Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Murder, He Says Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 6, 2020

George Marshall's "Murder, He Says" (1945) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by by filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger and film archivist Stan Taffel. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The pollster

How come Murder, He Says isn’t known as the hillbilly godfather of The Addams Family? It ought to be, because it is full of the kind of ‘what the heck’ moments that made The Addams Family a genre classic. Hopefully, this recent release will begin correcting the injustice.

Fred MacMurray plays pollster Pete Marshall who has been dispatched by a big city company to track down a colleague who has gone missing in the countryside. In a small rural town where his colleague was last seen working, Marshall approaches a bunch of ‘consumers’, hoping that they might point him in the right direction, but instead is quickly made to realize that around these parts snoopers aren’t welcome.

Shortly after he leaves the town, Marshall gets lost in the nearby forest and runs into the very, very unfriendly members of the Fleagle family. Despite trying his best to explain the nature of his mission, Marshall is arrested by the mentally challenged brothers Mert and Bert (both played by Peter Whitney) and then made to follow the orders of the kooky Mammie Fleagle (Marjorie Main). A few hours later, Marshall’s situation becomes even more complicated when moments before she passes away the feisty Grandma Fleagle (Mabel Paige) gives him a music sheet that supposedly reveals the location of a small fortune, $70,000 to be exact, which Mammie Fleagle and her boys have been trying to find for years. Though he has absolutely no clue how to extract the revealing message from the music sheet, the outsider is then quickly forced to begin translating it in proper English and identify the spot where the fortune is hidden.

The unexpected arrival of another treasure hunter operating under an alias, Claire Matthews (Helen Walker), whose father may or may not have been part of the gang that years ago robbed the bank from which the treasure emerged from, gives Marshall a much needed break to figure out a better strategy to stay alive. But the search for the treasure quickly resumes and much to his horror the Fleagles become even more unhinged.

Working with director George Marshall during the production of Murder, He Says must have been an absolute riot because the bizarre behavior before his camera is unlike anything you would see in American comedies from the ‘40s. Indeed, there is quite a bit of material that actually isn’t terribly funny but is so amusing that you have to wonder what was going on in the creative minds of the people that put the film together.

Folks expecting a solid -- meaning entirely logical -- story from this film will almost certainly be seriously disappointed. (Hence, the reference to The Addams Family at the very top of this article). Almost immediately after Marshall gets lost it is made obvious that he will be treated like a guinea pig in a medical trial run by folks without medical degrees, so despite the treasure hunt the story the film tells is essentially a large collection of bizarre comedy experiments with plenty of colorful action. Much of the funny is also of the darker, even cynical type that would flourish in mainstream comedies many decades later.

MacMurray is in the spotlight and his solid performance deserves to be praised, but the film would have had a very different personality without Main. She channels through her kooky character such tremendous energy that it becomes impossible for the rest of the actors not to respond in a way that actually makes the mayhem in and around the secluded (mad)house appear oddly legit.

*Kino Lorber’s release of Murder, He Said is sourced from a new 4K master that was supplied by Universal Pictures.

Murder, He Says Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Murder, He Says arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from a recent 4K master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. It is a very good master, but there is room for small but meaningful improvements. First, the good news. There are no traces of problematic digital adjustments, so the entire film has a very solid organic appearance. For example, depth ranges from very good to near excellent, plus density levels are consistently pleasing. Clarity is very good, though there are a few darker areas with minor fluctuations that reveal the age of the elements that were used to produce the new master. The grading job is convincing as well. The blacks appear nicely saturated and have good hues even in areas where light is restricted in ways that naturally tend to suppress them. There are good ranges of grays and whites, even during the segments with the 'glowing' people. Now, some small damage remains. It is not a lot and it is certainly not distracting, but you will spot it. It is of the type that requires manual work to be properly repaired or removed. Also, there are a few segments where there is room for small stability optimizations, which again require careful manual work. So, this is a very fine organic presentation of Murder, He Says, but with some extra work it could have been outstanding. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Murder, He Says Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is stable and clear. I viewed the film with the volume turned up to 'cinema level' and did not detect any troubling age-related imperfections. In fact, the upper register, where older films are typically most vulnerable, was so strong -- meaning clean and stable -- that I was somewhat surprised. Dynamic intensity is good for a film from the '1940s.

Murder, He Says Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Murder, He Says. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger and film archivist Stan Taffel share a lot of very interesting information about the people that made Murder, He Says, the quality of the humor in the film, the use of music, some interesting cinematic references that pop up in the film (The Ghost Breakers), the reception of the film, etc. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Kino Lorber.

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following releases from Kino Lorber's catalog:
  
  1. The Ghost Breakers
  2. Supernatural
  3. Doctor Cyclops
  4. Road to Utopia

Murder, He Says Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What a crazy film. It can be very funny but the humor routinely comes out of left field and it has some seriously dark undertones that are very uncommon for films from the 1940s. I find it very strange that it isn't better known and folks aren't speculating that it might have been an inspiration for contemporary genre favorites like The Addams Family. It is a tremendous acquisition for Kino Lorber, for sure. This release is sourced from a nice 4K master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. It also features a wonderful exclusive new audio commentary by filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger and film archivist Stan Taffel. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.