After playing mystery writer Stuart Palmer's schoolmarm sleuth Hildegard Withers in three charming whodunits for RKO Radio Pictures, star Edna Mae Oliver departed for the sunnier shores of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and featured roles in such prestige pictures as Jack Conway's A Tale of Two Cities (1935) and George Cukor's David Copperfield (1935) and Romeo and Juliet (1936). Stepping into Miss Withers' sensible shoes for her first and only stab at the role in Murder on a Bridal Path (1936) was former vaudeville comic Helen Broderick (mother of Broderick Crawford, then 25 years old), at the time between assignments as a comic foil for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the RKO musicals Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936). Based on Palmer's 1935 novel Puzzle of the Red Stallion, the film follows the seemingly accidental death of a young socialite on Central Park's bridle path to its inevitable reveal as murder most foul in a creepy Long Island mansion. Returning series regular James Gleason (as Withers' policeman paramour Oscar Piper) was promoted from second to top billing for this invigorating romp and retained it for the last two series entries, which partnered him with ZaSu Pitts as the exacting but indefatigable amateur detective. Featured in smaller roles in Murder on a Bridal Path is African-American comic Willie Best, as a helpful stable hand named High Pockets, and crooner Tony Martin.

By Richard Harland Smith