A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 15 April 1939, Page 4

A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER

Comedy is the last stand of the screen’s last gangster, Edward G. Robj inson, writes the film critic of “The | Sydney Sunday Sun.” Hedged about by censorship restrictions on gangster melodramas, and forced to notice a changing public taste, Warner Bros, has been at a loss to know what to do with Robinson. By having Robinson play a parody of the underworld characters and activities that made him famous, the studio solves its problem with complete ! success. ! Burlesque of America’s gangdom has been dealt with casually in earlier films, but never with so keen a sense of ridicule. \ Robinson kicks off with a speedy, dashing comedy performance. A star who knows thoroughly the business of acting, he turns from yellow Press editors and gangsters to playing a comic bdotlegger. He is exceptionally versatile. Adept forwards are Allen Jenkins, j Edward Brophy and Harold Huber, I “stand-over” men of their employer’s

bootlegging dayfe. Deftly, they pass the ball of comedy to enable the star player to score many a touch-down over the laughter line. Funniest part of the story is the matter of four murdered bodies the gang- j ster finds in his country home. His lieu-j tenants, laughing at the fun, plan lo; leave the bodies on the doorsteps of acquaintances whopt, they dislike. The female interest is ably taken care of by Ruth Donnelly and Jane Bryan, and the story was conceived from the comedy stage success by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay. H- * •¥• * Fifty different knots ranging from simple "square hitches” to complicated “butterfly knots” were painstakingly learned by Freddie Bartholomew and Mickey Rooney, playing nautical students in "The Boy from Barnardos,” drama of the training of boys for the British merchant marine. “Shorty,” English sailor before the mast in the Mechant Marine for nearly a halfcentury, acted as instructor to the boys and others figuring in the rope-tying lessons.