Penguin Pool Murder

Directed by George Archainbaud, Penguin Pool Murder follows Edna May Oliver’s Hildegarde Withers as she helps a detective (James Gleason’s Oscar Piper) solve a case involving a dead body at the title location. Filmmaker Archainbaud, working from a screenplay by Willis Goldbeck, delivers a palpably (and often aggressively) generic murder mystery that remains unable to sustain the viewer’s interest for more than a minute or two at a time, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the picture’s pervasive arms-length atmosphere is exacerbated by Oliver’s mostly grating turn as the one-note protagonist – with this vibe heightened by the actress’ nails-on-a-chalkboard chemistry with costar Gleason. (The pair are meant to come off as charming but are instead, predominantly speaking, entirely disagreeable together.) It’s subsequently not surprising to note that the tiresome case at the narrative’s core is hardly as intriguing or fascinating as Archainbaud has obviously intended, and while the climactic confrontation is admittedly (and comparatively) quite exciting, Penguin Pool Murder has long-since cemented its place as a thoroughly tedious endeavor that feels a whole lot longer than its 70 minutes.

* out of ****