Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

The script lags at times but it is full of fun lines. Despite its flaws there are a quite a few laugh out loud moments - mostly thanks to the cast.

It is an all star cast full of some comedic talents as well as some very lovely ingenues. James Whitmore is a fine actor but I don't think he was a master of comedy.

The real shame is Ann Dvorak isn't givem much to do. She was a fun comedienne at the height of her talent at this point.

If you enjoy silly old fashioned fun and quirky characters I think you will enjoy this. If you ignore some of the script's flaws you can enjoy this as an undiscovered jewel.

MARJORIE MAIN and JAMES WHITMORE are the title characters in this comedy/mystery from Craig Rice that moves along at a brisk pace and gives both leads a fun time solving a crime.

The audience may not have as much fun, depending on how witty you may or may not think the proceedings are because the accent is on the comedy angle and many of the one-liners aren't loaded with enough ammunition. Fans of Marjorie Main will probably be delighted with her brass characterization but Whitmore gets a little tiresome in his over-confident manner, never at a loss for a flippant remark.

For what really is an MGM B-picture, the cast isn't bad at all. We have PHYLLIS KIRK, ANN DVORAK, DOUGLAS FOWLEY, FRED CLARK and DON PORTER rounding out a good supporting cast, although Kirk has only a brief role at the beginning. All of them handle the mystery/comedy material with professional ease in a story that has Main and Whitmore discovering two dead bodies while a train is enroute from Montana to New York and trying to solve the murder while eluding the efforts of detective Clark to get to the bottom of the matter. Much of the humor depends on their struggle to get a dead body back and forth into different compartments.

It's a breezy sort of B-film that passes the time pleasantly, nothing more, and at a brief running time of one hour and nine minutes probably played the lower half of double bills in '50.

Trivia note: The scene where Marjorie Main sings with a band is painfully funny (with the pain outdoing the laughter). Not for every taste.

The original story that inspired this film -- "Loco Motive" -- was a collaboration between Craig Rice and Stuart Palmer, featuring her alcoholic Chicago lawyer detective, John J. Malone, and his New York old-maid schoolteacher sleuth, Hildegarde Withers; it was the first of several stories (collected as "The People vs, Withers and Malone") teaming the two, generally in ways calculated to enrage and/or frustrate Malone's Chicago nemesis, Captain von Flanagan or Hildie's long-suffering New York Homicide detective, Inspector Oscar Piper.

Presumably because of rights issues -- money, perhaps, though this could have been during the time that Palmer (due to a divorce settlement) was intentionally making as little money as possible -- The Miss Withers part was rewritten to eliminate her.

It wasn't till some time later that an attempt was made to bring Hildie to the screen on TV, embodied in the formidable person of Eve Arden.

Other than disappointing fans of Miss Withers or of the original story in and of itself, this is a decent enough film of it.

Thanks to the recommendation of critic/friend I caught this obscure gem on Showtime in the mid-1980s and have cherished my tape ever since. Boisterous Marjorie Main and blustery James Whitmore are as inspired a detective-team mismatch ever to grace the screen. Set in a cross-country sleeping-car train ride, "Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone" is blessed with expert direction, a crackling script (based on a story by the wondrous Craig Rice, whose novel "Home Sweet Homicide" was the basis of another classic comedy/thriller), MGM's high-gloss production values, and, besides the endearing leads, a first-rate supporting cast (the luminous Ann Dvorak, lovely Phyllis Kirk, etc.) A swift, alternately hilarious and genuinely suspenseful 69 minutes, this forgotten treasure was intended to be the first of a series. A pity that no sequels were ever made. But TCM occasionally shows this gem, and don't miss it. And, amidst the laughter and chills, just try and guess whodunnit!

Marjorie Main and James Whitmore are Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone in this delightful 1950 comedy that was probably a second feature. I wish some main features were as good.

Let me get this out of the way first. George Carlin, before he became what he was most known for - political comedy, black comedy, etc. - was just a regular comic. He once referred to Marjorie Main as "that saucy little Italian tart." I can't hear her name or see her without remembering that.

Onto our story. Mrs. O'Malley lives in a Podunk town and wins $50,000 on a radio show. She has to take a train to New York in order to pick up her prize. Meanwhile, a womanizing, money-hungry attorney, Malone, is after a paroled embezzler who owes him $10,000. The man, Kepplar, was in prison for a robbery, but the money was never found. Malone is sure Kepplar has the money on him.

Kepplar jumps parole by boarding the same train on which Mrs. O'Malley is traveling. Malone jumps on as well, in hot pursuit. He's not alone in searching for Kepplar. It's a merry band: his ex-wife (Ann Dvorak) and a police inspector Tim Marino (Fred Clark).

Kepplar is murdered, and the murderer is trying to set Malone up to take the fall. With the help of Mrs. O'Malley in the berth next to his, the two of them start moving Kepplar around, all along trying to catch the killer.

Whitmore and Main are fabulous together, and Whitmore's comic timing is excellent. The dialogue is snappy and funny, and the slapstick is great. Fred Clark's serious and frustrated demeanor makes his scenes even funnier.

Phyllis Kirk is Malone's pretty secretary. Ann Dvorak, as Kepplar's ex-wife, is marvelous in a light role. This is a late-ish part for her she was most prolific in the '30s and '40s. It's a shame she didn't stay in films, but she would retire the next year.

This should have been followed up with more films featuring O'Malley and Malone. A shame it didn't.

If you spot this on TCM, don't miss it.