A few months back I saw the remake of this
film titled We're On the Jury made in 1937. I thought it was delightful and
was hoping to come across the original and I just did. I could almost use
that previous review as the story is nearly the same. That one starred Helen
Broderick - mother of Broderick Crawford - while in this one it stars one
of my favorite female character actresses from that period - Edna May Oliver.
Like most character actors in those days she got slotted into playing older
scathingly comic superior women in films like Pride and Prejudice, David
Copperfield and as the crime solver in the Hildegarde Withers series. Her
eye-roll should have been patented.
She is an upper class socialite who gets on a jury. And drives the judge
- a family friend - crazy. The case is murder. A former French chorus girl
married to an older wealthy man is accused of murder and the evidence is
overwhelming. Edna will have none of it. My woman's intuition tells me she
is innocent. When they take the first ballot she is the only one who votes
not guilty. Then she begins working on the rest of the jury slowly turning
their guilty around. She is no Henry Fonda though - this is a comedy - and
all the jurors have their slightly nutty personalities. Chaos, romance and
fights ensues.
The big difference from the remake is that in that one they greatly expanded
the role of the real-estate guy and had him played by the brilliant Victor
Moore who makes everything around him funny with his slow-thinking speech.
That made the remake funnier though I gave that a 6 rating as well. Moore
is a gem. This one is mildly amusing and Oliver as always is a treat. 62
minutes.
