Margin for Error (1943)

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Clare Booth Luce's once-timely stage comedy Margin for Error was indifferently transferred to the screen in 1943. Milton Berle stars as Moe Finkelstein, a Jewish Brooklyn policeman assigned to guard Nazi consul Karl Baumer (Otto Preminger) in pre-WW II New York. Baumer is not only an anti-Semitic… More Clare Booth Luce's once-timely stage comedy Margin for Error was indifferently transferred to the screen in 1943. Milton Berle stars as Moe Finkelstein, a Jewish Brooklyn policeman assigned to guard Nazi consul Karl Baumer (Otto Preminger) in pre-WW II New York. Baumer is not only an anti-Semitic brute, but he's also a crook, siphoning off German consulate funds for his own use. His perfidy is well known by his wife Sophie (Joan Bennett), who married Baumer only to save her family from a concentration camp, and by Baumer's assistant Baron von Alvenstor (Carl Esmond). Thus, when Baumer is found dead of poison, stabbing and gunshot wounds, Sophie and the Baron are immediately suspected of murder. But Finkelstein comes to the rescue by piecing together the clues and coming up with a bizarre, but credible, solution to the crime. Having previously directed himself as Karl Baumer in the Broadway version of Margin for Error, Otto Preminger felt qualified to do the same in the film version: as a result, Preminger has no one but himself to blame for his shamelessly hammy performance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 14 min.
Directed By: Otto Preminger
Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Comedy

In Theaters: Feb 10, 1943 Wide

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Cast

            Joan Bennett as Sophie Baumer

            Otto Preminger as Karl Baumer

            Carl Esmond as Baron Max von Alvenstor

            Howard Freeman as Otto Hurst

            Poldy Dur as Frieda Schmidt

            Clyde Fillmore as Dr. Jennings

            Ferike Boros as Mrs. Finkelstein

            Joe Kirk as Officer Solomon

            Hans Heinrich von Twardowski as Fritz

            Elmer Jack Semple as Saboteur

            Ted North as Saboteur

            Hans Schumm as Kurt Muller

            Selmar Jackson as Coroner

            Gary Breckner as American Announcer

            Ralph Byrd as Pete

            Donald Dillaway as Reporter

            Ludwig Donath as Adolf Hitler

            Eddie Dunn as Desk Sergeant

            Norton J. Dunn
            
            Byron Foulger as Drug Store Clerk

            Dick French as Photographer

            Edward McNamara as Mulrooney

            Malcolm 'Bud' McTaggart
            
            Allan Nixon
            
            Michael "Ted" North as Saboteur

            Tom Seidel as Soldier

            Emmett Vogan as Fingerprint Expert

            Wolfgang Zilzer as Man

            Milton Berle as Moe Finkelstein

            Jerry Wald
            
            Ruth Cherrington as Dowager

            W.J. O'Brien as Waiter

            David Alison as Jacoby
See full cast

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