Having Wonderful Crime

Tight opening introduces headliners, Carole Landis as affluent amateur detective Helene, Pat O’Brien as bothered lawyer Malone, and George Murphy as her new husband Jake, Emory Parnell the cop, in RKO’s Having Wonderful Crime, 1945, based on a novel by the pseudonymous “Craig Rice.”

Playboy lawyer Malone (Pat O’Brien) aims to romance the star of the water ballet (Anje Berens) at the resort where he’s followed his newlywed amateur sleuth pals Helene (Carole Landis) and Jake (George Murphy), on what suddenly becomes a real murder case, in Having Wonderful Crime, 1945.

Elaborate plotting to get pinup Carole Landis (as newlywed amateur sleuth Helene Justus) disrobed, George Murphy her husband, Pat O’Brien their fast-talking lawyer pal, Blanche Ring the rich lady paying him, and Anje Berens the water-ballerina getting excuses, in RKO’s Having Wonderful Crime, 1945.