Forty Naughty Girls

Forty Naughty Girls (1937)

* (out of 4)

The sixth and final film in the RKO series has Zasu Pitts returning for her second stint as Hildegarde Withers and of course James Gleason is back as Inspector Piper. This time out Withers and Piper are attending a popular play on Broadway when the press agent is shot dead. The two begin the investigation and learn that he was trying to mess with an actress (Marjorie Lord), which didn't sit well with her boyfriend but there are a few others with a motive to kill the man. FORTY NAUGHTY GIRLS has a horrible reputation and it even managed to get a rare BOMB rating from Leonard Maltin who rarely goes that low on older movies. After viewing the film I don't think it's that bad but at the same time this thing is still a complete disaster that has very little going for it. I think a lot of the blame can be pointed at RKO taking this "B" series and dropping it down to a "D" level. The screenplay, the look of the film and the overall production values are a lot lower than what was seen in earlier movies and I'm going to guess that someone needed to finish off a contract and this film was thrown together to do just that. The screenplay is just a boring mess with one suspect entering the picture every few minutes but the problem is that there's nothing here to make you care who the killer is. I'll admit that something would happen, I'd grow bored and then ten minutes later I couldn't remember what had just happened. Another problem is the performance of Pitts. There's no question she was a talented actress but her talents weren't going to be needed in every type of film and it's clear the producers didn't know how to use her here. As Withers she's not playing a character but instead she's pretty much playing that dumb moron she played in various comedies including her work with Hal Roach. There wasn't a single second where I actually believed she could come up with any clue let alone solve any type of murder. The humor is so forced that you have to wonder why the director or producer didn't cast someone else or at least change the story to better fit her. Gleason is obviously tired of the role as he sleepwalks through the film. The one saving grace is Lord who is good in her few scenes. It's easy to see why this marked the end of the series as there certainly wasn't much room to get worse.

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.

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.

I watch these because the 30's was a period of experimentation with narrative form, from which we invented a few new things. What remains is a Burgess Shale deposit of narrative models that for some reason were left behind. One of the more interesting of these is this model. You've likely seen it a dozen times in detective stories from this era.

A homicide detective just happens to be at a play. A murder occurs, then another as the investigation is underway but the play goes on. Required elements include: a doofus; a prop gun apparently used in a real murder during the play; a space under the stage; love affairs, betrayal and blackmail.

Optional but highly desirable is some reference to authorship; here it is the disclosure that the play we see is purloined, as of course it is. At one point our woman detective looks at the audience and remarks on the play within the play, and the joke is that she does it in the play within the play within the play.

By this time the Hildegard Withers franchise was completely worn out. There's scant humor and what we have are recycled jokes. One example: while investigating in the space under the stage, Zasu hooks her dress on a coat of armor. These always must have been carefully placed on a wheeled platform because they always follow their hapless target around comically.

This would be the last of the Hildegard films. And viewers would soon say goodbye to the play-murder form, designed in part to give us a few songs to fill in for the usually thin plot. But this play, stage, murder business would stick as something to reference instead of use directly. "The Illusionist" used it in the story within the story within the story, (complete with stage basement) in order to fool the respective audiences about a murder.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

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.