A Slight Case of Murder

A Slight Case of Murder is a 1938 American black comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Edward G. Robinson. The film is based on the 1935 play by Damon Runyon and Howard Lindsay.

Plot
With the end of Prohibition, bootlegger Remy Marco (shown as "Marko" in one sequence) becomes a legitimate brewer, but he slowly goes broke because the beer that he makes tastes terrible and everyone is afraid to tell him so. After four years, with bank officers preparing to foreclose on the brewery, he retreats to his Saratoga summer home, only to find four dead mobsters who had planned to ambush him but were killed by another gang member.

Marco's henchmen distribute the dead bodies in various places in the area as a gag, but when they learn that there is a substantial reward for the gang, dead or alive, they scramble to retrieve the dead men and hide the bodies in a closet in Marco's home. After the gangsters' loot is discovered under a bed, Marco plans to use it to pay the bankers. But when the bankers tell him that they will extend his credit, Marco devises a new plan. He arranges for his daughter's fiancé Willard Parker, a state trooper, to shoot his gun through the closet door repeatedly in order to trick the authorities into thinking that Parker has singlehandedly nabbed and killed the gang.

Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent called A Slight Case of Murder "just about the funniest show the new year has produced" and wrote: "It goes after its laughs with Rabelaisian gusto, a dialogic scorn of the grammatical properties and an impolite subscription to the dictum: de mortuis nil nisi mayhem. ... If you're not too squeamish, you should have a round of chuckles on the house."

Los Angeles Times reviewer Edwin Schallert wrote: "It is one of the most laughable and clever productions of the type, providing Edward G. Robinson with the best part that he has had in several recent films. Most amusing are the results aimed at and secured in the screen play, direction and acting, all of which seem to be at a peak."

Adaptations
The story was remade as Stop, You're Killing Me (1952) with Broderick Crawford and Claire Trevor.

On April 8, 1945, Old Gold Comedy Theatre presented a 30-minute adaptation of the story on NBC Radio, starring Edward G. Robinson and Allen Jenkins. On January 24, 1954, it was presented on NBC Star Playhouse, again starring Robinson.