Mr. and Mrs. North

Although Gracie Allen outdid herself in the Gracie Allen Murder Case, this film has Gracie solving the mystery in her own inimitable fashion. Her conclusions, as only she can reach them.

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 can but conclude that complaints that Pam North is more Gracie Allen than the Lockridge character, were not originated by fans of the long-running radio show in which zany Pam, played so strongly by the delightful Alice Frost, over rode any interference by husband Jerry, admirably portrayed as good-natured and long suffering by Joseph Curtin, and the NYPD to solve the weekly murder(s) Mr. and Mrs. North encountered regularly. Today such a series would be laughed off the air, but back in the '40's and early '50's everyone turned on their radio to see if they could beat Pam to the solution of the crime.

Compared to the colorful and humorous radio show, the subsequent TV adaption with Barbara Britton and Richard Denning was OK, but not nearly as much fun.

If you don't take the Lockridge characters too seriously, you'll love Gracie Allen and William Post Jr. in this 1942 adaptation of a Broadway play.

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.

I recall, as a young lad, listening to Mr. & Mrs. North on the radio. The show was, basically, a clone of "The Thin Man" with the North's engaging in amusing banter and solving murders a la Nick & Nora (but with no Asta). However, when MGM decided to make a motion picture about the North's, they went for the broad laughs by casting Gracie Allen as Pam North. This obvious miscasting simply did not work.

Gracie Allen was an attractive woman who, for many years, played a lovable, scatterbrained character on Radio, Television, and in a few movies. She did this to perfection. But, the common denominator in her career was the presence of her husband, the talented and much loved George Burns. Burns was perfect at playing the straight man and comic foil for Gracie and her outrageous ramblings. But, Burns wasn't in this movie and the resulting mediocre effort shows it. Instead of being funny, Gracie was simply annoying and, at times, obnoxious in her role. This movie would have been so much better with a different actress playing the part of Pam North.

From my standpoint, one very pleasant surprise was the casting of Fortunio Bonanova as the North's landlord. He was only in a couple of early scenes but, his presence in any movie is always a treat for me. His rich, Italian accented voice is superb, whether he is speaking or singing.

All in all, this is a decent little comedy-mystery but, it sure could have, and would have been better without Gracie Allen.