Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone (1950)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Norman Taurog

Writers:

William Bowers (writer)
Stuart Palmer (story)

Release Date:

8 December 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery

Tagline:

MGM's NEW SCREAM TEAM... (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

"Murder-on-the-train" mystery has lawyer Malone chasing his paroled embezzler client (Kepplar) who still hasn't paid Malone's fee...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Railway | Character Name In Title

Cast

Marjorie Main	...	Harriet 'Hattie' O'Malley
James Whitmore	...	John J. Malone
Ann Dvorak	...	Connie Kepplar
Phyllis Kirk	...	Kay, Malone's Secretary
Fred Clark	...	Inspector Tim Marino
Dorothy Malone	...	Lola Gillway
Clinton Sundberg	...	Donald, Steve's bookie
Douglas Fowley	...	Steve Kepplar
Willard Waterman	...	Mr. Ogle, Compartment 208-A
Don Porter	...	Myron Brynk
Jack Bailey	...	The Game Show Host
Nancy Saunders	...	Joanie, Hattie's Niece
Basil Tellou	...	The Greek Passenger, with beard
James Burke	...	The Train Conductor

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #14730)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Intended as the first of a planned film series with stars Main and Whitmore.

Would Have Been Better with Miss Withers As Originally Written.

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.