Le bal des mauvais garçons

Daffy bit of nonsense that benefits from the perfectly matched leads. Big, brawling, braying Broderick Crawford and the divine Claire Trevor at her brassy, sassy height. As a hood and his wife/moll longing to go straight and enter high society for the sake of their daughter the pair tear it up, Broderick with his over the top performance, which is just right for the material and Claire's more shaded but equally well measured work.

Joining them in the fun are several distinguished character actors, Ned Glass, Sheldon Leonard, Harry Morgan, Margaret Dupont etc., all doing some variant of their patented shtick and adding to the jolly nature of this black comedy.

The only place where this fall short is in the casting of the secondary leads. Neither Bill Hayes, who went on to decades of fame on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives, nor Virginia Gibson make much of an impression against the colorful juggernaut and polished scene stealing of the stars.

Prohibition ends and beer baron Remy Marko (Broderick Crawford) is out of work. He decides to make beer legitimately. He is going broke since his beer isn't any good. He and his wife Nora (Claire Trevor) have daughter Mary (Virginia Gibson) who is marrying policeman Chancellor "Chance" Whitelaw (Bill Hayes). Nora throws a lavish reception and chaos ensues.

This musical is based on the play A Slight Case of Murder which was made into a movie in 1938. I like that movie although I don't remember too much of it. I immediately recognized this plot really quickly. I don't recall it being a musical and this comedy does not make me laugh. Chance and his mother annoyed me. He is stupid without being funny and she screams too much. I don't like most of these characters. It also feels rather 50's musical and out of time. Even the dead bodies don't strike me as funny.

I dislike remakes, and Hollywood has made a ton of them over the years. In the few cases where I actually liked the remakes, most of the time it was because the original film was flawed and the remake managed to work out the kinks--resulting in a better film. However, in the case of "A Slight Case of Murder", this is a very, very tall order, as this is one of the better comedies of the 1930s and one of Edward G. Robinson's best films. Because of this, I just understand why they didn't just re-release the original and remake some other film instead.

In "Stop, You're Killing Me", the film was originally seen as a remake featuring the singing and comedy of Danny Kaye. This might have worked. However, when Kaye was unavailable, they substituted Broderick Crawford--a man about as unlike Kaye as you could imagine! Hearing Crawford sing was sure interesting! Fortunately, it was quite brief and the rest of the music for the Kaye version was dropped or sung by others!

The film begins the day Prohibition ends. The good times for Marco (Crawford) and his gang of bootleggers is over--as cheaper and MUCH better booze is now available everywhere. So, Marco decides to disband the gang and retire. After a time, he gets bored and decides to re-open his brewery--legitimately this time. The problem is, his beer totally sucks and the only reason folks bought it was because his gang forced them to buy it and better stuff wasn't available. Marco is in trouble--and about to walk into more when he takes a little vacation.

There's been a huge holdup and an unrelated gang is hanging out in the mansion where Marco and his pals are headed for their vacation. To make things worse, one of the gang members ends up killing his partners and hides their bodies all over the place. Add to this a precocious and very annoying kid and you have a recipe for fun...or at least that's the way it was in the original!

The problem with "Stop, You're Killing Me" is that aside from a tiny bit of music and color, the film is just too close to the original and offers nothing new. The only major plus was Margaret Dumont--she was great! Plus, while everyone tries their best, I just couldn't help but think how much more I liked the originals--with not only Robinson but Allen Jenkins, George E. Stone, Eddie Brophy and more! Still, the original script was quite good and even though the film never should have been made, it was still pleasant and entertaining.

After the ban was lifted, a brewer decides to sell the beer legally, but no one wants to buy his rebellious beer, and he doesn't want to force sales. Sorry,

In this remake of A Slight Case Of Murder, Broderick Crawford steps into the shoes of Edward G. Robinson in a remake of the film that had its origins as a Broadway play written by Damon Runyon. It was a flop play on Broadway in the Thirties but a roaring success as a film.

Both Crawford and Robinson in the leads of their respective films got a chance to burlesque the tough guy images both so carefully cultivated. Both looked like they were enjoying themselves on screen.

The film concerns the end of Prohibition and a gangster who made it big in the illegal beer racket now wants to go legitimate and gain some respectability. Crawford and his wife Claire Trevor rent a big country mansion near the Saratoga racetrack and throw a huge party. They want respectability not just for themselves but for daughter Virginia Gibson who is engaged into some upper crust WASP family.

But a robbery of bookies at Saratoga (remember this is set in the 30s before pari-mutual machines so the tracks had bookies to take bets) and the crooks using this 'abandoned' mansion as a hideout interrupt all those plans. Without revealing more all the legal and domestic and financial problems all get nicely resolved as the film concludes in a very funny way.

Other than some really unnecessary musical numbers the film is practically a carbon copy of the original. Stop, You're Killing Me is highly recommended as tonic for the funny bone.