I haven't seen this film for many years, but the performances by Edna May Oliver and James Gleason are memorable. Miss Oliver's performance was brilliant enough to command the release of other movies starring her as Hildegard Martha Withers. This group of movies also represented, I believe, an attempt by the studio to make Edna May Oliver (who was not British, by the way, but solidly American) a leading lady. That attempt failed, probably because she was not a sex symbol. But in the Penguin Pool Murder she wins over James Gleason by the sheer force of her character, and when he finally succumbs she characteristically responds, "I thought you'd never ask!" Or perhaps she was not cast more as a leading lady because she was, simply put, unsurpassed as a character actress. It isn't that she wasn't a box-office draw; for, as a gentleman who lived through the golden age of Hollywood once said to me, "Who didn't love Edna May Oliver !"
Review of Penguin Pool Murder
