Murder, He Says

1945
7| 1h31m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 23 June 1945 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Pete Marshall is sent as a replacement to the mountain district town of Plainville when a public opinion surveyor who went there goes missing. Visiting the hillbilly family of Mamie Fleagle, Pete begins to suspect that she and her two sons have murdered the surveyor. Pete then believes that Mamie is slowly poisoning wealthy Grandma Fleagle, who has put a vital clue to her fortune in a nonsensical embroidered sampler.

Genre

Comedy, Crime, Mystery

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Director

George Marshall

Production Companies

Paramount

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Murder, He Says Audience Reviews

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
utgard14 Classic comedy starring Fred MacMurray as a pollster who shows up at a hillbilly family's house looking for another pollster who went missing in the area. He finds himself knee-deep in trouble with the hillbillies, who are a clan of criminals looking for some money that only their dying grandmother knows the location of -- and she only wants to tell Fred. Things get even more crazy when Helen Walker shows up, claiming to be the Bonnie Parker-esque member of the family who recently escaped from prison.It's a very funny movie with MacMurray in rare form as the poor guy who stumbles into a weird situation and can't wait to get out of it. The bit where he pretends to talk to a ghost to fool the dumb twins is priceless. At one point in the movie there's a clever gag where MacMurray's character comes upon an idea involving an organ because he saw the same bit in The Ghost Breakers, which was another Paramount comedy directed by George Marshall. Another great scene has MacMurray doing his version of Dorf decades before Tim Conway. Helen Walker is lovely and does a fine job but her part is mostly a straight one with few laughs. Marjorie Main is wonderful as a sort of dark version of her famous Ma Kettle character. Peter Whitney is lots of fun playing a set of dimwitted but violent twins. The rest of the cast includes Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Barbara Pepper, and a scene-stealing Mabel Paige as the grandmother. It's a good comedy with a terrific cast. Probably could've trimmed ten minutes in the middle but it doesn't hurt the pace too much. Definitely worth a look.
Michael_Elliott Murder, He Says (1945) *** (out of 4) Fun Paramount flick about pollster Pete Marshall (Fred MacMurray) who heads out to the Ozarks to see what happened to a previous pollster who traveled to the area and disappeared. Soon he winds up on the Fleagle estate, which is ran by Ma (Marjorie Main) and his twin, idiot sons (Peter Whitney). Soon the pollster is working with a woman (Helen Walker) who is trying to locate some stolen money, which is also wanted by the redneck family. MURDER, HE SAYS was originally meant to be a vehicle for Bob Hope but he ended up backing out and MacMurray would end up with the part. When you see the title and MacMurray's name attached to it you'd expect some type of noir but instead we're left with a spoof of the "old dark house" genre and even though many elements don't work there are still enough that do to make this worth watching. It seems many people will call this a masterpiece but while I wouldn't go that far I still think it's pretty good in its own right. I think the movie's biggest problem is that there are a few dry moments that seem to run on way too long and this includes the ending, which takes way too much time to happen. I found the entire chase sequence at the end to be a bit too weak and without any major laughs except for the final scene in the film. Before that the laughs are rather hit and miss but when they work they really work. One of the highlights of the film is a scene where the rednecks force the pollster to show them where the money is. He really doesn't know but he plans on fooling them so he can make an escape and how he does this was very funny. Another very good sequence happens when one of the twins has a bad back, which when hit pretty much paralyzes him but the pollster hits the wrong one, which just causes more problems. MacMurray actually does a pretty good job in his role as he's quite believable in the part but it's also rather fun seeing the tough guy play a chicken. Walker gets some very good moments and makes for a good love interest and Main is also good in the part, which many will probably mistake for one of the Kettle films. Whitney easily steals the film playing both twin brothers and you couldn't help but laugh each time he was in action.
GJValent Back in the early eighties, I got my first vehicle with an FM radio. It allowed me to 'discover' All Things Considered on NPR. One of the things that I noticed right away, the ATC theme was from the film Murder, He Says. I've never bothered to write them about it. I'll now assume that others have. Sometime in the late eighties or early nineties, they broadcast a report purporting to search for the roots of the theme. A LOT of pieces of obscure classical and pop tunes were played, along with their references, but, not one mention was made of Horses Flies is, In Comb Bees is. Maybe I'll get the ambition to write them. Meanwhile, as Fred says in the film,'In Town, Police is'.
ZorbaLives I just saw this movie at the LaSalle Bank Cinema, a theater in Chicago where, each Saturday, a film noir movie is shown. This week's movie was Murder, He Said starring Fred Mac Murray. The audience (over 300 people) laughed out loud and were accompanied by a lady (near the front of the theater) who would react with a scream or a warning to Mac Murray whenever trouble would arrive. To say that a film over 60 years old would receive such reactions from a contemporary crowd would testify to the holding power and entertaining qualities of these old films. Mac Murray's comedic timing for the pratfall, wise crack and sarcasm was impeccable. I understand that this movie may have been intended as a vehicle for Bob Hope but Mac Murray did well. Marjorie Main with her whip, Peter Whitney as "the twins", and the beautiful Helen Walker as the heroine/love interest, were superb. Yes, I would recommend seeing this film but, as with many films, its best seen with a crowd with whom you can share in their reactions.