Murder on the Blackboard

Murder on the Blackboard is a 1934 American PreCode mysterycomedy film starring Edna May Oliver as schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and James Gleason as Police Inspector Oscar Piper. Together, they investigate a murder at Withers school. It was based on the novel of the same name by Stuart Palmer. It features popular actor Bruce Cabot in one of his first postKing Kong roles, as well as Gertrude Michael, Regis Toomey and Edgar Buchanan.

Miss Withers Edna May Oliver discovers the dead body of her colleague, music teacher Louise Halloran Barbara Fritchie, in a schoolroom. She summons her old friend, Inspector Oscar Piper James Gleason, but by the time he arrives, the corpse has disappeared. Having watched the only entrance other than a fire exit with an alarm, Miss Withers knows the killer must still be inside. When the police search the building, Detective Donahue Edgar Kennedy is knocked out in the basement. Meanwhile, Miss Withers notices various clues, including a tune on the blackboard in Hallorans classroom. The body is found being burned in the basement furnace. Then, the fire alarm goes off the murderer has escaped.Oscar Schweitzer Frederick Vogeding, the schools drunkard janitor, had some financial quarrel with Halloran. Piper arrests him, but Miss Withers does not believe he is the one they are after. She goes to the dead womans apartment, which she had shared with her friend and school secretary, Jane Davis Gertrude Michael. There she discovers that Halloran held one of the tickets for the Irish Sweepstakes. A newspaper account reports it is for the favorite in the race and is already worth 50,000. If the horse were to win, the amount would be 300,000. Davis claims she had a half share in the ticket, giving her a motive for murder. Fellow teacher Addison Stevens Bruce Cabot admits that Halloran was attracted to him. MacFarland Tully Marshall, the womanizing head of the school, asks Withers to investigate the crime, but suspiciously suggests she leave town to check out Hallorans relatives. Snooping around, she finds a fragment of a burnt love letter from him to Halloran. ........

Source: Wikipedia