With the end of Prohibition, bootlegger Remy Marco (shown as "Marko" in one sequence) becomes a legitimate brewer, but he slowly goes broke because the beer that he makes tastes terrible and everyone is afraid to tell him so.

After four years, with bank officers preparing to foreclose on the brewery, he retreats to his Saratoga summer home, only to find four dead mobsters who had planned to ambush him but were killed by another gang member.

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent called A Slight Case of Murder "just about the funniest show the new year has produced" and wrote: "It goes after its laughs with Rabelaisian gusto, a dialogic scorn of the grammatical properties and an impolite subscription to the dictum: de mortuis nil nisi mayhem.

"[1] Los Angeles Times reviewer Edwin Schallert wrote: "It is one of the most laughable and clever productions of the type, providing Edward G. Robinson with the best part that he has had in several recent films.

On April 8, 1945, Old Gold Comedy Theatre presented a 30-minute adaptation of the story on NBC Radio, starring Edward G. Robinson and Allen Jenkins.