Review of Murder, He Says

This is awfully goofy, but it does have some very good moments along the way. Fred MacMurray's likability helps a lot in keeping it from getting too silly to watch. The story is funny at times, but it relies too much on some far-fetched developments to avoid noticing it. Nonetheless, "Murder, He Says" works rather better than do the majority of movies that try this kind of approach.

The story set-up has potential, with MacMurray as a survey-taker who finds himself in an unwelcoming place, where he winds up in the middle of a complicated and hazardous situation. There are several directions that the story could have taken from there. The choice actually made was to exaggerate everything for comic effect, and to play it mostly as low comedy.

Most of the cast members get into the spirit of things, and they give their performances a lot of energy. There are some funny sequences that work well, though there are others that are a little too ridiculous.

This is the kind of movie that works best when you want a few easy laughs without having to concentrate on anything, and when your frame of mind is such that the wackier a movie is, the better. In that case, the story and characters are amusing enough to make it worth seeing.