Tue 24 Jul 2018
Archived Movie Review: MRS. O’MALLEY AND MR. MALONE (1950).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[18] Comments
MRS. O’MALLEY AND MR. MALONE. MGM, 1950. Marjorie Main, James Whitmore, Ann Dvorak, Phyllis Kirk, Fred Clark, Dorothy Malone, Willard Waterman, Don Porter. Based on the story “Once Upon A Train, or The Loco Motive” by Craig Rice & Stuart Palmer. Director: Norman Taurog.
Somehow in the translation from printed page to film, Hildegarde Withers becomes Hattie O’Malley, a widow from Montana who wins $50,000 in a radio contest and heads to New York City to collect. Halfway there, Chicago to collect, her path crosses that of attorney J. J. Malone.
The rest of the movie takes place on the train, on the trail of a paroled embezzler. While James Whitmore plays the disreputable Malone to perfection, Marjorie Main simply tones down her Ma Kettle character a notch or two. It’s not much of a mystery, but funny? You bet!
July 24th, 2018 at 9:15 pm
The kind of review that makes me hungry for the film — thanks!
July 24th, 2018 at 10:32 pm
As I recall, this movie was one of the yummy ones.
I wish now, though, that the reviews I was writing back then were meatier and longer. I was going through a “reviewer’s block†at the time, and to force myself through it, I came up with a format consisting of two paragraphs only, each paragraph three lines on the printed page.
That’s four lines each on my cell phone now, but who dreamed of cell phones back then.
I used the first paragraph to talk about informational things about the movie, and the second to say what I thought about it.
It was a rather limiting format, I agree, but at the time it worked for me.
July 24th, 2018 at 10:25 pm
The Amazing Mr. Malone ran on radio for several years, late forties through early fifties, with Gene Raymond, George Petrie and Frank Lovejoy as John J. As a kid I listened to the Lovejoy version, and I don’t have to tell anyone on this board how perfect he was. And he was. I didn’t like the picture. To say the least.
July 24th, 2018 at 10:37 pm
I don’t think the movie compares very well wither the books or the radio show, and in spite of Marjorie Main’s presence, I liked it. I do like train movies, though, and maybe that was a big factor.
July 24th, 2018 at 10:40 pm
Steve, the internet has changed the way we can know more about what we are reviewing. This film was meant to be the first for another MGM film franchise. TCM database has some interesting notes about the behind the scenes stuff. Allegedly, the Stuart Palmer character Hildegarde Withers was replaced due to a rights issue.
July 24th, 2018 at 10:54 pm
So right, Michael. In many ways, we are in a wonderful world. And of course I had to go find the link you mention:
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/84094/Mrs-O-Malley-and-Mr-Malone/articles.html
July 24th, 2018 at 10:51 pm
3. Barry, I am a fan of the radio show and wrote a review of it here at https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=10076
One of the top TV shows on my bucket list is the TV series AMAZING MR. MALONE that starred Lee Tracy.
I enjoy the books and radio series (the movies are ok). My favorite is the NBC radio with George Petrie, then the books and then the Gene Raymond radio version with Frank Lovejoy at the level of the films (HAVING A WONDERFUL CRIME and THE LUCKY STIFF along with the reviewed one)
July 24th, 2018 at 11:15 pm
Thank you, Michael. I intend listening to all three leads by weeks’ end.
July 25th, 2018 at 10:07 am
Was it really all that long ago …
… well, I looked it up – it was February 23, 2018 …
… on that date, I sent in a comment about the Rice/Palmer collection (the subject of a 2009 post here), and its stepchild, Mrs. O’Malley And Mr. Malone.
One of my windier ones, no doubt; still, when I saw that the movie was the subject today, I thought (perhaps foolishly) that somebody here might have remembered my own contribution to the fray …
Sic transit gloria mundi (or in this case wednesdi).
July 25th, 2018 at 10:28 am
Two long comments from you, Mike. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1353#comments
July 25th, 2018 at 10:46 am
Steve: Thanx for the acknowledgement, and for seeing through my typo.
Of course it was 2016.
The Curse Of QWERTYUIOP strikes again!
July 25th, 2018 at 7:18 pm
Hell of a cast, with Whitmore as Malone and Clark as Flannagan perfect, and it’s based on the first and best of the Withers and Malone team ups, ONCE UPON A TRAIN, but Main, for all her gifts, stomps all over this film with big Ma Kettle feet and undermines everything Whitmore does on screen. Oddly, though less well cast Pat O’Brien and Brian Donlevy both star in much better Malone films, HAVING A WONDERFUL CRIME and LUCKY STIFF, the former with George Murphy and the delightful Carole Landis as Jake and Helene Justus.
According to Palmer and Fred Dannay the novellas are written by Palmer pretty much, in which case he handles Malone as well as Rice ever did. The novellas are very cinematic and it’s hard to read them and wonder if they weren’t always considered for film since at that time Palmer was doing quite a few B movie scripts. Certainly THE PEOPLE VS WITHERS AND MALONE is the best single character collection of screwball mysteries ever collected and one of the great delights for anyone who encounters them.
July 25th, 2018 at 10:58 pm
Main was chosen for the role based on the huge popularity of the Ma and Pa Kettle films. I suspect how she played the role was with the approval of the studio. This was the first of what MGM hoped would be a series as successful as The Thin Man and the Ma and Pa Kettle franchises. Instead it was a bomb losing the studio money.
July 26th, 2018 at 12:53 am
No post should have exactly 13 comments.
July 26th, 2018 at 1:01 am
This is a reprise; no need to backtrack:
Marjorie Main’s home studio was MGM; she did the Kettle pictures on loan-out to Universal.
When MGM got the rights to the Withers-Malone stories, it was the intention for Main to play Hildegarde Withers – it’s not recalled today, but she was a New Englander, as prim in real life as Ma Kettle was raucous.
But RKO wouldn’t let go of the Withers character, so Bill Bowers was instructed to make Hildy into Kettle in his screenplay (the easy way out).
The rest, you know …
July 26th, 2018 at 1:05 pm
As usual Mike you add information beyond that of the internet databases.
July 26th, 2018 at 6:59 pm
Whoever made the call regarding Main, it was a bad one and it hurts the film I never suggested she lacked the ability to play the role, but whoever did this to Hildy it dud not work. It was bad enough when Zazu Pitts, again a talented comic actress, played the role.
Whitmore in talking about this film mostly discusses how odd Main was off screen having long discussions with her dead husband on set. Even that might have worked better on film than this does.
This isn’t a train wreck, but it isn’t a success either, and it should be because Whitmore is about perfect as Malone.
Unfortunately, as the fact there is only one of these made, Ma Kettle and Mr. Malone wasn’t a good idea for a series. It may have seemed like a safe way to play it, but the result shows pretty conclusively it wasn’t.
Many times multiple incredibly talented people get together and make a mess instead of a masterpiece for some reason. The first version of CASINO ROYALE is a good example.
Ultimately the back story, and I appreciate getting it from Mike Grost and Barry, while fascinating, doesn’t really excuse what ends up foisted on the public and arriving on the screen. Explaining why the train went off the track is important, but it doesn’t change the fact that it did.
Considering the regard I hold the six novellas in this collection the fact that they could not take such great material and make a decent better film of it with the talent involved is simply sad and disappointing. No excuse is sufficient to excuse that failure.
July 26th, 2018 at 7:25 pm
Actually it’s Mike Doran who provided information.
I deeply admire the book too. THE PEOPLE VS WITHERS AND MALONE is terrific.