We're on the Jury
Director: Ben Holmes
Year: 1937
Rating: 6.0
A very pleasant 70 minutes spent in this murder mystery comedy that takes
place mainly in the jury room. It is not exactly 12 Angry Men - first there
are a number of women and secondly it is more antics than anger but it has
the same germ of a plot. One person refuses to say guilty and slowly begins
changing minds. RKO produced this film as well as the film it is based on
from only five years before - Ladies of the Jury which starred Edna May Oliver.
I would watch Oliver in anything so will have to run that down. In this film
her character is played by Helen Broderick, mother of Broderick Crawford
of Highway Patrol, who also took over Oliver's role as Hildegard Withers
in that mystery series.
Her co-star is the wonderfully lowkey comic character actor (most of the
time) Victor Moore. Moore is a pleasure to watch in his films - you can almost
see a fog gather around his head as he tries to get out his thoughts. He
makes the simplest things look like Olympic events. He and Broderick co-starred
a few times - Swing Time with Astaire and Rogers being the best known. But
if you want to see him in a serious role, check out the brilliant and very
depressing Make Way for Tomorrow made in the same year as this.
A French ex-chorus girl is accused of the murderer of her rich husband. It
seems cut and dried. She goes into a room, a shot is fired, she yells out
"Why did I do it?' and the dead body of her husband is at her feet. On the
jury are Broderick, a wealthy up town middle aged female, Moore is her old
friend from high school who tries to sell real estate to every one he meets,
Billy Gilbert (a silent comedian star as well as Herring in The Great Dictator),
Charles Lane and a few other vaguely familiar actors. No stars in this film.
Thrown together quickly and cheaply and probably using much of the same script
from the previous film. In the courtroom Broderick and Moore make a nuisance
of themselves asking witnesses questions - was this actually allowed back
then?
And then in the jury room there are 11 guilty votes till Broderick rings
out Not Guilty. Chaos ensues for much of the rest of the film as she plays
on human nature to change votes - not evidence mind you. Eventually, she
and Moore have to prove who did it. A few laughs but primarily just a slow
beat mild humor and Moore had this wonderful dithering schtick that no one
back then could do. A minor treat.
