It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The German language film is set during a performance of a musical revue. The production numbers of the musical review are staged as a musical. The murder mystery, in the theater while the performance progresses, is played as a standard detective story. This concept,of two independent stories played side by side, during a short time interval in the same theater in just over an hour, carries into the American remake. What is added to the American remake is that the inspector and the amateur sleuth are stock characters of a detective series. Neither the quality of the musical production numbers nor the plot line of the murder mystery live up to the German language original. The value of this film is more a valuable memory of films of this important era of the past than a film of high quality on its own right.

The least you can say about the 6 Hildegarde Withers films is that they tried to give us a different setting for murder in each episode; the New York Aquarium, The Continental Museum, Catalina Island, etc. In "Forty Naughty Girls", there are two extra elements: there is just one setting, a Broadway theater where the sold-out title show is being presented, and the story plays out in "real time". This is the most comedy-oriented entry in the series, with Hildegarde doing arguably more pratfalling than detecting; nonetheless, she does at least manage to solve the case herself (and it's a tough one), unlike the previous Zasu Pitts outing ("The Plot Thickens"), where Inspector Oscar Piper should take about 90% of the credit. Tom Kennedy, a "Torchy Blane" series regular at the time as dumb cop Gahagan, makes a guest appearance as....dumb cop Casey, and as usual he guarantees some good laughs ("There is the killer, and he brought his horse!"). For a B production, "Forty Naughty Girls" does a good job of "faking" a higher budget than it probably had. **1/2 out of 4.

RKO Radio Pictures released Forty Naughty Girls during 1937 to capitalize on Showgirls of 1934. Unfortunately, the script does not afford the actors nor director much opportunity and the result is perfunctory and at times pedestrian.James Gleason is Homicide Inspector Oscar Piper out with girlfriend Hildegard Withers played by Zasu Pitts, at a Broadway performance of Forty Naughty Girls, produced by Ricky Rickman. Murders commence shortly after the play opening. Oscar and Hildegard move from the audience to backstage investigations.Quickly we learn that publicist Edward "Windy" Bennett is having an affair with leading lady Rita Marlowe played by Joan Woodbury, who has just become engaged to producer Rickman. Also, Windy Bennett is extorting money from playwright Tommy Washburn. And, then Windy Bennett is found dead, shot in the back of the head.Subsequently, Washburn is shot and killed. Rita Marlowe is the initial suspect and then the evidence points to a stagehand who happens to be her father.Since this film has a running time of only 63 minutes, action propels the plot and there are numerous twists and turns. However, none move you to the edge of your seat. Director Eddie Cline must have had a tight shooting schedule because this is a proverbial race to the finish line. While casually amusing the story suffers from numerous shortcomings especially character development. Also, the humor barely rises above simple.Marjorie Lord as showgirl and singer June Preston is adequate which is dictated by the script.This was never intended to be anything more than a second feature and that is all it will ever be. Nothing bad, nothing great.

Three actresses played schoolteacher/amateur investigator Hildegarde Winters in the RKO B series based on the novels of Stuart Palmer: Helen Broderic, Zasu Pitts and Edna May Oliver. The inimitable, irascible James Gleason played her fiancé, Oscar Piper, in all the movies.All three actresses were sterling comedians, although of highly different types. In this movie we have Oscar investigating a murder backstage, while Hildegarde Winters does all the real work.Unfortunately, neither story nor actors are well served in this particular outing. Comedy directing great Eddie Cline doesn't seem to have allowed Miss Pitts nor supporting comic Tom Kennedy the time they needed for their slow-take comedy.Instead, we have Piper arresting people for the murders, being persuaded he was wrong, and then on to the next suspect. Perhaps Cline simply did not care. In any case, the result is unremarkable.