Murder, He Says (1945)

A pollster stumbles on a family of murderous hillbillies, and joins in their search for hidden treasure.

Director:

George Marshall

Writers:

Lou Breslow (screen play), Jack Moffitt (story)

Stars:

Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Fred MacMurray	...	Pete Marshall
Helen Walker	...	Claire Matthews
Marjorie Main	...	Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
Jean Heather	...	Elany Fleagle
Porter Hall	...	Mr. Johnson
Peter Whitney	...	Mert Fleagle / Bert Fleagle
Mabel Paige	...	Grandma Fleagle
Barbara Pepper	...	Bonnie Fleagle

Storyline

Trotter pollster Pete Marshall is trying to find a missing coworker. In a rural town he stumbles onto the roughian Fleagle family. Bert and Mert would just as soon "splatter" snoopers with their rifles. However, Ma Johnson focuses the family energies on finding cousin Bonnie Fleagle's $70,000 bank job stash, somewhere around the large old rickety house. Claire Matthews, the daughter of a man implicated in Bonnie's bank job, also comes in search of the money to try and clear her father's name. Marshall and Matthews team up to try and decode Grandma Fleagle's strange deathbed clue but with Mr. Johnson attempting to poison people and Bonnie Fleagle showing up herself after a prison escape, it's anybody's guess as to who will find the money first.

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick | embezzler | treasure hunt | haystack | hillbilly | 

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Taglines:

NUTTY...as a...FRUIT CAKE! (original poster)

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 June 1945 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ninho da Serpente

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

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Goofs

In Elany's first scene, as she enters her grandmother's room, we see her clutching a leather briefcase. The close-up shot of the briefcase shows an embossed globe on the front, with "Trotter Poll" written above it, and "Hector P. Smedley" written below it, in large letters. As the camera changes from close-up to medium shot, the briefcase still has the globe, but now the lettering is missing.

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Quotes

Pete Marshall: I'm with the Trotter Poll. We're like the Gallop Poll but not as fast.

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Connections

Referenced in Haunted Honeymoon (1986)

User Reviews

Dark and hilarious

This film doesn't get mentioned much, but it is a classic---it manages to be both hilarious and terrifying, and very satisfyingly so. It's a crazy take on the city slicker encountering a clan of inbred backwoods folk. The darkness of the story combined with the frantic pacing and classic farce set-ups really works, and the lack of musical score actually emphasizes the clamminess of the atmosphere.

The goofy and murderous family is of course profoundly dysfunctional (though the term wasn't thought of then), and the classic "old dark house," with its cellars and hidden passages, as almost the sole setting eventually seems like a metaphor for damaged and torturous relationships . Although there are a few disturbing scenes of abuse of a "teched" daughter, somehow within the over-all context of comic hysteria they are appropriate. Much of the film's success is due to MacMurray's impeccable comic timing. There's also great matching of reaction shots for Peter Whitney's turn as twins Mert and Bert.