Really Surprised!

Brilliant and touching

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

In between being bested of the leading lady in numerous comedies, Ralph Bellamy played Ellery Queen in the second of four mysteries for Columbia. It's a nicely tangled murder. Noel Madison has been asked by the Chinese government to bring some gems to New York to be auctioned for poor relief. When he turns up dead in a trunk, with the jewels missing, there are plenty of people to suspect, and plenty of talent on view, including Margaret Lindsay as girlfriend/secretary Nikki Porter, Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen, Anna May Wong, Charles Lane, Mantan Moreland, Theodore von Eltz... lots of familiar faces for fans of old movies. Director James Hogan directs efficiently with no particular flair, but with his fine company, it's an enjoyable trifle and mystery fans should have no issue with the rules of the game.

A missing man coming to the States from China ends up dead in his trunk. Who's responsible and why did they do this? Well, Ellery Queen, his lady friend Nikki (Margaret Lindsay) and Ellery's dad all work together to try to put all the pieces together.Over the years, many actors played Ellery Queen and I would have assumed that Ralph Bellamy would have been among the best. After all, he was a fine actor. But despite this, this film is just not very good. Much of it is because Ellery comes off like a grouchy know-it- all and much of it is because the script just isn't very good. And, the formulaic comedy within the film amazingly lame. So, despite an almost A-picture budget, the results are no better than a sub-par B.

"Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery" from 1941 was a B movie. One of the reviews here complained about the casting and the script. I'm sure this film was slapped together, but I can't say I really minded it. I The cast was terrific: Ralph Bellamy, Margaret Lindsay, Anna May Wong, Ann Doran, James Burke, Eduardo Ciannelli, Charles Lane, and Mantan Moreland. Noel Madison (Gordon Cobb) is a ventriloquist currently in China. He is known to the Chinese, so he is given jewels that will bring about $300,000 (nearly $5 million today) and provide relief for starving China, who were invaded by Japan in 1937 and brought them under brutal rule.The Japanese military regime murdered near 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most probably almost 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war.Madison makes it back to New York but disappears. His daughter (Ann Doran) asks her friend Nikki (Margaret Lindsay), who works for Ellery, to help locate him. Nikki not only works for Ellery, but she's his competitor. He catches her at one point writing a book on his time about Madison's disappearance.Mr. Madison is found in his trunk, about to be sent to Chicago. No jewels anywhere. Plenty of suspects though.I actually like Bellamy in this role. The script provides some humor and he has a nice chemistry with Lindsay. Are these movies true to the Ellery Queen books? No - he didn't have someone like Nikki around, for one thing. Viele was not an object of derision. How often have we seen this type of thing with books made into movies? Tons. It was a surprise to see the wonderful comic actor Mantan Moreland make an appearance, as well as Charles Lane, who died at age 102 in 2007 after a 65-year career. In 1941 alone, he made 19 films. I remember Ann Doran as one of the mothers in "Lassie" - she's very young here.All in all, entertaining, though even at a little over 60 minutes, these films can seem longer.

In his heyday, Ellery Queen made good reading and was justly popular. Hollywood, in its usual wisdom, made a mockery of poor Ellery. Although Ellery Queen appears as author of these screenplays, they were actually written by contract screen writers. We'll never know whose idea it was to turn Ellery into a comedian. All the Ellery films were on par with most of the stuff of the thirties and early forties, but that is not a compliment. Trite plots, corny situations and some absolutely terrible choices for the roles. The later Ellery, Ralph Bellamy, a wonderful actor, was badly miscast and looked awkward and was completely out of step with his character. Inspector Queen as well, and they made a clown out of Sergeant Velie à la Thin Man Series (much classier films). Only in the seventies with Jim Hutton, David Wayne and Tom Reese did Hollywood finally get it right. All three of these fine actors were perfectly cast for the parts they played, and displayed the intelligence one should expect. The highlight of this outing was the unexpected appearance of Mantan Moreland. A servile part, but he was always a pleasure to watch. Despite their shortcomings, I watch the old detective movies anyway when they come around, even if they are silly. It brings back the good old days, scrunched in a dark theater with a bag of popcorn in hand, all for 15 cents. For that I'll cut them some slack.