Margin for Error (1943)
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56% of users liked it
(70 ratings)
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… 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
- Directed By
- Otto Preminger
- Written By
- Clare Boothe Luce, Lillie Hayward
- Genres
- Mystery & Suspense, Comedy
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Feb 10, 1943 Limited
- Studio
- 20th Century Fox
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Cast
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Joan Bennett
as Sophie Baumer
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Otto Preminger
as Karl Baumer
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Carl Esmond
as Baron Max von Alvenstor
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Howard Freeman
as Otto Hurst
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Poldy Dur
as Frieda Schmidt
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Clyde Fillmore
as Dr. Jennings
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Ferike Boros
as Mrs. Finkelstein
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Joe Kirk
as Officer Solomon
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Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
as Fritz
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Elmer Jack Semple
as Saboteur
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Ted North
as Saboteur
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Hans Schumm
as Kurt Muller
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Selmar Jackson
as Coroner
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Gary Breckner
as American Announcer
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Ralph Byrd
as Pete
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Donald Dillaway
as Reporter
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Ludwig Donath
as Adolf Hitler
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Eddie Dunn
as Desk Sergeant
- Norton J. Dunn
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Byron Foulger
as Drug Store Clerk
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Dick French
as Photographer
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Edward McNamara
as Mulrooney
- Malcolm 'Bud' McTaggart
- Allan Nixon
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Michael "Ted" North
as Saboteur
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Tom Seidel
as Soldier
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Emmett Vogan
as Fingerprint Expert
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Wolfgang Zilzer
as Man
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Milton Berle
as Moe Finkelstein
- Jerry Wald
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Ruth Cherrington
as Dowager
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W.J. O'Brien
as Waiter
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David Alison
as Jacoby
