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A film version of ''Margin for Error'' was released by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1943. The film featured Creator/JoanBennett as Sophie and Milton Berle as Moe Finkelstein, with Creator/OttoPreminger (who [[DirectedByCastMember also directed]]) reprising his stage role as the Consul.

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A film version of ''Margin for Error'' was released by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1943. The film featured Creator/JoanBennett as Sophie and Milton Berle Creator/MiltonBerle as Moe Finkelstein, with Creator/OttoPreminger (who [[DirectedByCastMember also directed]]) reprising his stage role as the Consul.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d1d6a714_238f_48c4_b5e2_0dd40d9a87ca.jpeg]]
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''Margin for Error'' is a 1939 BlackComedy play (originally billed as a "satirical melodrama") in two acts by Clare Boothe (author of ''Theatre/TheWomen'').

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''Margin for Error'' is a 1939 BlackComedy play (originally billed as a "satirical melodrama") in two acts by Clare Boothe Luce (author of ''Theatre/TheWomen'').
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A film version of ''Margin for Error'' was released by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1943. The film featured Creator/JoanBennett as Sophie, Milton Berle as Moe Finkelstein, and Creator/OttoPreminger (who [[DirectedByCastMember also directed]]) reprising his stage role as the Consul.

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A film version of ''Margin for Error'' was released by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1943. The film featured Creator/JoanBennett as Sophie, Sophie and Milton Berle as Moe Finkelstein, and with Creator/OttoPreminger (who [[DirectedByCastMember also directed]]) reprising his stage role as the Consul.
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A movie version of ''Margin for Error'' was released by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1943. The movie featured Joan Bennett as Sophie, Milton Berle as Moe Finkelstein, and Creator/OttoPreminger (who [[DirectedByCastMember also directed]]) reprising his stage role as the Consul.

to:

A movie film version of ''Margin for Error'' was released by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1943. The movie film featured Joan Bennett Creator/JoanBennett as Sophie, Milton Berle as Moe Finkelstein, and Creator/OttoPreminger (who [[DirectedByCastMember also directed]]) reprising his stage role as the Consul.
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* MusicToInvadePolandTo: [[invoked]] The Consul buys a record of Creator/RichardWagner's "Liebestod," but puts on the wrong record first:

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* MusicToInvadePolandTo: [[invoked]] The Consul buys a record of Creator/RichardWagner's Music/RichardWagner's "Liebestod," but puts on the wrong record first:



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* BiggerBad: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is obviously the power behind the German Consul, but his presence in the play is limited to a bronze bust and an obnoxious radio speech.


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* GreaterScopeVillain: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is obviously the power behind the German Consul, but his presence in the play is limited to a bronze bust and an obnoxious radio speech.
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* WhoMurderedTheAsshole: As mentioned above in EveryoneIsASuspect, the majority of the people in his office have motives for wanting him dead.
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The action is set in the UsefulNotes/{{Nazi German|y}} consulate in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Much to the Consul's displeasure, the building is being guarded by Jewish policemen, including Officer Moe Finkelstein. The Consul, whose name is Karl Baumer, has other problems. Anonymous admirers have been sending him gifts that smell of BitterAlmonds. A long line of distressed visitors, including Dr. Jennings, petition him to help liberate their friends and relatives from concentration camps. His Czech-American wife Sophie is having an affair with Thomas Denny, a newspaper columnist and unflappable anti-Nazi. His secretary, Baron Max von Alvenstor, seems uncommitted to the Nazi cause, unlike the Milwaukee-born German-American Bund leader, Otto B. Horst, whose posturing as the self-styled "American Fuehrer" has made himself a public shame, with Moe, for one, wanting to put him behind bars. Last but not least, his Berlin superiors have given him a deadline to make up for the missing $250,000 that he gambled away on the stock market.

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The action is set in the UsefulNotes/{{Nazi German|y}} consulate in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Much to the Consul's displeasure, the building is being guarded by Jewish policemen, including Officer Moe Finkelstein. The Consul, whose name is Karl Baumer, has other problems. Anonymous admirers have been sending him gifts that smell of BitterAlmonds. A long line of distressed visitors, including Dr. Jennings, petition him to help liberate their friends and relatives from concentration camps. His Czech-American wife Sophie is having an affair with Thomas Denny, a newspaper columnist and unflappable anti-Nazi. His secretary, Baron Max von Alvenstor, seems uncommitted to the Nazi cause, unlike the Milwaukee-born German-American Bund leader, Otto B. Horst, whose posturing as the self-styled "American Fuehrer" has made himself a public shame, with Moe, for one, wanting to put him behind bars. An angry mob has gathered outside the Consulate, ready to throw things at Baumer. Last but not least, his Berlin superiors have given him a deadline to make up for the missing $250,000 that he gambled away on the stock market.
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\"these items need to be moved to either the YMMV or Trivia tab: Music To Invade Poland To\" NO IS


* MusicToInvadePolandTo: The Consul buys a record of Creator/RichardWagner's "Liebestod," but puts on the wrong record first:

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* MusicToInvadePolandTo: [[invoked]] The Consul buys a record of Creator/RichardWagner's "Liebestod," but puts on the wrong record first:
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* CitizenshipMarriage: Denny promises to marry Sophie so she won't be extradited to Germany for murdering her husband.
* CrimeReconstruction: Moe has Dr. Jennings, Denny, Max, Sophie and Horst go back to the positions they were in at the time of the Consul's death and a few minutes before, to test out different theories of how the Consul was killed. Moe himself stands in for the Consul.
* DivideAndConquer: Otto Horst claims that this is his best propaganda strategy for Nazism in America:
-->'''Horst''': No, Baron, my best bet is to create conflict among creeds and colors. Then step in, when they're exhausted, and take the whole country over--''bang!'' Next week I attack the Catholics, Masons, Negroes, and Café Society.\\
'''Max''': Perhaps you'd better just purge Elsa Maxwell, and leave the rest to Hitler.
* EveryoneIsASuspect: Even before Consul Karl Baumer is killed, Denny is keeping a running count of how many of the people in his office want him dead. Denny, Sophie, Max, Otto and Dr. Jennings all have personal motives for his murder; though Moe wasn't in the room at the time, he considers being Jewish enough for some people to suspect him for killing the Consul.

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%% Trope list under construction

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%% Trope list under construction* BiggerBad: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is obviously the power behind the German Consul, but his presence in the play is limited to a bronze bust and an obnoxious radio speech.
* MusicToInvadePolandTo: The Consul buys a record of Creator/RichardWagner's "Liebestod," but puts on the wrong record first:
-->'''Max''': I--I was just listening to the music--\\
'''Consul''': Yes, very soothing. Hitler and I also have Wagner in common.\\
'''Max''': That's not Wagner. That's Mendelssohn. Played by Heifetz.
* NaziNobleman: Baron Max von Alvenstor is blond-haired, blue-eyed, and helped beat a Jew to death in Berlin on the night of November 7th, 1938. Though a loyal German, he speaks perfect Oxford English, and his Nazi sympathies are doubtful, especially after it's revealed that his grandmother was Jewish.
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''Margin for Error'' is a 1939 BlackComedy play (originally billed as a "satirical melodrama") in two acts by Clare Boothe (author of ''Theatre/TheWomen'').

The action is set in the UsefulNotes/{{Nazi German|y}} consulate in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Much to the Consul's displeasure, the building is being guarded by Jewish policemen, including Officer Moe Finkelstein. The Consul, whose name is Karl Baumer, has other problems. Anonymous admirers have been sending him gifts that smell of BitterAlmonds. A long line of distressed visitors, including Dr. Jennings, petition him to help liberate their friends and relatives from concentration camps. His Czech-American wife Sophie is having an affair with Thomas Denny, a newspaper columnist and unflappable anti-Nazi. His secretary, Baron Max von Alvenstor, seems uncommitted to the Nazi cause, unlike the Milwaukee-born German-American Bund leader, Otto B. Horst, whose posturing as the self-styled "American Fuehrer" has made himself a public shame, with Moe, for one, wanting to put him behind bars. Last but not least, his Berlin superiors have given him a deadline to make up for the missing $250,000 that he gambled away on the stock market.

Determined to solve all his problems before he and his servants listen to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's broadcast from Nuremberg at 5:00 (which is delayed as usual), the Consul plans to have Max serve as scapegoat for the money troubles and commit suicide after being exposed as a Jew, to make a martyr of Horst by framing Moe for his murder, to con Dr. Jennings into providing him with a blank check, and to blackmail Denny into giving him good press with threats against Sophie. But Moe winds up conducting a homicide investigation when he finds the Consul dead as Hitler's awful speech is still going on.

A movie version of ''Margin for Error'' was released by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1943. The movie featured Joan Bennett as Sophie, Milton Berle as Moe Finkelstein, and Creator/OttoPreminger (who [[DirectedByCastMember also directed]]) reprising his stage role as the Consul.
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!!This play contains examples of:
%% Trope list under construction
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