Penguin Pool Murder
| The Penguin Pool Murder | |
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theatrical release poster
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| Directed by |
George Archainbaud Ray Lissner (assistant) |
| Produced by | Kenneth Macgowan |
| Screenplay by | Lowell Brentano (story) Willis Goldbeck (screenplay) |
| Based on |
The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer |
| Starring | Edna May Oliver |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Henry W. Gerrard |
| Edited by | Jack Kitchin |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Penguin Pool Murder is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy/mystery film starring Edna May Oliver as Hildegarde Withers, a witness in a murder case at the New York Aquarium, with James Gleason as the police inspector in charge of the case, who investigates with her unwanted help, and Robert Armstrong as an attorney representing Mae Clarke, the wife of the victim. Oliver's appearance was the first film appearance of the character of Hildegarde Withers, the schoolteacher and sleuth based on the character from the 1931 novel The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer. It is the first in a trilogy including Murder on the Blackboard, and Murder on a Honeymoon, in which Oliver and Gleason team up for the lead roles.
Gwen Parker (Mae Clarke) meets her former boyfriend Philip Seymour (Donald Cook) at the local aquarium and asks him for some money so she can leave her husband, stockbroker Gerald Parker. However, Mr. Parker receives an anonymous telephone call tipping him off to the rendezvous. When he confronts the pair, Seymour knocks him out with a punch. As there are no witnesses to the altercation, he hides the unconscious man in the room behind an exhibit.
Schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers (Edna May Oliver) takes her class on a field trip to the aquarium. Shortly after tripping up fleeing pickpocket "Chicago" Lew (though he gets away), she loses her hatpin; one of her students finds it. Then Miss Withers sees Parker's now-dead body falling into a pool housing a penguin. Police Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason) arrives and uncovers several suspects: the widow and Seymour; Bertrand Hemingway (Clarence Wilson), the head of the aquarium, who had financial dealings with the deceased; Chicago Lew, found near the scene; and even Miss Withers herself, as it is later determined that her hatpin was driven through the man's right ear into the brain. Bystander and lawyer Barry Costello (Robert Armstrong) catches Gwen Parker when she faints, and acquires a client when she is taken in for questioning.
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