Quite a list of character players adding sparkle to this screwball mystery set in the West Village on Gay Street nearly three decades before Stonewall, adding irony to the wit of this film. The married Brian Aherne and Loretta Young have just moved in to a Laverne and Shirley like basement apartment (or Ruth and Eileen, the sisters of Columbia's "My Sister Eileen", released the same year as this), and not having their furniture or electricity go out for dinner and find a dead body upon their return.
Having made a name as the replacement Charlie Chan, Sidney Toler is not quite as smart as his Chinese detective, playing the investigator of all the weird things going on. There's also Jeff Donnell as a pal of Young's, Lee Patrick as a flirtatious neighbor, Blanche Yurka as the scaredy cat landlady, Gale Sondergaard as a spooky witness, Donald MacBride and James Burke (two experts on playing dumb cops) and William Wright as Donnell's husband.
Interestingly adapted from novel published the same year, this is pretty fresh and wild, featuring turtles walking with candles on their back, husbands who couldn't cook a roast if their life depended on it, and corpses that somehow move themselves. Aherne and Young are a terrific team, and director Richard Wallace brings them together with a snappy pace that isn't always believable, but still fun. Maybe not a comedy classic, but breezy fun.
Having made a name as the replacement Charlie Chan, Sidney Toler is not quite as smart as his Chinese detective, playing the investigator of all the weird things going on. There's also Jeff Donnell as a pal of Young's, Lee Patrick as a flirtatious neighbor, Blanche Yurka as the scaredy cat landlady, Gale Sondergaard as a spooky witness, Donald MacBride and James Burke (two experts on playing dumb cops) and William Wright as Donnell's husband.
Interestingly adapted from novel published the same year, this is pretty fresh and wild, featuring turtles walking with candles on their back, husbands who couldn't cook a roast if their life depended on it, and corpses that somehow move themselves. Aherne and Young are a terrific team, and director Richard Wallace brings them together with a snappy pace that isn't always believable, but still fun. Maybe not a comedy classic, but breezy fun.