A Successful Casting Against Type!

malvernp

Edward G. Robinson was one of the most gifted leading actors to appear in film. However, he had two major strikes against him. First, he was physically unattractive---short of stature and homely of appearance. Second, he had the misfortune to achieve early success as a Warner Brothers gangster-type---so much so that he had great difficulty in breaking out of this mold. After all, why would the studio tinker with the popular packaging of one of its great stars, when all it had to do was keep putting him in similar vehicles year after year? Humphrey Bogart, george Raft and James Cagney had comparable problems with Warner Brothers.

Every now and then----even under the rigid confines of the studio system at its peak----something happens to show us the existence of other possibilities. Jane Wyman began her career as a chorus girl, and became an important dramatic actress. Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck early on were dancers before becoming stars in a wide range of roles. Dick Powell was a light singing juvenile before making the transition to tough-guy characters. James Cagney was able to demonstrate under this same studio system that given the opportunity, he could be exceptional in both dramatic and musical performances. And of course we all know what happened when Bogart got the chance to play Rick in "Casablanca." (1942) Therefore----while this vehicle for Robinson was somewhat unusual----it was by no means unprecedented for him to be cast against type in such a delightful spoof of those very gangster roles he had made his own for several preceding years. That he pulled it off so well is a testament to his great range as an actor.

"A Slight Case of Murder" has plot elements that are common to such later films as "Arsenic and Old Lace" and "The Trouble With Harry." But it is unique in combining the humorous troubles that inadvertently befall a mobster who sincerely wants to "go straight" with how he has to at the same time handle an assortment of unwanted corpses that seems to keep entering his life again and again. Both of these situations create the endless comic possibilities in the story----and make it such an enduring classic of its kind.

The Warner Brothers stock company of well-known character actors was on hand to lend their full support to Robinson, and the result is an absolute joy.

Many years later, Robinson would reprise his classic gangster type in "Key Largo" (1948) Too bad that he never again had the chance to revisit his comic version of that same role. To see how difficult this is to do----take a look at the remake of "A Slight Case of Murder" with Broderick Crawford (in the Robinson role) called "Stop, You're Killing Me"(1952). Crawford may have been a gifted actor in his own right, and was an Oscar winner for "All The King's Men"(1949). But his performance is clearly inferior to Robinson's.

Watch "A Slight Case of Murder" to see a great dramatic actor at his prime doing comedy of all things----and very successfully!

score 8/10

malvernp 2 July 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1408440/