Sun 2 Apr 2023
Stories I’m Reading: STUART PALMER & CRAIG RICE “Once Upon a Train.â€
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[7] Comments
STUART PALMER & CRAIG RICE “Once Upon a Train.†Hildegarde Withers & John J. Malone. First appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, October 1950. Original title or published later as “Loco Motive.†Collected in People vs. Withers & Malone (Simon & Schuster, 1953; Award paperback, 1965). Filmed as Mrs. O’Malley and Mr. Malone (MGM, 1950, with Marjorie Main as Harriet “Hattie” O’Malley and James Whitmore as John J. Malone).
In Ellery Queen’s introduction to the collection of Withers-Malone stories, of which there were six, they say that this was the first known collaboration between two mystery writers on a tale in which their respective primary characters showed up to solve a case together. This could very easily be true.
When Malone, a somewhat disreputable Chicago lawyer finds that his most recent client, a city official accused of embezzling $30,000 from municipal funds, and a man he has just gotten off from those charges, is on a train headed for New York City — and without paying him — what is there to do rush to the station and board the very same train.
Along with several other people crying for his scalp, as it is clear that the man’s innocence is still very much in doubt. It is no wonder that his body is found at length very much dead. And in whose train compartment? None other than the horse-faced schoolteacher Miss Withers, whose accommodation adjoins Mr. Malone’s.. As they furiously move the body back and forth between their separate compartments as needed, which is often, they still manage to find time to solve the case together.
Which case is one the screwballiest detective stories you can imagine, with a laugh or a chuckle every other paragraph, if not oftener.
When they made a movie out of this, they had to change Miss Withers name to Mrs. O’Malley for copyright reasons, and no, Marjorie Main is not my idea of Miss Withers, either, but James Whitmore did passably well as Mr. Malone, if not better.
April 3rd, 2023 at 8:10 am
George Kelley’s review of the 6 story volume here:
http://georgekelley.org/wednesdays-short-stories-38-people-vs-withers-malone-by-stuart-palmer-craig-rice/
April 3rd, 2023 at 8:22 am
And here’s a good article on Hildegarde Withers:
https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/blog-article/3224-murder-she-taught-the-puzzling-career-of-hildegarde-withers
April 3rd, 2023 at 8:25 am
And another (I’ll stop now–sorry!):
http://www.stevensaylor.com/Stuart%20Palmer/StuartPalmerHildegardeWithers.html
April 3rd, 2023 at 12:05 pm
No need to apologize, Tony. Three great articles. I’ve spent the past 30 minutes reading them all. A common theme is the fact that both Palmer and Rice, while extremely popular in their day, are pretty much forgotten now..
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:44 pm
One of my favorite mystery novellas of all time, and sadly not reprinted more often because of its length. It’s really almost the definition of screwball comedy mystery, and though Rice seems to have contributed Malone in name only with Palmer doing the writing I can’t tell the difference.
Rice and Palmer are at least easily found in Ebook form and seem to sell fairly well from how often I see them offered.
All the stories in the anthology are good but there is little doubt this one is the gem.
Of course, Edna May Oliver, Zazu Pitts, and Eve Arden played Miss Withers aside from the unlikely Marjorie Main and in addition to Whitmore, Pat O’Brien, Brian Donlevy, and Lee Tracy all played Malone.
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:50 pm
An earlier review….
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1353
April 4th, 2023 at 12:04 am
Thanks for tracking down that old review, Tony. To tell you the truth, I’d forgotten about it, and it fun to read it again, along with all of the comments. I also took the time to freshen it up, reinsert the imaged which had gone missing over the years, and do some other minor stuff.