Such a frustrating disappointment

As Good As It Gets

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

As there are many reviews correctly praising the work of Edna Mae Oliver, James Gleason, and RKO studios set decorating department, suffice it to say that this is an outstanding opening entry into the Hildegarde Withers mystery series. Most of the action of "The Penguin Pool Murders" takes place in a recreation of the beautiful New York Aquarium, which charmed and delighted resident and tourist alike for almost half a century beginning in 1896. The Aquarium was originally located on the southern tip of Manhattan as a leisure attraction for the new immigrant residents of Lower Manhattan for whom Central Park was too far to travel. It opened in the Castle Gardens section of the Park in what was Clinton Gardens, previously Fort Clinton, named after iconic New York State Governor DeWitt Clinton. Originally an island, the land connecting it to Manhattan was later filled in, and Battery Park served as the first stopping point for New Americans before Ellis Island was developed.Although the Aquarium wasn't large by current standards (only 150 species), and its pools weren't large enough to ensure the well-being and survival of large aquatic mammals like manatees, porpoises, and dolphins, smaller ones like seals fared better. There was great controversy when New York's "master builder," Robert Moses, who had little respect for preservation and tradition, proposed a bridge from the Battery to Brooklyn. When Moses was frustrated in his efforts for the Bridge, he began preparations for what would become the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in the 1930s. He began the demolition of the beautiful Clinton Gardens, and only its eleventh hour designation as a National, Landmark caused it to be rescued from oblivion and rebuilt as a treasured landmark..The collection of animals had been relocated, some to the Bronx Zoo and others to other zoos in the Northeast when the Aquarium closed its doors for the last time in 1941. After the War a new aquarium was constructed and reopened in 1957 in Coney Island. The new facility had over 8000 specimens and 350 species. Although it afforded its permanent residents more space and helped to revitalize the Coney Island area, many felt that it was not an aesthetically pleasing place as the old Battery Park facility, and critics claimed that its unattractiveness was the egotistical Moses' ultimate revenge on the city that denied him his bridge.Those who have seen Ric Burns' wonderful documentary miniseries "New York" realize that Moses' power made him the most influential individual official in.Big Apple history... and nobody elected him.In recreating what is one of the few visual records of this beautiful piece of New York history in essentially what was only a B-film series, the RKO set set designers deserve tremendous credit. The mystery itself is first rate with Edna Mae Oliver and James Gleason exuding great humor and personal chemistry as two enjoyably mismatched detectives in this very intriguing whodunit.

... are the two lessons that this great little precode teaches us. The first lesson I think modern audiences know well, but the second we forget frequently, especially when it comes to romance.The story is not a remarkable one. Socialite Gwen Parker (Mae Clarke) is unhappily married to stockbroker Gerald Parker (Guy Usher), and she has a lover. Both her lover and her stockbroker husband are broke. Only the stockbroker's life insurance remains as an asset. As the film opens, we also see that the curator of a local aquarium is angry with Gerald Parker because he thinks he ruined him and swindled him as well. We then see Gwen talking to her lover on the phone, but we never actually see who he is. Gwen has an altercation with her rightfully jealous husband that ends with him striking her. She then decides to leave him.Later that day Gwen meets Philip Seymour (Donald Cook) at the local aquarium. Gwen's husband suddenly appears and accuses Philip and Gwen of being lovers. A scuffle between the two men breaks out and Philip knocks Gerald Parker unconscious and tells Gwen to wait for him downstairs in the aquarium. Philip then takes Gerald upstairs and the last thing we see of that scene are Philip's hands moving toward the unconscious man's throat. A few minutes later Gerald's dead body falls from above into the aquarium's penguin pool.Seems pretty cut and dried doesn't it? Well it isn't at all.Add to all of this schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers (Edna Mae Oliver) is in the aquarium at the time of the murder with her students conducting a tour of the exhibits, and that she has quite the penchant for solving mysteries as well as agitating the detective on the case, Oscar Piper (James Gleason), and you have a great little precode mystery here.What really makes this film stand out is the chemistry of the leads, Gleason and Oliver. Here are two middle-aged people, of middling income and less than middling looks in the conventional sense, yet I'll watch this film repeatedly just to see the two interact. You can see a respect and even attraction grow between these people despite the caustic remarks that they trade. Then there are those great precode one-liners from Oliver, not the kind of stuff you'd expect from a prim and proper spinster such as Hildegarde.Highly recommended as an excellent start to a good series of mystery films starring Oliver and Gleason.

"I'm a schoolteacher and I might have done wonders for you if I'd caught you early enough!!!" so starts the witty repartee between Hildegarde Withers and Inspector Piper, and a great movie partner- ship was born.This was the first film in a far too short series. Stuart Palmer created the character of Hildegarde Withers (Edna May Oliver) and the very exasperated Police Inspector Piper (James Gleason). With Oliver's barbed wit and dry one liners and the fact that Gleeson knows he can't solve the case without her, it is a match made in heaven. Oliver made 3 Hildegarde Withers films - "The Penguin Pool Murder", "Murder on a Blackboard" (1934) and "Murder on a Honeymoon" (1935). After that Helen Broderick took over. She was a great character actress ("Top Hat", "Swing Time") and managed to keep the standard set by Oliver high. However when Zasu Pitts took over it was hard to imagine her as a rational and witty schoolteacher, who would never miss a clue. Even the title "40 Naughty Girls" shows how low the series had sunk."hmmm, a pickpocket ", "the man's a born detective!!!"Gwen (Mae Clarke) is having a fling with Phillip Seymour (Donald Cook). She is married to stuffy Gerald Parker, the director of the Aquarium, but is planning to divorce him. When he surprises them in a secret meeting, Phillip punches him and he falls down the stairs. He later turns up dead at the bottom of the penguin pool.Piper gathers the suspects together. Hemingway (Clarence Wilson) who has just been sacked because he has been playing the stock market with Aquarium funds, lawyer Barry Costello (Robert Armstrong), Seymour because he has confessed and Gwen because she is acting suspiciously. Rochelle Hudson makes an appearance as a sassy receptionist. Both Gwen and Phillip are arrested hoping to bring the real murderer out of hiding. Costello, who secretly loves Gwen provides enough evidence to prove that only a man could have killed Parker thus exonerating Gwen. You will not believe the ending (it is really good!!!)"It takes a certain type to be a detective - yes I've noticed that!!!"Recommended.

Edna May Oliver is probably second only to Marie Dressler as the most famous character actress of the 1930's and Miss Dressler was a star whereas Miss Oliver tended to play mostly second leads. THE PENGUIN POOL MURDER is one of about a dozen starring features for Edna May and it an absolute treat, probably the funniest comedy-mystery ever made. The first of three films for Oliver as novelist Stuart Palmer's fiftyish caustic, snoopy schoolteacher Miss Withers, the movie was a major hit in 1932 and one can see why even today, the duologue is hilarious, the setting quite novel, and the cast is fine, especially Oliver and James Gleason who have such a superb team chemistry together is near tragic they only made three films together (Oliver left RKO-Radio Pictures in 1935 and the studio unwisely decided to carry on the series with different actresses much to moviegoers - and author Stuart Palmer's - displeasure.) The plot has been dealt with by other posters so I won't go in to it but even if murder mysteries are not your thing, if you love a good comedy you'll will thoroughly enjoy this picture as Oliver gets off some delicious zingers, mostly at the semi-incompetent Inspector Piper (Gleason)'s expense. As a mystery, it works very fine as well although I think most people might be able to pick out the murderer well before either Withers or Piper. The movie boasts two cultish 1930's leading ladies in support cast quite against character, Mae Clarke in an unusually glamorous role for her as one of the suspects and most surprising, Rochelle Hudson, best known for her ultra-wholesome ingénues, painted up like a back street hooker as a floozy of a telephone operator who has a hilarious run-in with Miss Withers. Every time I watch one of the three Oliver Miss Withers pictures I regret there are not more of them out there. At least there are a dozen or so Miss Withers novels by Stuart Palmer ( many still in print including THE PENGUIN POOL MURDER) for us to cast her again in our minds eye again in the role. I believe Hildegarde Withers is the greatest of all the old lady snoops in mystery novels and films - and that includes Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher.