Fred MacMurray (Pete) arrives at a backwater town to carry out some market research and find out what happened to his predecessor. He is pointed in the direction of the Fleagle family and he basically never leaves their premises. The Fleagles are a murderous bunch who are after some hidden money.The film is a comedy with plenty of slapstick. It's OK as entertainment but that's all, I'm afraid. There are some genuinely funny laugh-out-loud scenes. Two to watch out for are the Lazy-Susan episode where 7 people sit down to dinner and keep spinning the table around to avoid the plate of poison food. It's funny throughout and ends with a surprise. The second stand-out scene occurs when escaped convict Barbara Pepper (Bonnie) confronts MacMurray and mistakes him for one of her thick cousins. She quizzes him as to where the money is hidden whilst MacMurray is sitting on the real cousin who is inside the chest but whose legs are dangling over the edge making it look like they belong to MacMurray. This scene is hilarious as MacMurray tries to control the legs and throws in a bit of improvisation. I love how MacMurray keeps turning to bash the cousin on the head inside the trunk. MacMurray is good as always taking everything in his stride. Unfortunately, outside of these scenes, the film drags and certain episodes just aren't funny. You end up willing the film to finish and the final chase just drags on.

Classic comedy starring Fred MacMurray as a pollster who shows up at a hillbilly family's house looking for another pollster who went missing in the area. He finds himself knee-deep in trouble with the hillbillies, who are a clan of criminals looking for some money that only their dying grandmother knows the location of -- and she only wants to tell Fred. Things get even more crazy when Helen Walker shows up, claiming to be the Bonnie Parker-esque member of the family who recently escaped from prison.It's a very funny movie with MacMurray in rare form as the poor guy who stumbles into a weird situation and can't wait to get out of it. The bit where he pretends to talk to a ghost to fool the dumb twins is priceless. At one point in the movie there's a clever gag where MacMurray's character comes upon an idea involving an organ because he saw the same bit in The Ghost Breakers, which was another Paramount comedy directed by George Marshall. Another great scene has MacMurray doing his version of Dorf decades before Tim Conway. Helen Walker is lovely and does a fine job but her part is mostly a straight one with few laughs. Marjorie Main is wonderful as a sort of dark version of her famous Ma Kettle character. Peter Whitney is lots of fun playing a set of dimwitted but violent twins. The rest of the cast includes Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Barbara Pepper, and a scene-stealing Mabel Paige as the grandmother. It's a good comedy with a terrific cast. Probably could've trimmed ten minutes in the middle but it doesn't hurt the pace too much. Definitely worth a look.

This film was an insult to anyone's intelligence.Fred MacMurray collects statistics regarding rural areas and comes up a bunch of hillbilly murderers who are seeking a fortune buried somewhere.Helen Walker comes along and pretends to be the head gal of the clan who just broke out of jail. Turns out that she isn't Bonnie and is only there to clear her father's name. Her father was working in the bank on the night of the robbery and was accused of being part of the robbery team.Marjorie Main is the common old hag with two idiotic sons and a granddaughter who sings constantly. Main walks around with a whip and shoots a gun a lot as well. She is vile as her character is the beginning of a kinder Ma Kettle 2 years later, in 1947, and later.Bad enough, the film gets even worse with chase scenes, the real Bonnie showing up, people getting hit over the head and choked. The barn scene finale at the end becomes annoying.

Comedy fits in one of three categories, based on our two major senses of sight and sound. One is sound, in which the laughs and smiles come from witty dialog and funny sounds and noises. No visuals are necessary. Early radio entertainment was the epitome of script writing for spoken comedy. Another category is visual, in which the humor is in what we see. Pantomime is the purest form of this. And, the films of the silent era are the most common, even when clever or funny place cards follow a scene. The final category is the combination of sight and sound humor. It has a mix of funny lines and funny scenes. But, while modern films and TV comedies derive considerable humor from the facial expressions and reactions by people in scenes, that isn't what is meant by sight humor. It is the antics, movements, and physical happenings in a scene that make for sight gags or laughs. Much of today's comedy might have at least a little of both types. So, the way to classify a film is by the amount of one type or another, or both. "Murder, He Says," is unquestionably a sight comedy. It has very little witty or clever dialog. The few funny lines are useful window-dressing and support the humorous scenario we are watching at any given time. And, this film is loaded with sight gags and uproariously funny scenes. I can't think of any other movie I've watched that has had so many distinctly different scenarios developed to comedic perfection. The screen writing, direction, sets, filming and acting are all superb in "Murder, He Says." Fred MacMurray, as Pete Marshall, has never been funnier. And that's saying a lot. He took Lou Breslow's screenplay and George Marshall's direction and created some of the funniest sidesplitting scenes in filmdom. Of course, the rest of the cast had their parts, and all were excellent. Marjorie Main's role as Mamie ("Ma") is one of her best. Porter Hall is excellent as a seeming mild- mannered educated gent who has an air of mystery about him. And, Peter Whitney masterfully plays the twins, Mert and Bert. The rest of the cast shine in their roles as well. Some reviewers I've read referred to this as a dark or black comedy. But, I don't see that. There isn't any explicit or implied cynicism or skepticism about death – which would be marks of black humor. Rather, the plot of this film is a means to hold together a bunch of very silly and hilarious scenarios for laughs. On the other hand, this might fit in the category of screwball comedy. However one wants to classify "Murder, He Says," be sure to put it on the shelf of the funniest movies of all time.