Classic Films in Focus: MURDER, HE SAYS (1945)

Fred MacMurray and Marjorie Main most famously appear together in the 1947 comedy classic, The Egg and I, but Murder, He Says (1945) offers an earlier pairing that pits the two against one another as hapless city slicker and unscrupulous backwoods crook. This comic mystery from director George Marshall bursts with physical comedy, sight gags, and cartoon peril that even the youngest viewers can appreciate; I first saw Murder, He Says many decades ago, and the memory of its loony fun has stayed with me ever since. MacMurray and Main are the chief attractions in this homicidal hoot, but the supporting cast features entertaining, offbeat performances from Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Peter Whitney, Barbara Pepper, and Helen Walker as MacMurray's attractive ally.

The story opens with locals concerned about the lawless Fleagle gang just as professional pollster Pete Marshall (MacMurray) arrives in town looking for his missing coworker. Pete soon discovers that his predecessor had a fateful encounter with the Fleagles, who also take Pete prisoner with the intention of murdering him. The Fleagle matriarch, Mamie (Marjorie Main), spares Pete so she can use him to get dying Grandma Fleagle (Mabel Paige) to reveal the location of a fortune in stolen cash, but Pete only acquires a confusing clue before the old lady expires. Everyone in the house rushes to find the loot while thwarting or betraying the others, but the confusion increases when two different women claiming to be Bonnie Fleagle turn up and demand the money.

The Fleagles are as nutty and sinister a gang as any madcap comedy could invent, but their wackiness overpowers their ability to terrorize. Main leads the pack as bad-tempered but duplicitous Mamie, alternating between imitations of human tenderness and cracks of her much-used whip. The role lets Main cut loose with an extreme version of her usual character type; Mamie is a rough matriarch with no heart of gold to redeem her brusque manner. Mamie's current husband, a mild-looking little man named Mr. Johnson, is played by comedy stalwart Porter Hall with sly amiability and amoral intentions. Peter Whitney does double duty as identical twins Bert and Mert, a hilarious gag that the picture fully commits to in repeated scenes that frequently have Whitney acting against himself. Of the other family members, Grandma and the real Bonnie (Barbara Pepper) make brief but memorable appearances, while Jean Heather gets a sympathetic but rather tragic role as Mamie's daughter, Elany, a pretty sort of Ophelia figure whose main job is to sing the nonsense song wherein the clue to the stolen cash is hidden. Together they're a lot to keep track of as the rapid action unfolds, especially in a house full of trap doors, secret passages, and even radioactive poison. Each character, though, is played with enough energy and comedy to be memorable, even if nobody can tell Bert and Mert apart.

MacMurray and Helen Walker play the sane characters in the midst of this mayhem, but their roles also have great comedy moments. Walker's tough act in her first scene gives way to her development as the hero's love interest and partner against the Fleagles, but she gamely keeps up the deception for much of the movie. While he starred in dramas and serious films like Double Indemnity (1944), MacMurray is also widely celebrated as a comedy lead in pictures like The Egg and I (1947), The Shaggy Dog (1959), and The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). Murder, He Says belongs very much to the second set, despite its title, which recalls a song written for the 1943 film, Happy Go Lucky, and predates the arrival of the Miss Marple comedy, Murder She Said, in 1961. As the unlucky but quick-thinking Pete, MacMurray is constantly on the move, falling into traps, climbing out windows, and always trying to stay one step ahead of the violent but incompetent Mert and Bert. His scenes with the imaginary ghost are especially fun and will remind viewers of Harvey (1950), which might well be intentional as the original stage version had appeared in 1944.

For more of Marjorie Main's comic roles, see The Women (1939), Heaven Can Wait (1943), and The Harvey Girls (1946). George Marshall's other comedy films include The Ghost Breakers (1940), Hold That Blonde! (1945), and Scared Stiff (1953). Look for Helen Walker in Brewster's Millions (1945), Cluny Brown (1946), and Call Northside 777 (1948). Jean Heather appears in supporting roles in Double Indemnity and Going My Way (1944), but her film career was cut short by a 1947 car accident that damaged her face. If the clue tune in Murder, He Says sounds weirdly familiar, you probably listen to NPR's All Things Considered, which features an identical song as its theme music.

You can find Murder, He Says on DVD or stream it on The Criterion Channel (as part of the December 2022 Screwball Comedy lineup).

CMBA Blogathon: THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946)

The theme for this year's CMBA Blogathon is "Planes, Trains, & Automobiles," which makes the 1946 musical, The Harvey Girls, an obvious choice. The movie won an Oscar for its train themed song, "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe," and it depicts, in a fictionalized and colorful way, the importance of the train in bringing women to the American West. Adapted from a novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Harvey Girls stars Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, and Virginia O'Brien as three young women who head West on the train to find new opportunities and romance. While it's not a perfect picture, this is a fun, lively musical that tells an often unknown story about women's part in settling the frontier, made even more entertaining by the presence of outstanding actors like Angela Lansbury, Marjorie Main, Ray Bolger, and John Hodiak.

The Harvey Girls were real people; these young women went West to staff the Harvey Houses that sprang up along the railroad lines in the late 19th century. Fred Harvey recruited young women with good backgrounds and civilized manners to work in his establishments, where train passengers found a short rest and a good meal during their stops. For women of that time, there were few respectable job opportunities out West, but the Harvey Houses provided good wages along with room and board. The crisp uniforms and cheerful manners of the Harvey Girls brought a wholesome, civilized femininity to rough country, and their presence helped to tame wild frontier towns. One notable Harvey House location was the Grand Canyon, where the Fred Harvey Company provided concessions and visitor services until 1968. Today, the El Tovar Hotel at the South Rim includes a display honoring the Harvey Girls and the 1946 film tribute to their legacy. Becoming a Harvey Girl changed the lives of many women who yearned for independence and adventure. Over 100,000 young women took the opportunity that the Harvey Houses offered, and you can learn more about their stories by watching the trailer for the 2013 documentary film, The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound.

In the movie, Judy Garland's character, Susan, doesn't set out to be a Harvey Girl at all. She responds to a call for a mail-order bride, but when she meets the intended groom (Chill Wills) she jumps at the chance to become a Harvey Girl like the other young women on her train. Marjorie Main plays a funny but effective chaperone and manager for the young ladies in her charge, while Cyd Charisse and Virginia O'Brien appear as two Harvey Girls who befriend Susan. The girls encounter a different type of Western womanhood in Angela Lansbury's saloon singer, Em, who doesn't appreciate the competition or the straitlaced morality of the new arrivals. Susan attracts the interest of the bar's owner, Ned Trent (John Hodiak), while Virginia O'Brien's character, Alma, engages in an awkward but entertaining romance with Chris (Ray Bolger). Sadly, O'Brien disappears from the movie in the third act, thanks to shooting delays that made her pregnancy impossible to hide, but she does get in a particularly funny performance with the song, "The Wild, Wild West."

If The Harvey Girls romanticizes the real experiences of the women who staffed the restaurants on the Santa Fe lines, it also depicts women as individuals who went West for many reasons, and not just as daughters, wives, or prostitutes. Women's Westerns have been few and far between in Hollywood history, but when they do come along they reveal fascinating hints at stories that have largely been left untold. As a musical comedy, The Harvey Girls is lighter and sweeter than Westward the Women (1951) or cattle queen dramas like The Furies (1950) and Johnny Guitar (1954), but it does a great job leaving the viewer wanting to know more about the real women who took that chance for a new life out West. Trains made Harvey Houses necessary, and Harvey Houses made a place for young women to earn a living and lead independent lives. That's a theme worth singing about!

You can find a full-length review of The Harvey Girls in my book, Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching, available on Kindle at Amazon.com. For more about The Harvey Girls, try the 1994 book by Lesley Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West.

My Grandmother and Marjorie Main

In order to explain my deep and abiding affection for character actress Marjorie Main, I have to begin with my grandmother. Her name was Maudie Mae, and she was a big-boned country woman, born and raised in rural Alabama in the early part of the 20th century. She had a 7th grade education and an old-time preacher for a husband, and she was the youngest of 18 children of another preacher, a stony-faced man who held two Bibles when his photograph was taken.

Mamaw (in the hat) with her sisters at a family reunion.

Maudie, whom we called "Mamaw," loved loud outfits, musk perfume, and people of all kinds. She smelled like biscuits, which she turned out by the thousands in all the kitchens she called home. She erupted in a great whoop whenever she was surprised, and I'm pretty sure she told her entire life story to every K-Mart cashier and grocery clerk she ever met. She had a funny tendency toward malapropism and always referred to cheese as "cheeses." She wrapped up leftover rolls in restaurants and carried them home in her purse. She was rough around the edges and garrulous and fussy, and I loved her very much.

Watching Marjorie Main reminds me of Maudie Mae, sometimes so forcefully that I find myself in tears, even though my grandmother died more than 20 years ago. Main excelled at playing the kind of character my grandmother was in real life, and the actress does it so well that she always makes us love her for all her faults and hard edges. Like Maudie, Main was a preacher's daughter. Both would die of cancer, although Main had the longer life of the two. There are differences, of course. Main was well educated and never had any children, even though she played so many motherly types on film.

Ma Kettle is the role that came to define Main's career; she played the character in ten movies, from The Egg and I (1947) to The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957). It's that Ma Kettle image that most strongly resembles my grandmother, always in turmoil but truly big-hearted, holding the family together with grits, glue, and gumption. Main inhabits similar types in many of her other films; she's a rough maternal force that we can't help but love, even if her antics sometimes embarrass her offspring. You'll find her playing the same type in Heaven Can Wait (1943) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).

If you want to appreciate Marjorie Main, here are 10 films in which she appears. Whether you've had a Mamaw in your life or not, Main is one of those actresses you'll be glad to see again and again, and she turns up in some very interesting places.

1) Stella Dallas (1937) - Main plays the mother of Barbara Stanwyck's working-class heroine in this film destined to wring tears from every tender-hearted viewer who has ever wept at Dumbo.

2) The Women (1939) - In this all-female drama, Main appears as the proprietor of a divorce ranch in Reno, making her the mother hen to a coterie of unhappy heroines, including Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, and Rosalind Russell.

3) A Woman's Face (1941) - Main is almost unrecognizable as the white-haired, sour-faced housekeeper in this Joan Crawford melodrama. If you want to see a different side of the actress, this is the movie to watch.

4) Heaven Can Wait (1943) - Who would believe Eugene Pallette and Marjorie Main as the parents of a heroine as lovely as Gene Tierney? The two revel in a comic goldmine during their scenes, especially during a heated argument over the possession of the funny papers.

5) Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - Even though she's technically the family's maid, Main still exudes crusty maternal devotion to the Smith clan, watching over Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, and the rest of the household.

6) The Harvey Girls (1946) - Once again appearing with Judy Garland, Main provides maternal guidance for a group of young ladies hired to tend a Harvey House, including Garland, Cyd Charisse, and Virginia O'Brien.

7) The Egg and I (1947) - In her first appearance as Ma Kettle, Main steals the picture from Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, with some help from Percy Kilbride as the shiftless Pa.

8) Ma and Pa Kettle (1949) - Main and Kilbride begin their series of stand-alone Kettle films with this picture, in which Pa wins the grand prize for inventing a new tobacco slogan. Their 15 children make sure that the chaos never lets up. I'm pretty sure that my grandmother would have found this movie hilarious, and it's certainly a favorite with my father, her youngest son.

9) Summer Stock (1950) - Here's a third pairing of Main with Garland, this time with Main as the housekeeper to Garland's beleaguered heroine. Gene Kelly also stars.

10) The Long, Long Trailer (1953) - Main has a brief but memorable role in this comedy with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

This post is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, Maudie Garlen, who was born in 1912 and died, too soon, in 1992. She was a great character, a good woman, and a glorious cook. The secrets of her butter roll have never been unraveled, and her chocolate pie has yet no equal. I will miss her for the rest of my life.

Classic Films in Focus: SUMMER STOCK (1950)

Directed by Charles Walters, Summer Stock (1950) is the third and final pairing of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, two of the greatest musical performers of all time. Many classic movie fans regard it as the best of their pictures together, not only because of their own performances and songs but also because of the first-rate cast in the supporting roles, including Marjorie Main, Eddie Bracken, Phil Silvers, and Ray Collins. Although the story is just another variant of the “let’s put on a show” plot, the comedy and musical numbers make Summer Stock worth watching, especially for fans of the hilarious Phil Silvers.

Struggling farmer Jane Falbury (Garland) isn’t pleased when her spoiled younger sister, Abigail (Gloria DeHaven), returns home with a company of actors in tow, but Jane agrees to let the group stage their production in the barn in exchange for their help around the farm. Jane’s fiancé, Orville (Eddie Bracken), is even less happy about the arrangement, especially because the leader of the group is handsome Joe Ross (Kelly). Despite Jane’s engagement and Joe’s relationship with Abigail, romantic sparks fly as the two get to know one another and work together to accomplish their goals.

Garland’s problems at the time of the production have been thoroughly canvassed by film historians and those who knew her, but the strain that caused her to leave work on Annie Get Your Gun (1950) isn’t visible on screen. She looks heavier, certainly, but the more solid figure works to the advantage of her character, a working farmer, and her opening and closing numbers burst with that iconic Garland power. “Get Happy,” which serves as the film’s finale, doesn’t really fit into the rest of the movie but is such a great performance that nobody really cares. Kelly demonstrates his usual charm and prowess, and his solo dance number in the barn proves one of the high points of the picture.

While the leads stay busy doing the romance thing, the supporting players create comic chaos, and any one of the comedians featured could steal a film right out from under the stars’ perfectly shaped noses. Eddie Bracken blusters, blunders, and sneezes as Jane’s flustered fiancé, and Marjorie Main serves up a hearty helping of her usual “Ma Kettle” character. Phil Silvers, however, gets all the best laughs with his antics and constant stream of jokes. His first number with Kelly, “Dig-Dig-Dig Dig for Your Dinner” is funny enough, but the show stopper is “Heavenly Music,” which features Kelly and Silvers dressed as hillbillies, complete with giant rubber feet and a chorus of barking dogs.

See more of Kelly and Garland together in For Me and My Gal (1942) and The Pirate (1948). Kelly, of course, is best known for Singin’ in the Rain (1952), while Garland is celebrated for The Wizard of Oz (1939). You’ll find Garland and Marjorie Main together in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and The Harvey Girls (1946), but Main also makes memorable appearances in The Women (1939) and Heaven Can Wait (1943). Eddie Bracken stars in the Preston Sturges comedies The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944) and Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Catch Phil Silvers in Cover Girl (1944) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). Director Charles Walters also helmed Easter Parade (1948), High Society (1956), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964).

This review was originally posted on Examiner.com. The author retains all rights to this content.

For more about Judy Garland, read "10 classic movies starring Judy Garland" on Examiner.com.