Home Sweet Homicide (1946)

Wonderful character development!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Add me to the list of viewers who caught this one on Million Dollar Movie in the '50's. I really enjoyed it then, thought of it often and always wondered how to get hold of a copy and where to find one.After all these years I finally bought a DVD, put it on and clomped down memory lane. It was good to see it again but I didn't enjoy it as much - I think too many years passed, or maybe I just outgrew it. It is still a good family picture but there's not much of a mystery here. The picture needed some more suspects for mystery fans and there was a great deal of what seemed like excess footage - this film moves at ice-cutter speed and could have used a firmer editing hand. And I didn't realize the kids carried so much of the picture.The cast was excellent, no complaint there, but all in all I found the experience bittersweet. Sometimes I wish I was 15 again.

I been trying to locate this movies for years... I remember watching it on TV (Million Dollar Movies) for a whole week straight, boy that seems like a lifetime ago, . I just love all the characters especially Dean Stockwell and Peggy Ann Garner being the match maker for her mom.... Has any one been able to find this on VHS.....???? I would give anything to get a copy of this.. To this day, I look in the TV guide in hopes of catching again. PLEASE anyone out there that has a copy of this... let me know.... I will glady pay for a copy (within reason )...

"Home Sweet Homicide" first caught the attention of my friends and myself when a NYC channel aired it twice a night for one week circa 1958. We were all entranced by the film--quite possibly because we were young teenagers the same age as the leads in the film: Peggy Ann Garner, Connie Marshall and Dean Stockwell. And we watched every showing--14 times--quoting the hilarious dialogue everyday at school. In researching this overlooked gem at the library, I learned that it was based on a novel by Craig Rice, a pseudonym for a mystery writer who, in turn, based her book on her three young teenaged children. In its own unpretentious way, the film pre-dates the premise of "Halloween"--a murder in a sleepy sylvan suburb, and teenagers in peril (in fact, at the film's chilling twist-ending, Peggy Ann Garner is indeed attacked by the killer while walking down the stairsteps to the living room). The kids' widowed mother (a very droll and beautiful Lynn Bari) is a mystery writer desperately trying to finish her latest book. So her three mature-beyond-their-years children take care of the household chores (watch Connie Marshall roast a turkey for dinner!), and, one sunny day, while walking thru the village, hear the sound of gunshots. The police chalk the killing off as a suicide, the kids say it's murder, and conduct their own investigation--during which they nearly become the true killer's (you'll never guess who) next victims. But Garner, the "mother" of the threesome, decides that the handsome chief detective (Randolph Scott, never more appealing) would be the perfect match for her mother, adding further delightful complications. I cannot recommend this film highly enough. Everyone I know who has seen it loves it, and we can still quote lines of dialogue verbatim as we did when it aired-on-TV. I also came across the paperback edition of Craig Rice's novel at a garage sale in Maine and cherish it to this day (for once, a first-rate movie is the equal of a first-rate book). What a shame "Home Sweet Homicide" seems to have disappeared. It is a total, delightful, sparkling, and at times downright chilling joy. And every member of the first-rate cast is flawless (12-year-old Dean Stockwell never surpassed his witty, charming work here). Please...will someone at 20th Century Fox make this treasure available for new generations (as well as older ones) via Cable, VHS or DVD? Believe me, the response will be more-than-gratifying, as is the movie.

I saw this movie many times when I was a teenager. I keep hoping to see it on video or late night TV. Dean Stockwell was very good as well as all the children. Great Family movie and I can still recite some of the lines from the movie and I have not seen it in over 30 years.