Murder in the Blue Room

A ritzy party celebrates a dusty old mansion's reopening. A ghost bursts in and scares everybody, but it's just a guest in a costume having a little joke. There's dancing and singing and we meet the usual characters:

Anne Gwynn, whose father died mysteriously in the house's "blue room" 20 years ago, at which time the place was shut up; mystery writer Donald Cook, who has been invited to the party to look into the legend of the blue room; and John Litel, who is Gwynn's stepfather and the house's current owner.

We also meet the Three Jazzybelles, a singing trio who've been hired to entertain and find it difficult to leave.

The plot is familiar but entertaining. One bold guest announces that he's sleeping in the blue room in order to disprove the ghost stories...and then in the morning, he's disappeared. Police detective Regis Toomey is called in and the rest of the picture is Toomey asking everybody questions, Cook and Gwynn doing their own investigating, and the Jazzybelles rummaging around the house looking for clues while also singing a couple of cute songs.

The music and plenty of silly dialog keep things light. The house full of dark shadows and secret passages is not all that scary but there are a couple of suspenseful moments. Cook and Gwynn are fine leads although we never get to know them particularly well. The rest of the cast is pretty predictable, I suppose, but deliver laughs as expected. Nothing too original or exciting but it is lots of fun.