Mad Miss Manton, The (1938)

The Mad Miss Manton (1938), directed by Leigh Jason.

Very silly, erratic comedy that has society brat Barbara Stanwyck and her band of rich girl pranksters solving a set of murders. We have the undeniably diverting spectacle of a mob of young women in fur coats covertly breaking glass doors and climbing through windows.

I felt like I had dropped into the middle of a series: it should have been an episode from something like the "Melsa Manton Mysteries"; that might have worked. I confess I didn't follow the plot very well and some of the girl-quips flew by me.

Henry Fonda is the romantic lead. I think his purpose at this time was to be the hunky guy with an endearing yokel accent. With Sam Levene as the exasperated police Lt and Hattie McDaniel as the comical maid.

Warner Archive title, available for rent from ClassicFlix.