"The Crime Nobody Saw" (1937) with Lew Ayres, Eugene Pallette, Benny Baker, Ruth Coleman, Vivienne Osborne, Robert Emmett O'Connor and others is a "B" trying to remain a "B" and not fall to a "C". The actors do their best to add spontaneity and a few laughs, but the story is forced and padded ad nauseum, though it's not hard to watch, even at all that. In the end, this "B" never rises above that grade, though it dips here and there. Still, my wife and I endured it without any pain - and we finished a glass of wine at the same time. The wine, from Coatia, was a "B" wine trying to get to A-, and, yes, it made it!
Three playwrights are trying to fulfil a contract they've entered with a producer, trying to create a murder mystery that'll keep the producer happy. Trouble is, they need to have a draft ready tomorrow! The ensuing trouble that comes about in the apartment they're in at the moment where they're trying to come up with an idea...well, as you might figure out without me even going on, the trouble ends up being perfect for the plot. And, of course, there's a girl in the mix. She doesn't have much to do. In fact, I've never heard of Ruth Coleman before. She made 6 films in the year this film was made, 2 the next year, and that was it. The IMDb doesn't even have birth or death dates listed for her. I will mention Colin Tapley who's in the show and plays a large part. I've been watching the Danziger Brothers' early TV show "Mark Saber" (1954-1958) lately, and Tapley plays a major part, a head of Scotland Yard, so I found it interesting to see him in this early film. Born in New Zealand, he appeared in film and TV on and off until 1969, and lived till 1995 when he died of old age at his cottage in the Cotswolds, England at 86.