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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.
Original Release
12/09/1932
US Release
12/09/1932
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Edna May Oliver | Miss Withers / Miss Hildegarde Martha Withers |
Robert Armstrong | Barry Costello |
James Gleason | Police Inspector Oscar Piper / Oscar Piper |
Mae Clarke | Gwen Parker |
Donald Cook | Philip Seymour |
Edgar Kennedy | Donovan / Officer Donovan |
Clarence Wilson | Bertrand B. Hemingway |
James Donlan | Fink / Security Guard Fink |
Gustav von Seyffertitz | Von Donnen / Dr. Max Bloom |
William Le Maire | MacDonald |
Directors
Writers
Willis Goldbeck, Stuart Palmer, Lowell Brentano
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Edna May Oliver | Miss Withers / Miss Hildegarde Martha Withers |
Robert Armstrong | Barry Costello |
James Gleason | Police Inspector Oscar Piper / Oscar Piper |
Mae Clarke | Gwen Parker |
Donald Cook | Philip Seymour |
Edgar Kennedy | Donovan / Officer Donovan |
Clarence Wilson | Bertrand B. Hemingway |
James Donlan | Fink / Security Guard Fink |
Gustav von Seyffertitz | Von Donnen / Dr. Max Bloom |
William Le Maire | MacDonald |
Joe Hermano | Chicago Lew |
Guy Usher | Parker |
Rochelle Hudson | Telephone Operator |
Wilfrid North | Judge |
A.S. 'Pop' Byron | Jailer Strauss |
Edith Fellows | Little Girl at Aquarium |
Chuck Hamilton | Policeman Jack - at Jail / Jack, Policeman |
Mary Mason | Parker's Secretary |
Sidney Miller | Isadore Marks - Student with Glasses / Student with Glasses Isadore Marks |
Dorothy Vernon | Purse Snatching Victim at Aquarium |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
David O. Selznick | Executive Producer |
Kenneth Macgowan | Producer |