The Mad Miss Manton

Plot synopsis:
At 3:00 am, Melsa (Barbara Stanwyck) takes her little dogs for a walk. Near a subway construction site, she sees Ronnie Belden run out of a house and drive away. The house is for sale by Sheila Lane (Leona Maricle), the wife of George Lane, a wealthy banker. Inside, Melsa finds a diamond brooch and Mr. Lane's dead body. As she runs for help, her cloak falls off with the brooch inside it. When the police arrive, the body, cloak, and brooch are gone. Melsa and her friends are notorious pranksters, so the detective, Lieutenant Mike Brent (Levene), does nothing to investigate the murder. Ames writes an editorial decrying Melsa's "prank", and she sues him for libel.
Melsa and her friends decide they must find the murderer in order to defend their reputation. The resulting manhunt includes searches of the Lane house, Belden's apartment, Lane's business office, and all of the local beauty shops; two attempts to intimidate Melsa; two shooting attempts on her life; a charity ball; and a trap set for the murderer using Melsa as bait. During this time, the women twice attack Ames and tie him up, Melsa's friend Myra enthusiastically flirts with Ames, and their friend Pat eats incessantly. In the course of these events, the following facts emerge:
George Lane has been out of town for a week.
Sheila Lane hasn't been seen since the day of the murder.
Sheila and Belden may be having an affair.
Belden's apartment contains the brooch, a knife just like one used to intimidate Melsa, and Belden's dead body.
Lane's body is found in Belden's car.
George Lane left an insurance policy with his business partner Mr. Thomas as beneficiary.
Thomas has been going broke.
Someone may have been blackmailing Lane.
Sheila was once married to a convict named Edward Norris.
Norris was at a hockey game at the time of the murders, but left the game for ten minutes.
Norris has a job working for the subway.
Traveling from the hockey rink to the Lane house and back requires more than ten minutes using all standard forms of transportation.
George Lane recently lost money gambling.
Sheila Lane was hiding from the killer.
Sheila and Belden met at the Lane house after Lane was killed. They couldn't call the police without exposing their affair, and Belden was killed while moving Mr. Lane's body.
While Brent repeatedly accuses innocent people based on incorrect theories, Melsa deduces that Belden removed the body and cloak from the Lane house before the police arrived. Near the end of the film, an escaping would-be killer leaves behind a piece of tar paper, which reminds Melsa of the subway construction site. Returning to the site, she finds a fast electric cart on the track. This is how Norris made his way to and from the crime scene in ten minutes. Norris is captured after confessing to the murders and briefly holding Melsa and Ames at gunpoint.
During the film, the relationship between Melsa and Ames evolves from sharp animosity to love and marital engagement. Melsa appears to be hostile toward Ames during most of the film, while he almost immediately decides that he's going to marry her and begins to woo her aggressively. She stabs him in the leg with a fork in retaliation for a treacherous trick he played on her, but they have a friendly chat early in the story, and a longer, more heart-to-heart conversation later. After the police rescue them from Norris, the film ends with Melsa and Ames planning their honeymoon.

Tags: mystery, murder

Review:
This is a delightful comedy/mystery, very much of its time, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.
Stanwyck does a great job as a madcap socialite (though the title would have you think she's a crazy bag lady) who gets involved in a murder and with reporter Fonda.
Miss Manton has a mouthy maid played by Hattie McDaniel (listed as McDaniels in the credits) and many girlfriends, all of whom are at her beck and call.Stanwyck's gift for comedy is apparent, and Manton was a perfect character for her - sophisticated, clever, and vulnerable.
This movie, a warmup for Stanwyck and Fonda for the later The Lady Eve, is entirely enjoyable.
Stanwyck, a rich deb, while walking her dogs in the middle of night, stumbles over a murdered man who disappears when she summons the police, of course.
They, in the time-honored tradition of Hollywood comedy/mysteries, jointly, and sometimes separately and at loggers head, try to solve the mystery and find the murderer.
The scene when Stanwyck sics 'em on Fonda ("Get him, girls"), with Fonda crawfishing as they advance, alone is worth the price of admission, as is the final avowal of love and proposal of marriage..
Barbara Stanwyck was 31 years old playing opposite stone-faced 33 year old Henry Fonda in this comedy love story/murder mystery, and if you want to see how Barbara steals every scene, this is a good one to watch.
This movie was selected by TCM as one of the films to highlight for their series "Black Images in Hollywood" due to the presence of Hattie McDaniel just prior to her Oscar-winning performance the next year in "Gone With the Wind." Hattie plays a sassy-talking maid for delicious comic relief.
An obscure comedy that truly utilizes all the cast members involved in a great screwball of a movie.
Henry Fonda is fun as the newspaper man who hates and then falls for her.A few years later, they were to be teamed again in Preston Sturges's great "The Lady Eve."The subway is a good gimmick, and all the minor players are fun.
I think this may be Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck's first movie together and sparks fly.
I wish Henry Fonda had done more comedy but he makes up for lost time here.
Unlike The Lady Eve, where he is primarily the straight man (with terrific physical comedy), in the Mad Miss Manton he gives as good as he gets with his leading lady.
In the first of their three co-starring vehicles, Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda shine in character clashing along with many illustrious supporting players in this Golden Era madcap Murder Mystery Comedy."The Mad Miss Manton" (RKO, 1938) follows the saga of wealthy débutante Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) and Hilda (Hattie McDaniel), her efficient housekeeper.Add to the program seven débutantes abiding in the lap of luxury, and supporting their comrade in society: Helen Frayne (Frances Mercer) Pat James (Whitney Bourne) Myra Frost (Linda Perry) Kit Beverly (Vickie Lester) Jane (Eleanor Hansen) Dora Fenton (Catherine O'Quinn) Lee Wilson (Ann Evers).Peter Ames (Henry Fonda), an ambitious newspaper reporter, Lieutenant Brent (Sam Levene) and Officer Sullivan (James Burke), who are all summoned to investigate the murder of a wealthy business leader, whose body unaccountably disappears, while another mysteriously surfaces.When Peter and Lieutenant Brent charge Miss Manton and her ilk of lovely Park Avenue débutantes with attempting to pull a prank, Melsa decides to take matters into her own very capable hands, with help from her associates, who, if you read between the lines, may be considered to exhibit characteristics of the Seven Capital Vices.Although these are not quite developed during its 108-minute screen story, traces of Avarice, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Sloth and Wrath are detectable among the fashionable set of peers.One often expresses her anger toward the behavior of the establishment.
Another sort of lies around without much to do, as others bathe in wealth and pride of their collective station in life, and so forth and so on.Suspects for the film's central crime display effective performances in well-cast roles, most bringing familiarity to the screen: Bat Regan (Paul Guilfoyle) Sheila Lane (Leona Maricle) Ronnie Beldon (William Corson) Edward Norris (Stanley Ridges) Frances Glesk (Penny Singleton) Mr. Fred Thomas (Miles Mander) and Gloria Hamilton (Kay Sutton).Rounding out "The Mad Miss Manton" cast includes some familiar faces, each bringing a special quality to an all-too-brief scene along the way: John Qualen as the Subway Watchman Robert Middlemass as the District Attorney Grady Sutton as the D.A.'s Secretary Olin Howland as Mr. X Charles Halton as Popsy, Melsa's Lawyer Vinton Haworth as Peter's Secretary Irving Bacon as Mr. Spengler, the Process Server Bess Flowers as a Charity Ball Guest and Gerald Pierce as the Newsboy..
Barbara Stanwyck in another "I saw the body until it disappeared" kind of farce, giving the audience a good time as she tangles with unbelieving police inspector (Sam Levene) and a newspaper reporter looking for a good story (Henry Fonda).The supporting cast includes Hattie McDaniel and Penny Singleton but it's Stanwyck's performance that makes this one shine.
Henry Fonda plays another variation on his mild-mannered dunce but it's Stanwyck who keeps the dialogue snappy and the events somewhat believable.
Passes the time pleasantly enough, but don't expect anything great.Stanwyck gets the glamour treatment and looks her best in the madcap title role..
Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda establish the wonderful screen chemistry that they would use to even greater advantage in 1941's "The Lady Eve."  Her bored, adventurous debutante and his mild mannered reporter are a scintillating duo.
The stars of this film were paired twice before striking gold in Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve, appearing in a rather humorless comedy called You Belong To Me and two years prior in Mad Miss Manton.
MMM was a combination of murder mystery and madcap heiress nonsense with aspects of screwball comedy before it had been defined as such.
So you have two great, popular actors, thrown into a contrived script about Stanwyck as the heiress who sees someone slipping away from a murder scene, only to have the body missing when she calls the police.
It would take script writers a few more years to learn you shouldn't make Hank Fonda speak quickly and Stanwyck, much as I love her, never really does manage the glamour.
This is the film where Hattie McDaniel gets to throw a vase of water in Fonda's face, and there's some genuine suspense when Stany sits down with the unbalanced murderer for the denouement.
Barbara Stanwyck is, as always, seamlessly gorgeous, and she takes on a tireless leadership role while constantly flirting with a young and handsome Henry Fonda.
Next, Miss Manton (Stanwyck) is constantly surrounded by her group of elitist girlfriends.
Miss Manton's flighty friends in their 40's gowns with their big 40's furs and their typical 40's hairstyles keep this film light and fluffy.
THE MAD MISS MANTON (1938) is a funny murder mystery.
In a plot involving dead bodies lying around here and there and a murderer on the loose, the lighthearted screwball approach comes as a surprise.
(The convoluted "whodunit" aspect is a little weak.)Barbara Stanwyck is a New York socialite who's lost the trust of the police force (led hilariously by Sam Levene) after the evidence of the murder she reports disappears.
Henry Fonda is a newspaper editor who smears Stanwyck for her murder "hoax" and party lifestyle.
Soon Fonda and the cops get involved, but Stanwyck prefers to solve the mystery on her own, despite the dangers.The murder mystery story doesn't impress as anything too special, but the script is often much funnier than expected.
Hattie McDaniel is a hoot as Stanwyck's maid ("I's a pacifist!") and even Henry Fonda has his moments ("She's probably still in kindergarten.").
Halfway through the movie, I found I was enjoying it more than I'd expected at the start.At only 80 minutes, this is a breezy mystery/comedy with some big names (Stanwyck and Fonda) and a bunch of fun characters.
Henry Fonda is no match for the bevy of beauties in "The Mad Miss Manton." For that matter, he can't even come close to Barbara Stanwyck.
Because this film is all about the "gals" – the bunch of socialites who congregate around gang leader Stanwyck, who plays the wealthy Melsa Manton.
Fonda plays newspaper editor Peter Ames who is little more than a shill for the Manton minions.
One eats all the time, another is more infatuated with men than the others.And the leader, Barbara Stanwyck, is in nearly every scene so we can fall in love with her like our surrogate does: Henry Fonda (before anyone took him seriously as an actor) is a newspaper reporter, a standard device of the time to fold the audience in.The murders are more complicated in terms of who did them than usual , but the appeal of the thing was supposed to be clearly in the appeal of these eight woman.
A group of shallow socialite young women, led by Barbara Stanwyck, get mixed up in a series of murders.
Despite the disdain of both the police and newspaper editor Henry Fonda, the girls do a better job of solving the crime than them.
Out walking her dogs, wealthy New York City "prankster" Barbara Stanwyck (as Melsa Manton) discovers a dead body after investigating a suspicious incident, at an abandoned house.
Moreover, handsome newspaper editor Henry Fonda (as Peter Ames) prints an editorial dissing Stanwyck.
"The Mad Miss Manton" is a not very amusing or interesting comedy-mystery, with strong co-stars Stanwyck and Fonda as the main attraction; in this one, Hattie McDaniel (as Hilda) seems bigger than the both of them.**** The Mad Miss Manton (10/8/38) Leigh Jason ~ Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene, Hattie McDaniel.
Socialite Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) is walking her dogs when she sees Ronny suspiciously running out of a deserted house.
Society deb Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) discovers a body late one night in a abandoned house.
The police don't believe her so Manton and her bunch of ditzy friends try and solve the murder mystery themselves.
Reporter Peter Ames (Henry Fonda) immediately falls in love with Melsa (after hating her on sight) and helps them.Pretty unknown movie...and it's easy to see why!
If you want to see a good movie with Stanwyck and Fonda see "The Lady Eve".
Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck made three films together and The Mad Miss Manton was the first.
Stanwyck and Fonda would do far better in Paramount's The Lady Eve.According to the films of Henry Fonda, Fonda really disliked this one, but in 1938 he was still not in a position to pick and choose his material.
Stanwyck and her cronies are guilty of obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence and Sam Levene as the investigating police officer ought to have run them all in.I'd pass this one by as an example of bad screwball comedy..
25 years back when I saw "The Mad Miss Manton" at a rep theater I thought the production pallid and I found Henry Fonda callow.
While I still don't think it would rival "The Penguin Pool Murder" (1932), "The Ex-Mrs. Bradford" (1936), or "Meet Nero Wolfe" (1936) as one of the top comedy-mysteries from that era, a lot in me has changed in 25 years.However, until that time, let me fantasize.
Mad Miss Manton, The (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Disappointing comedy about a rich woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who gets involved with a murder investigation and a reporter (Henry Fonda) covering the case.
This was the first teaming of Stanwyck and Fonda but the end results aren't as good as I had hoped even though the film starts off pretty well.
The comedy works for most of the time as the two stars really do good work together but it's Sam Levene who steals the show as the wisecracking Lieutenant.
It wasn't even funny and why did barbara stanwyck and henry fonda waste their time in this movie.
He (Levene) played this same part many times in many movies during the thirties, and could have phoned this role in.
The only bright spot, if there is one, would be Hattie McDaniel, as the maid of the rich, madcap (I hate that over used word!!) Miss Manton.
Here, in a novel twist, the sleuth isn't a man; instead it's a pack of giddy socialite girls, of all things, led by the kookie Miss Manton (Stanwyck).
Stanwyck does a pretty good job of acting pixilated, not what you'd expect from her usual no-nonsense tough cookie, while Fonda tries to keep up, but is definitely in a secondary role.
As a comedy, the movie doesn't make the front rank of screwballs so popular at the time, but is generally pleasing with a different take on who gets to chase down the guilty party..
THE MAD MISS MANTON was similar to the Thin Man films because it relied heavily on sophisticated comedy and the actual murder plot was, at best, secondary.
Plus, like Nick Charles, Miss Manton was a rich society party girl.Since the plot isn't exactly relevant, the repartee between Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda is excellent and a lot of fun to watch.
In 1941, Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck starred in 'The Lady Eve' (one of the finest comedies of all time) but before this Fonda and Stanwyck made a relatively unknown comedy called 'The Mad Miss Manton' and may I say that this is an excellent lead-up to 'The Lady Eve'.
Unlike the Lady Eve, where Fonda is primarily the straight guy, in 'Mad Miss Manton' he holds his own and is especially good in the hospital scene, where he plays Stanwyck for the sucker.
In a turn around on their usual pairings, Barbara Stanwyck and her girlfriends discover a dead body.
This comedy holds up pretty well as it has a better script than a lot of B's had at the time..
Too convenient.But, it is a fast moving sort of comedy-mystery, and as long as you don't expect too much from it, it can be a somewhat enjoyable diversion.This seems like a bit different role for Barbara Stanwyck, and she is rather good at light comedy.
Even Hattie McDaniel -- just a year away from her historic role in GWTW -- is pretty tame here.This is another of those films that's worth one watch, but I doubt this will end up on your DVD shelf..
Some people say that this Stanwyck-Fonda vehicle was a perfect warm up for their "The Lady Eve" film in 1941.
Miss Manton finds a dead body in a deserted house and the police department does not believe her.
His one liners are memorable as is those of Hattie McDaniel, as Hilda, Miss Manton's maid.
Did anyone notice that in the screen credits, Hilda is listed as Hattie McDaniels?Fonda appears entirely too stoic in the part of the newspaper reporter who finds himself involved in the case and increasingly romantic with Manton.
SYNOPSIS: Melsa Manton, a spirited heiress, leads a group of six high society girls in a series of mad pranks which culminate in an attempt to solve a baffling murder.PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Epstein manages to ingeniously combine a pretty amusing screwball romantic comedy with a suspenseful murder mystery.COMMENT: Definitely one for the connoisseurs, The Mad Miss Manton proved too mad for the general public's taste on first release.
And the romance between a handsome young Henry Fonda, as a newspaper editor, and Barbara Stanwyck as a flighty socialite, evolves out of nothing much.But those are the kinds of slapdash properties that you expect to find in a B feature.
"If you kill one of us you'll have to kill all of us," and another girl exclaims, "Quit that communist stuff!" There are one or two successful sight gags too, one involving Fonda and Hattie McDaniel, that will bring a smile if not a full-blown laugh.Stanwyck is okay.
If THE MAD MISS MANTON remarks "Let's all meet back at my place at eight," this bimbo objects, "That's Communism!" When Manhattan Detective Lt. Mike Brent orders this ditsy Missy's gaggle of girls into his paddy wagon so that he can "harass them, pound them, beat them, and humiliate them," she squeals out "That's Communism!" As police snipers surround decoy "bait" characters played by Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda in order to shoot the Real Killer in the back, the lame-brain blonde quibbles, "That's Communism!" As the crowd solemnly rises as One for Kate Smith's stirring rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner before the Rangers hockey contest at Madison Square Garden during the subsequently cut Hockey Game Alibi Scene concluding with that hallowed phrase "O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave," this cockamamie socialite bellows "That's Communism!" Can RKO Radio Pictures be preparing her for the Rump Administration 79 years in advance?.
It's up to the great Barbara Stanwyck to turn fluff into something special.
With Stanwyck cast, the film becomes an A picture where all eyes are on the great lady of the screen in front of them.
Well known to local law enforcement for being part of a group of dippy Park Avenue socialites getting into trouble, and now, she wants them to help her solve the crime, leading to more murder and trouble with not only the law but determined reporter Henry Fonda as well.
Fonda, apparently unhappy with this part, doesn't let that show, and the chemistry with Stanwyck later confirmed in two other movies, is obvious.
Soon to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel is very funny as her maid, delivering each line with gusto.Moments of suspense and some great screwball one liners give this an important place in the comedy hall of fame.
Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda have a strong, sometimes even sensual chemistry in "The Mad Miss Manton", particularly when he tells her things like "I realize that I should let go of your hand, but I'm finding that I don't want to", or when they're alone in a moonlit room, talking about their mutual acrophobia.