The Penguin Pool Murder

Exteriors and interiors at the old New York Aquarium at Battery Park (closed in 1941) make good framing for striking intensity with exhibitor Hemingway (Clarence Wilson), broker Parker (Guy Usher) and his sneaking wife (Mae Clarke), in the first “Miss Withers” picture, starring Edna May Oliver, from the Stuart Palmer novel, Penguin Pool Murder, 1932.

Upstairs at the aquarium, debriefing witnesses, James Gleason as cop Piper tangles with Edna May Oliver as the lead, schoolteacher-snoop Miss Withers, interviewing potential suspect Seymour (Donald Cook), as the cop Donovan (Edgar Kennedy) stops another crime, in Penguin Pool Murder, 1932.

Following a lead, Edna May Oliver as schoolteacher-sleuth Miss Withers engages the sultry sectary (Mary Mason) of the victim, her last barb a reference to the name of a well known women’s tonic, then bumps into maybe-suspicious lawyer Costello (Robert Armstrong) at the cop shop, in the first in the series, Penguin Pool Murder, 1932.

Foul play already underway, Joe Hermano the escaping thief, then the delightful introduction, George Archainbaud directing, of Edna May Oliver as schoolteacher Miss Withers in the first feature in the series based on Stuart Palmer’s novels, shot inside the old New York Aquarium, James Donlan the guard, Edgar Kennedy the cop, in Penguin Pool Murder, 1932.

Dropping by her pad to collect her exemplary notes on his interviews, cop Piper (James Gleason) is surprised by the royal spread provided by Miss Withers (Edna May Oliver, in her first appearance as the character from the Stuart Palmer novels), with much sparking as he realizes her hat-pin may have been the weapon, in Penguin Pool Murder, 1932.

A feisty school teacher (Edna May Oliver) sets out to solve a murder in an aquarium in The Penguin Pool Murder (1932).