Home Sweet Homicide is a 1946 American comedy mystery film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Peggy Ann Garner, Randolph Scott and Lynn Bari. It was based on the 1944 eponymous mystery novel by Craig Rice. Though he would make a further 39 films, Home Sweet Homicide is the second-to-last non-western film of Randolph Scott's career.
Plot
When gunshots are heard next door, the three children of widowed mystery novelist Marian Carstairs try to help the police help their mother solve the case or solve it themselves.
Polly Walker, an actress, runs from the neighbors' house, telling police lieutenant Bill Smith that she had gone there to see Flora Sanford and found her dead. Flora was an agent who represented Polly as well as Marian, whose books feature a detective character with the same name as Bill's.
Various suspects are considered, including other neighbors and Flora's hiding husband, who had fallen in love with Polly and wanted a divorce. The children begin sending anonymous letters, believing they are helping the investigation, until Bill finally persuades them to let him handle the case. He solves it, then expresses a romantic interest in Marian, pleasing the kids.
Cast
Randolph Scott as Lt. Smith
Peggy Ann Garner as Dinah
Lynn Bari as Marian
Dean Stockwell as Archie
Connie Marshall as April
Stanley Logan as Cherrington
Anabel Shaw as Polly
Barbara Whiting as Jo-Ella Holbrook
James Gleason as Sgt. O'Hare
Sheppard Strudwick as Wallace Sanford
Lenita Lane as Mrs. Flora Sanford
Olin Howland as Luke
Marietta Canty as Cherrington Housekeeper
Pat Flaherty as Murphy
James Seay as Frank Riley
References
Bibliography
Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.