly, Jerome Cowan, Virginia Grey, Tom Conway, Fortunio Bonanova, Keye Luke, and THIN MAN alumnus Porter Hall. But I'm not sure this fast-paced, witty mystery quite fits in with Gracie's style. She's always fun to watch and listen to as she rambles on in her hilarious, almost surreal stream-of-consciousness style. However, her ditz routine works much better when her husband and comedic partner George Burns plays her foil in his cool, wry way. As Gerry North, William Post Jr. seems an affable romantic lead who can do the occasional funny slow burn or nigh-girlish frightened screech when necessary. When Gracie is in the spotlight, though, she steamrolls over everyone in her persistent yet endearing way. I must confess there were times when M&MN got on my nerves as certain recurring gags recurred well past the point of being funny, becoming grating instead. Take Felix Bressart as the long-suffering door-to-door salesman who keeps trying to give his statement at the police station, only to keep making the mistake of introducing himself as the "Fowler Brush Man" and getting himself kicked out. After he got kicked out 3 times, I found myself growling, "All right already, stop telling them you're a Fowler Brush Man!" Then there's dear Gracie, always talking too much about the wrong things in her charming yet maddening blatherings. Fond as I am of her, even I eventually wanted her to shut up and let somebody coherent get a word in edgewise. If you adore Gracie Allen and have a high tolerance for aggressively zany misunderstandings, however, M&MN is worth a look next time it pops up on TCM.

Mr. and Mrs. North discover a body and the rest of the film consists of them trying to convince others they had nothing to do with it as well as to help discover the murderer. During this time, Mrs. North (Gracie Allen) acts like an annoying dingbat.

This is a decent little mystery film in the same tradition as the Thin Man films and the writing is pretty good, However, I am amazed by the odd casting job and wish IMDb could clue us in to why this was done. For the one and only time, Gracie Allen appears without her husband George Burns. Instead, some no-name actor (William Post Jr.) plays her husband and Gracie essentially plays the same character she played with George. This is pretty weird and the chemistry doesn't quite work because of this. You just keep expecting George to come stepping onto the screen.

Overall, it's an odd little curio that's a decent time-passer but not a lot more.

I guess if you were exposed to a lot of Gracie Allen, with or without hubby George Burns, you would have a different perspective. While I've seen Gracie with George a time or two, can't say I'm overexposed with her. She came across very attractive and interesting in this. She's refreshing if you haven't had your fill of her elsewhere. I didn't miss George especially - hey, they were doing something different here, likely attempting to trade on her popularity. But, it took a little while getting used to her with hubby, Post, seeming too young and precocious himself. Mr. Burns, being much the dry, straight man, is a perfect foil. However, this Post is an attractive fellow, who did fine. It's not a tight spy thriller, after all. I really liked Gracie talking through the credits at the end. That was a very funny touch. I don't know what most expect from this type of thing, but for what it was, a mystery comedy on the lower budget order, it was good. You had the usual improbable hijinks going on, the usual sort of fairly inept coppers and the usual suspects. Though there were some good actors in this, it was Gracie's show, shared mainly with Post, her husband, who, again, I thought did a good job.