This has one of the most unusual settings for a murder that I've seen in a long time. The body of Gerald Parker falls from a plank runway above a penguin pool in an aquarium. He's found dead among the penguins at feeding time. His wife and her lover Seymour are arrested for the murder after is discovered they had met at the aquarium and had quarreled with the dead man there. There are some good action scenes of penguins and seals and an octopus.
Edna May Oliver is good as the schoolteacher spinster who is at the aquarium at the time of the murder. She loses her hatpin which becomes the suspected murder weapon for a time. Her preferred weapon of choice is actually a brolly which she uses to trip up and apprehend a runaway pickpocket at the aquarium. The dead man has been skewered by a sharp object behind one of his ears. Miss Withers the schoolteacher joins forces with Inspector Piper to investigate the murder.
This is the first in the six Miss Withers/Inspector Piper series of RKO comic mysteries that ran between 1932 and 1937. James Gleason as Piper appeared in all six films whereas Edna May Oliver appeared in only the first three. They make a good team and an unlikely romance between their characters seems to gather at a gradual pace during the course of this film. I enjoyed this first outing of the series and will try to watch the remainder of the releases in the order that they were issued.
Edna May Oliver is good as the schoolteacher spinster who is at the aquarium at the time of the murder. She loses her hatpin which becomes the suspected murder weapon for a time. Her preferred weapon of choice is actually a brolly which she uses to trip up and apprehend a runaway pickpocket at the aquarium. The dead man has been skewered by a sharp object behind one of his ears. Miss Withers the schoolteacher joins forces with Inspector Piper to investigate the murder.
This is the first in the six Miss Withers/Inspector Piper series of RKO comic mysteries that ran between 1932 and 1937. James Gleason as Piper appeared in all six films whereas Edna May Oliver appeared in only the first three. They make a good team and an unlikely romance between their characters seems to gather at a gradual pace during the course of this film. I enjoyed this first outing of the series and will try to watch the remainder of the releases in the order that they were issued.