Murder, He Says

Murder, He Says (1945) is a slapstick comedy film about a murderous rural family and the hapless pollster who becomes entangled in their hunt for a cache of money. Peter Marshall (Fred MacMurray), who works for the Trotter Poll ("like the Gallup Poll, but not as fast"), is sent out to find a missing co-worker, Hector Smedley. He goes to see the last family the man was supposed to interview, the nutty, gun-toting Fleagles. The matriarch of the clan, Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson (Marjorie Main), insists he pretend to be the boyfriend of jailed Bonnie Fleagle in order to gain the confidence of her dying grandmother (Mabel Paige). Grandma Fleagle has hidden $70,000 stolen by Bonnie and her now-executed father, but refuses to divulge where...