Murder, He Says

Fred MacMurray gives his funniest performance as a pollster who gets tangled up in the plots of maniacal hayseeds in search of stolen money.

The plot is beyond description with so many twists and turns it keeps you guessing. The pacing is brisk and the film is filled with slapstick, in-jokes, puns, and references to other films. This is a very modern, very black comedy, and it's totally hilarious.

MacMurray was always a smooth comedy leading man but here he's outright funny and loose. Helen Walker is also very good as one of the Bonnies. Marjorie Main is hysterical as she prowls around with her whip. Peter Whitney is excellent as the twins. Jean Heather has her best role. Porter Hall is always a treat. And Mabel Paige positively GLOWS as Grandma.

A must see film! And remember: honors flysis, income beezis!!

I'm 52, and, along with my younger sister and brother, saw this movie, when I was a kid. It remains one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and I've seen an awful lot of movies. After seeing it the first time, and literally screaming and crying with laughter at much of it, my siblings and I would search the TV Guide as soon as the magazine arrived at our house hoping to find Murder He Says among the listings for the coming week. Once or twice a year, we would be beside ourselves with glee to find it. It was an absolute treat for us.

Many of its scenes are indelibly etched in my memory: Fred MacMurray with Grandma; the scene at the large, lazy-susan dinner table, with everyone trying to move the table one way or another to get the poisoned food away from them; the scenes in the basement toward the end of the movie, and, especially, the scene when Fred MacMurray is caught in the basement coal bin by Bonnie Fleagle (unquestionably, one of the funniest scenes in movie history.

It's a movie that is both frightening and extremely funny. Directed by George Marshall, who also directed several other favorites of mine: Destry Rides Again (Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich; a 1939 classic); Fancy Pants (Bob Hope) and The Mating Game (Tony Randall, Debbie Reynolds).

Yes, it's improbable and, I'll grant you, silly. It is also, IMHO (in my humble opinion) a great movie. Yes, great...so there!!

I've seen Murder He Says many times and it's a pretty funny film. Fred MacMurray had never done that kind of belly laugh comedy before and I'm sure that Walt Disney must have screened this film and that he was certainly capable of it when he made him Disney's number one male star starting with The Shaggy Dog.

But every time I watch it, I keep thinking this was a property developed for Bob Hope. All of the mixed up adventures with this rube Fliegle family are pure Hope. Imagine Hope instead of Fred MacMurray in the lead and I'm sure you'll agree with me.

My guess is that Hope was busy entertaining the troops and Paramount had this thing ready to go and prevailed upon another of their contract players to step in.

As a pinch hitter though, Fred MacMurray batted in a big old home run with this one.

By the way that tune that is the key to where the buried treasure is will be rattling around in your brain for weeks.

"Murder, He Says," is a comedy from 1945 starring Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main, and Porter Hall.

MacMurray plays Pete Marshall, a pollster who goes looking for another employee who disappeared. He soon finds himself at the mercy of a bunch of inbreds who are looking for money hidden by a relative, Bonnie Fleagle, who is in prison. The matriarch, Ma (Marjorie Main) walks around with a whip to keep everybody in line. Everybody includes twin brothers, Mert and Bert, one of whom has a crick in his neck. This leads to a funny scene later.

Pete can't seem to get away from them, and they make him pretend he's Bonnie's boyfriend, hoping that grandma, whom Ma poisoned with something that makes her glow in the dark, knows where the money is.

Grandma gives Pete a sampler with a song on it, and something to quote for Bonnie. Meanwhile, another relative, Elany, seems to know the song, but the words she sings are nonsensical.

Things become more complicated when Bonnie (Helen Walker) escapes from prison and shows up. Except she's not Bonnie. Her father was accused of helping Bonnie Fleagle steal $70,000, and she wants to find it to clear his name. Pete is all for hightailing it out of there, but she wants to stay and find the loot. Everyone knuckles under to her until the real Bonnie (Barbara Pepper) shows up.

I perhaps wasn't in the mood for this comedy, but it was very funny anyway, if a little long. The scene at the dinner table is hilarious. I just don't understand how this glow in the dark stuff was supposed to work.

Anyway, the house is filled with hidden passages that everyone disappears in and appears from.

Fred MacMurray was perfect for this, a normal guy caught up in complete insanity. Helen Walker, whose career would suffer so badly later on, is terrific. Marjorie Main - off the wall with that whip. Brilliant.

The denouement is clever and a riot.

Helen Walker gave a ride to three soldiers on New Year's Eve 1946, and had a terrible accident where one soldier was killed and the other two injured. The surviving soldiers accused her of driving drunk and speeding, and she was put on trial. She was cleared, but her career was basically over. She died at 47.

In this film, she's on the verge of stardom and after "Murder, He Says," she was cast as the lead in a big film, "Heaven Only Knows," but the producers replaced her.

She's very good here -- if you get a chance to catch this film on TCM, don't miss it.

So silly that's it's actually hilarious. Holds it's own thru the years. Fred McMurray is totally incredulous thru it all and Helen Walker is his beautiful counterpart. The mystery is good. And of course the topping on the cake is Marjorie Main with that whip! BTW Let's not forget Peter Whitney playing both twins. Super job. The whole cast deserves a good round of applause.