Busman's Honeymoon
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Larry Abbot (Wilder) and Vickie Pearle (Radner) are performers on radio's "Manhattan Mystery Theater" who decide to get married. Larry has been plagued with on-air panic attacks and speech impediments since proposing marriage. Vickie thinks it is just pre-wedding jitters, but his affliction could get them both fired.
Larry's uncle, Dr. Paul Abbot, decides that Larry needs to be cured. Paul decides to treat him with a form of shock therapy to "scare him to death" in much the same way someone might try to startle someone out of hiccups.
Larry chooses a castle-like mansion in which he grew up as the site for their wedding. Vickie gets to meet Larry's eccentric family: great-aunt Kate (DeLuise in drag), who plans to leave all her money to Larry; his uncle, Francis; and Larry's cousins, Charles, Nora, Susan, and the cross-dressing Francis Jr. Also present are the butler Pfister and wife Rachel, the maid; Larry's old girlfriend Sylvia, who is now dating Charles; and Susan's magician husband, Montego the Magnificent.
Paul begins his "treatment" of Larry and lets others in on the plan. Unfortunately for all, something more sinister and unexpected is lurking at the Abbot Estates mansion. The pre-wedding party becomes a real-life version of Larry and Vickie's radio murder mysteries, werewolves and all.

Review: Sir Seymour Hicks Shines In British Mystery Movie.
A titled amateur detective & his mystery-writing bride spend a BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON when a murdered corpse is discovered in their new Devonshire home.Beginning with its first release in 1938 and for several years thereafter, MGM maintained a sister studio in England.
In this way she could take advantage of the wealth of British acting talent available, and also get around the UK restriction on the import of foreign films.
BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON (called HAUNTED HONEYMOON in the USA) was one of those films.BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, while not unpleasant to look at, is not without its flaws.
The mystery isn't all that enthralling, but the main difficulty seems to lie in Robert Montgomery's portrayal of Lord Peter Wimsey.
This very fine actor made a career from playing suave, sophisticated characters, which Lord Peter should be, but you can never for a moment forget that this is only Robert Montgomery playing a role; nor for an instant do you believe that this is Lord Peter come to life.
And the American accent surely doesn't help, either.The lovely Constance Cummings, as Lady Harriet, suffers much the same fate.A fine gaggle of British actors, including Robert Newton, Leslie Banks & Googie Withers, appear in supporting roles.
But the real joy in watching this film is reveling in the rare opportunity to see the marvelous old actor Sir Seymour Hicks, who portrays Bunter the butler.
Sir Seymour (1871-1949) had been one of the great actor-managers & dramatists of the turn of the century.
Sayer's hero received superlative interpretations from actors Ian Carmichael & Edward Petherbridge..
Constance and Robert have a great deal of fun with this film although he is not my perfect idea of Lord Wimsey although he has a certain ironic charm.
As the other comments make clear, this is not a bad film.
One of MGM's British-made films, it has several good moments, and lots of good performances.
Its problem is that it makes the ultimately wrong decision to play down the mystery elements in favour of the romantic comedy.
It could have been a marvellous comedy thriller, but instead looks more like a pale imitation of the great romantic screwballs of the thirties, or the fag end of the cycle.
And, of course, we as viewers are supposed to assume that Robert Montgomery and Constance Cummings, by extension, are also such wonderful beings.So the picture is actually an hour old before we get going with the murder.
We have had the clues front-loaded, interspersed with the comedy and romance, whereas in the book Wimsey pieces together the clues from his interrogations.
The solution of the mystery ends up as a total afterthought, Montgomery casually piecing together the fiendish plot, and the film sloppily omits to give us any actual proof that that was how the crime was done.And, to coin a phrase, why oh why oh why did anyone think that suave New Yorker Montgomery could be Lord Peter Wimsey, whose archetypal English "silly ass" manner concealed a brilliant brain?
Montgomery is a very pleasing screen presence, but an English nobleman he is not.As usual it is the character actors that steal the scenes.
Robert Newton gives an early eye-rolling performance complete with dodgy West country accent.
But the real star of the show, as other comments have also pointed out, is the old actor-manager Seymour Hicks, showing the youngsters how it is done.So, much to please, much too long, more thrills needed..
This picture takes forever to get underway, as it isn't until 20 minutes in that a crime is committed.
Then ensues a lot of dialogue and alternate plot development, and then 30 minutes later, the body is discovered.
That leaves less than 25 minutes to track down the murderer.I did not read the book so I cannot comment on the pale comparison between the book and the film, or the unsuitability of Robert Montgomery as Lord Peter Wimsey.
I can say that I am never disappointed by Montgomery's presence in a movie, and here he was dapper and sophisticated as always - although perhaps slightly out of place with an American accent.I enjoyed the banter between Montgomery and Constance Cummings, the staid and stuffy presence of Seymour Hicks and the threatening appearance of Roy Emerton.
The solution to the murder seemed slapped together and almost an afterthought, and the whole mood of the picture seemed as though it couldn't decide if it was a romantic comedy or a murder mystery.
Montgomery fan or an aficionado of peculiar murder stories, this picture is for you.
disappointing adaptation of a good whodunnit novel.
Watchable but missable adaptation of Dorothy Sayer's novel about just married amateur detectives, Lord Peter Wimsey and crime novelist Harriet Vane (now of course Lady Wimsey) Attempts to add whimsical comic touches fall short of the mark and the detective mystery doesn't really grip either.
Shown in the UK as Busman's Honeymoon, but in the US and also these days on TCM as Haunted Honeymoon - a pointless and misleading change..
Only Hollywood would cast a very American actor as a member of the British aristocracy...but here they cast Robert Montgomery (with his very nice AMERICAN accent) to play Lord Peter Wimsey!
With that huge strike against it, can "Busman's Honeymoon" be any good?When the film begins, Lord Peter Wimsey is about to marry Harriet (Constance Cummings).
Peter doesn't know that Noakes is a total jerk who owes everyone and is a nasty piece of work.
Eventually his body is discovered and this challenges the couple, as they both promised to retire and Peter is supposed to stop his sleuthing ways and she is to stop writing murder mysteries.
Wanna make a bet as to whether or not they keep this promise?Despite terrible casting, the film works reasonably well...mostly because MGM had a great knack at making good looking movies.
Here it's newly-weds Lord and Lady Wimsey moving into a baronial mansion in rural England only to find that the previous owner has taken up final residence in the cellar.
So, Wimsey being an amateur sleuth and she being a crime writer, the Lord and Lady's honeymoon must be postponed, despite their pledges to leave detecting to the police.The film's generally too long such that the tepid script gets stretched beyond plot capacity.
As others point out, the mystery doesn't get going til the last 20-minutes.
That reluctant tasting scene is really well done, showing the Lord and Lady's comedic potential.
But a key problem is the talented Montgomery who, for whatever reason, lacks flair here for a William Powell type role.
All in all, the movie's a really minor entry in the Gentleman Sleuth Sweepstakes.
This film has the makings of a good mystery film -- detective hubby marries mystery-writer wife, and move into the house where the wife was born.Unbeknownst to them, the last owner of the house was murdered the night before!This film relies HEAVILY on "local color" and the "local characters" to keep it going.
Haunted Honeymoon (1940) * 1/2 (out of 4) British film from MGM has Lord Peter Wimsey (Robert Montgomery) marrying mystery writer Harriet Vane (Constance Cummings) but their honeymoon is very short as they investigate a murder together.
If you look at the title and are expecting some sort of supernatural film then it's best to get that out of your mind.
After viewing this film I started to look around and read some other reviews and it seems that the majority of them were negative, although very few were as negative as my thoughts on the film.
To me this was one of those films where as soon as something happens it hits your eyes, travels to your brain and then your brain forgets what you just saw in the matter of seconds.
I think there are a couple major problems with this picture but the main one is Montgomery.
There's no question that he was a fine actor but this here has to be one of his worst performances if not the worst.
Perhaps had the film stayed closer to its source material, the play Busman's Honeymoon, then the actor could have done more with it.
This film version goes for more romantic charms than mystery and the actor just suffers the entire time.
Cummings really isn't any better and the two lack any real chemistry.
Another major problem is that the director just never makes anything interesting happen on the screen in terms of style, energy or anything else that you can think of.
HAUNTED HONEYMOON is a real snoozer from start to finish..
Read Dorothy Sayer's Busman's Honeymoon, then you'll understand why this movie is so disappointing.
The very basis of the Wimsey Vane marriage was clearly outlined in the book that neither wanted to change the other and yet in the very first scene that is precisely what they proposed to do.
Please see the Bunter actors in the later TV adaptations for a much much better idea of Bunter.
Example: Lord Peter introduces Harriet Vane as Lady Wimsey!!
I cannot imagine why the screenwriters felt they had to make these fundamental changes in character.
Good but not great..
It doesn't hold up to other mystery/comedies like The Thin Man Series.
Sayers fans, who have very particular ideas about adapting stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.
One reviewer called the title change (from Busman's Honeymoon to Haunted Honeymoon) pointless and unnecessary.
Whatever one thinks of the title Haunted Honeymoon, the title change was understandable.
Very few in America are familiar with the phrase "Busman's Holiday," which the original title is meant to be a version of.
Not for Fans of Dorothy Sayers, But.....
When I think about whom to cast as Lord Peter Wimsey, I think of someone skilled at playing silly-ass aristocrats.
I know that Ian Carmichael appeared in several television adaptations of Sayers' Wimsey novels in the 1970s, and I hope to have a chance to see them some day.
For this one, they might have cast one of the Aldwych farceurs: Ralph Lynn (the descriptions of Lord Peter in the earlier novels make him sound like Lynn) or Claude Hulbert.
Instead, MGM originally cast Robert Donat after his success in GOODBYE MR.
CHIPS and, when he dropped out, used the visiting Robert Montgomery -- a fine actor, but not really suited for the role.
Then they rewrote it so that Peter and Harriet (played by Constance Cummings) were more like Nick and Nora Charles in this hash of BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON.Sigh.
I'd still like to see Sayers' story done right, but that's not going to happen any time soon.
Leslie Banks as Lord Peters' philosophical brother-in-law, reduced to an admiring acoylite; Seymour Hicks, really too old for Buntner, but playing the imperturbable butler.
Frank Pettingell is fine as the jack-of-all-trades Puffett, and Robert Newton as Frank Crutchley.
Like many another movie "adapted" from another medium, bearing only a passing relationship to the original, I force myself to look at it as something having nothing at all to do with the source material, and find it pretty good on its own account..
Quite similar to the The Thin Man series, a witty married couple bands together to help solve a murder in Haunted Honeymoon.
Robert Montgomery, a man who solves crimes as a hobby, and Constance Cummings, a crime novelist, are married and vow to give up that part of their lives.
However, as soon as they arrive at an English cottage for their honeymoon, a man is murdered!
There are an abundance of suspects, from the niece who was to inherit the deceased's money, Joan Kemp-Welch, to the poor handyman, Robert Newton, to the corrupt policeman, James Carney.
"You know where to find us?" Robert Montgomery asks as he and Constance physically leave the room to avoid the temptation.
The chemistry between the three leads is very funny, as is the chemistry between Robert, Constance, and their butler, Seymour Hicks.
Fans of Jeremy Swift, one of the butlers from Downton Abbey will see an uncanny likeness in Seymour's performance, from the facial expressions to the delivery of his lines.Parts of Haunted Honeymoon are very funny, but parts of the crime-solving methods are a little far-fetched.
And if you're curious to hear Robert Newton sneaking in a pre-pirate accent, which was based on his natural accent, you'll get a kick out of his rough, bad-boy role.
If you don't end up liking this movie, you can always take Robert Montgomery's advice after an unpleasant experience: "Don't mention it.
meandering murder mystery.
This was one of the MGMfilms made at Denham studios prior to the construction of their studios at Boreham Wood.Probably made in the UK to take advantage of the me quota requirements introduced by the 1938 act.This gave double quota for more expensive films.Michael Balcon was briefly in charge till he clashed with Louis B Mayer and left for Ealing.The problem with this film is that it is far too long.It spends the first 20 minutes without starting to advance the plot.The result being that by this time you have lost all interest in the film and therefore by the time the film really starts you could not care less.Looking at the credits 3 writers get credit but it probably had the input of many more.So. it becomes something of a dog's dinner.Any thriller made at Merton Park is better than this.
I don't understand how TCM gave this film four stars.
It's okay but it's no four stars.Haunted Honeymoon is based on Busman's Honeymoon, a Lord Peter Wimsey novel.
Here, Peter (Robert Montgomery) has finally married Harriet (Constance Cummings), and as a wedding gift, Peter has bought Harriet's childhood home, Tall Boys, in Biddlecombe for her.
Though they have both sworn off having anything to do with murders - him solving them, her writing about them -- they're faced with the murder of the former owner of the house, with plenty of suspects.Though I love both actors, and there was an excellent supporting cast, this film didn't hold my interest.
The end result was somewhat boring.Someone on this site mentioned that throughout the film you were reminded always that you were watching Robert Montgomery and not the character of Lord Peter Wimsey.
Montgomery was a very good actor; he was suave, he had charm, and a good sense of comedy, but most of the time I'm not sure how much effort he put into some of his films.
The end result is, most of the time I know I'm watching Robert Montgomery.I have to disagree about Constance Cummings, a beautiful actress who captured Harriet's wit and intelligence very well, and actually, the two made a fine couple.
My mom saw her in a play, Wings, later in her career.All in all, disappointing..
The Thin Man Wannabe and Wanting It Is. Some Americans have a Low Tolerance for Britain's Lord and Lady Stuff and This Movie is So Stuffy and Full of Groveling it Can Be a Hard Watch at Times.
The Cowtowing to "Privilege" is Offensive and Demeaning.Speaking of Privilege, Robert Montgomery was a Handsome, Charming Actor, but a One Trick Pony.
Getting by on His Looks and Aloof Rich-Kid (in real life) Personality.
It Plods Along Until its Over and You May be Glad it is.Note...The Honorific Title of "Lord" is said so many time in this Film it borders on Religious and is Ridiculous..
Entertaining mystery-comedy.
For me, "Haunted Honeymoon" was a perfect follow-up (although it was made almost half a century earlier!) to the Edward Petherbridge - Harriet Walter / Lord Peter Wimsey - Harriet Vane films; in the first one of those three films he meets her, in the second he courts her, in the third he finally wins her heart....and in this one they get married!
They go to the country in search of a peaceful honeymoon, but encounter murder instead.
And it is done by an ingenious murder trap - one that will be revealed only in the last 3 minutes of this fast-paced film (it may, in fact, be so fast-paced that some aspects of the mystery can be sketchy and confusing on the first viewing).
Robert Montgomery may not be aristocratic (or British) enough for the role of Lord Peter Wimsey, but otherwise he is fine, and there is something pleasingly offbeat and idiosyncratic about his chemistry with the gorgeous Constance Cummings.
Definitely disappointing, poor adaptation of original novel.
Lord Peter Wimsey has married Miss Harriet Vane and gone to live in a house named Tallboys.
So far so good, although, I'm not altogether sure the house in the novel was called Tallboys.
I think that was something to do with a later story.After that it gets disappointing.
First they have decided to give up crime, him detecting and her writing it????????
and then they arrive on the night after the death of Noakes, instead of a week later.
Bunter is supposed to have been Wimsey's batman during the Great War so should be of an age as Wimsey but instead is here played by the ageing, Sir Seymour Hicks.The accents are frightful, Deep welsh accents in the middle of Devon and the constable's name is changed from Joe to Tom. Added to that the whole banter between Wimsey and Superintendent Kirke, whom he has never met before going to Tallboys, regarding literary works is completely missing.Additionally, for some unknown reason the writers changed the village name from Pagford/Paggleham to Biddlecombe and although Harriet Vane grew up in The village, her father having been the doctor, this is never mentioned.
The villager's all act as if they have never known her when many of the elders in the village would certainly have known her as a child.The acting is very good and if you can overlook the glaring inconsistencies between the novel and the movie, then it is worth watching.
Do not read the book first, if you do not wish to be disappointed.