Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, I did not detect any sound issues with my DVD-R set of the Hildegarde Withers mysteries. But yes, at times, the picture quality does tend to be a bit scratchy in appearance. This is not constant. Otherwise, this is a pretty good transfer for movies this old. The first three movies are the best because they star Edna May Oliver. Her performance of Miss Hildegarde Martha Withers is peerless. The mysteries are fun; the first involves a class outing that soon turns into murder, with Hildegarde as one of the unlikely suspects. She's determined to find the killer because she has no confidence that the police ever will. Enter James Gleason as the harried Inspector on the case. He's the perfect foil for Hildegarde; their verbal exchanges are hilarious. It's a pity they weren't paired for the full six films. Unfortunately two other actresses took over the lead role alongside James Gleason who deservedly got star billing against them. The first was the mother of actor Broderick Crawford, Helen Broderick. Although best known as a wisecracking character actress, Broderick stumbles with her interpretation of Hildegarde, turning her into an aloof sidekick given to the occasional acerbic wit. She is stiff and formal and presides over every scene with a smirk, there's nothing remotely lovable about her. Even stranger though, is the casting of ZaSu Pitts as the next Hildegarde Withers (in the last two films offered in this collection). ZaSu handily killed the series by making Hildegarde a bumbling idiot who stumbles onto the correct solution more by accident than any brilliance on her part. She reduces Hildegarde to a dizzy distracted ninny, "Oh dear, oh my............" Oh well, three out of the six films are great, the others are just okay. (But I did miss Edna May by the end of them.) Favorite verbal exchange: "Could it be suicide?" "Not unless he was a contortionist!"