Move Review: The Penguin Pool Murder (1932)

Synopsis: While taking her students on a field trip to a New York City aquarium, teacher Hildegarde Withers ends up helping police investigate the murder of a wealthy stockbroker who is found dead in the penguin pool after getting into a physical confrontation with his wife's ex-boyfriend.

Who's in it? The movie stars Edna May Oliver, Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, Mae Clarke and Donald Cook.


Review: After watching Murder on the Blackboard earlier this week, I found I enjoyed watching Miss Withers (Oliver) so much, I wanted to see the movie that preceded it. I was fortunately able to add it to my library and watch it last night.

As was the case with the other movie, I found I enjoyed watching Miss Withers piece together the clues in this mystery. She had such a good combination of brains and comedic wit, it was just fun watching her. I especially love how she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, whether it was criticism of Inspector Piper's (Gleason) police work or admonishing a random woman for wearing too much makeup.

The mystery itself was interesting because there were a number of possible suspects with both motive and opportunity. This included the banker's wife (Clarke), who was trying to leave him, her ex-boyfriend (Cook), who dragged the victim into the pool after knocking him unconscious and the head of the aquarium, who had financial dealings with the victim. 

Even Withers herself was considered a suspect because of how the victim was murdered and the movie even attempted to at least create the possibility she had the murder weapon on her. In fact, had I not known about the sequel, I'm not convinced I wouldn't have considered her a legitimate suspect who was just helping the police to cover her trail.

While the mystery was fairly simple and fast-paced, with no real twists and turns, I did find it wasn't quite as predictable as other murder mysteries might be. I was able to guess at who the killer was, for example, but wasn't 100 percent sure of that person's murder until the very end and, even then, was kind of surprised at how the movie did end.

Final Opinion: This is a fast paced and clever classic murder mystery with a fun protagonist. If you have the opportunity to watch it, I would recommend it.

My Grade: A

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kwik Trip Kitchen Cravings Tailgater Pizza

Image
  When my wife and I decided on pizza for dinner last night, I stopped at Kwik Trip with the intention of just buying a cheap, frozen, cheese pizza for our daughters since we already had another pizza in our freezer. However, as I was walking up to the checkout counter, this particular pizza caught my eye and, even though I wasn't crazy about spending $8.99 when I already had another option at home, I was intrigued enough to make the purchase anyway. We ended up making the pizza in the oven when I got home. After trying it, I have to say it is one of my favorites. One of the things, in particular, that really stood out for me when it came to this pizza was the toppings. The combination of sausage and cheese curds was both unique and delicious, especially since the curds were fresh enough to still squeak when we were eating them. The pizza also proved to be surprisingly filling, both because of the thicker crust and the generous amounts of toppings and cheese.  Normally, when ...
Read more

Movie Review: Damsel (2024)

Image
Synopsis: Elodie, the oldest daughter of Lord Bayford, reluctantly agrees to an arranged marriage with Prince Henry in the far-off land of Aurea because her bride price will provide much-needed relief to the starving residents of her homeland. When they arrive for her wedding, Elodie quickly warms up to the idea after seeing Aurea's beauty and even falling in love with Henry. However, soon after the wedding, she discovers it has all been a farce and she instead is thrown into a cave as a peace offering for the dragon living inside. Who's in it? The movie stars  Millie Bobby Brown ,  Ray Winstone ,  Angela Bassett ,  Robin Wright  and  Nick Robinson Review: My wife and I decided to watch a movie late yesterday evening and after striking out on horror films lately, ended up changing things up a bit with the fantasy adventure, Damsel . My wife thought it looked good from the trailer and I enjoyed Millie Bobby Brown in the Enola Holmes movies, so we had cau...
Read more

Movie Review: Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie (2023)

Image
Synopsis: Despite showing improvement after solving his wife, Trudy's murder, the pandemic caused Adrian Monk to regress, and he now plans on killing himself after Trudy's daughter, Molly, is married. However, a day before the wedding, Molly's fiancé, Griffin is killed while bungee jumping. While a coroner's inquiry determined it was an accident, Molly believes Griffin was killed by Rick Eden, a billionaire and wannabe astronaut Griffin was about to expose for murder. Even though he isn't convinced by Molly's theory, he delays his suicide so he can investigate and bring her closure. Who's in it? The movie stars Tony Shalhoub , Traylor Howard , Ted Levine , James Purefoy and Caitlin McGee. Review: I used to be a huge fan of the television series Monk and still occasionally watch reruns when I can't find anything else on TV. So, when I heard there was going to be a movie based on the series, I was intrigued albeit a bit skeptical. I finally had a chan...
Read more