Withers with a Glance

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we'd gotten a bunch of DVDs from Movies Unlimited. Another part of our haul is the Hildegarde Withers Mystery Collection. A long time ago, when I was taping (VHS) any old movie from cable, I saw Penguin Pool Murder (1932), and I got real excited when I saw this collection of all six in the series in the catalog. 

Miss Withers is Depression-era New York school teacher, spinster, and amateur sleuth from a mystery series by Stuart Palmer. Her Lestrade is Inspector Oscar Piper, a grumpy, cigar-chewing bachelor and homicide detective.  

Penguin Pool Murders is probably the best, because it includes Miss Withers' school kids. She is played by Edna May Oliver in this and the next two movies. She is taking her class to the New York Aquarium, where they discover a freshly murdered corpse in the penguin pool. Part of the reason I like this is that it shows Miss Withers with her kids, including adorable black and Jewish stereotypes. Anyway, the mystery involves a crooked stock broker (at the start of the Depression), his cheating wife, the boyfriend, a friendly shyster, and a mute purse thief called Chicago Lew.

Oliver plays Withers perfectly. She has necessary plain horse face and the astringent manner necessary to banter with Inspector Piper. Piper is played here, and in all six, by James Gleason (Max Corkle in Here Comes Mr. Jordan). Piper is a short, balding, cigar chewing guy in a bowler hat, so he fits perfectly. The best part is his relationship with Miss Withers. She is a snoop, of course, and loves to solve mysteries - and she lets the Piper know when she thinks the police aren't up to the job. He, of course, resents her interfering in official matters, but doesn't dismiss her help. He's known to say, "That ain't a bad idea, at that," to some of her suggestions. Although he does slip up and say "I solved," when he means, "We".

He even proposes marriage in the last scene, and we see them rushing off the marriage bureau. This is ignored in the next movie, but handled in the books. On the way to get the license, Piper got called into a crime scene, and they just sort of dropped the idea. They are both secretly happy - too set in their ways to change now.

The next two movies are set in Miss Withers' school and Catalina Island. For the fourth, we lose Oliver, and Helen Broderick takes over as Withers. She's a little softer, and even a bit more romantic than Oliver. The final two use ZaSu Pitts, who is a bit more comical, almost dizzy. Neither make a great Hildegarde Withers, but are great to watch anyway.

The movies all have some snappy back and forth between Oscar and Hildegarde, mostly right out of the books (which I also love). The rest of the characters are so typical of the Thirties RKO movies: clever and naive cuties, shady boyfriends, shysters with skinny mustaches, and colorful petty crooks. There's even a couple of cameos for Willie Best, credited as "Sleep 'n' Eat" in one case.

If you like this kind of thing, I'm going to recommend that you dig up the books or the movies and enjiy.