Stuart Palmer's immortal crime-solving school teacher Hildegarde Withers came to the screen courtesy of a series of mysteries from RKO Pictures.
For those of you not familiar with the great Hildegarde Withers, she was a wise-cracking schoolmarm who aided the local New York police chief, Inspector Piper, in baffling mysteries. Withers was the creation of mystery writer Stuart Palmer, and she first graced the pages of a novel in the exciting "Penguin Pool Murder" written in 1931. Palmer followed it with 13 other Withers novels including numerous short stories of "riddles" she solved.
In 1932, the wonderful Edna May Oliver starred in the film adaption of The Penguin Pool Murder with James Gleason as Inspector Piper and co-starring Robert Armstrong and Mae Clarke. The film was so successful it spawned two sequels with Edna May Oliver, and then Helen Broderick took over the role as Miss Withers in Murder on a Bridal Path but only stayed for one outing. Zasu Pitts became the spinster sleuth in the final two films.
2 x DVD9 | NTSC 4:3 | 407 minutes | 7.50 Gb + 7.63 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Recent Comments