Mystery of the White Room

The film is of interest to me only because of Helen Mack. Otherwise, I would have never purchased the film. This film has a lot of interesting elements to make it a good mystery. However, someone really botched the story. There are lots of gaps in the logic that make the viewer totally confused. You can hardly wait to the end just to find out how they will tie up all the loose ends. They don't succeed very well. The characters are very good, but end up lacking some depth and connection with one another. The venue for the murders is a hospital, but the problem is you never see any patients. One key aspect of the story is about a patient who has to have a corneal implant. He has the implant done and the next day he can see. This was done to accomodate the outcome of the story, which takes place in a span of two days or so. This is so absurd that even an uneducated viewer would know that this is not possible.

As mentioned earlier, this could have been a good film, but the story just leaves good actors to struggle with poor material to work with. Watch the film if you are into nostalgia, but don't watch it for a good mystery.

I've seen hundreds of old mysteries, and most turn out to be silly detective yarns where you know who the killer is from the start. This is a well-written exception where the clues gradually lead to the revelation of the killer at the end. Any of a variety of characters in a hospital could be the killer. The script balances suspense, drama, and humor to lead through some interesting plot twists to the inevitable conclusion. This film was a Crime Club selection. Bruce Cabot is probably best known as Driscoll in King Kong. Coincidentally Frank Reicher had a role in that too.

In the middle of an eye-surgery operation in a large hospital, the lights in the operating room go out and the chief surgeon is murdered. It is the job of Police-Detective Spencer to figure out who in the room had something to gain from his death - he's aided by Bruce Cabot's doctor and Helen Mack's nurse.

The mystery of the white room is a fun whodunnit set in a hospital where there's patients, drama, affairs and murder - love mysteries set in one location, and here you get the usual false trails and red herrings - and of course, there's some humorous moments, with such lines like, "would you do me a favour? Go down to the morgue, tell 'em I said you're ready." The detective says this to an orderly who is trying to play detective. Most funny lines come from the detective. Needless to say, as in most mysteries of this kind, he doesn't solve the mystery- Bruce Cabot does, with the help of a patient who is given the cornea of a guy who saw the murderer! Yes, it's an absurd idea, but designed to reveal the murderer. Very sci-fi here.

This is an entertaining murder mystery from Universal Studios "Crime Club" series of the late 1930's.Basted on Dr James G Edwards mystery novel "Murder in the Surgery", it was the eighth of the Crime Club films. Rugged Bruce Cabot and pretty Helen Mack are appealing leads in a cast the includes old vets Frank Reicher and Addison Richards. Thomas E Jackson as the Detective Sargent investigator played police detectives so often in movies that he had his own personal badge.Joan Woodbury was a familiar on screen face at the time and the rest of the cast knew their way around a B film.Tom Dugan and Mabel Todd provide the obligatory if not irritating comedy relief. Director Otis Garrett worked as a film editor for Universal, the Crime Club movies were about the only films he directed. He died in 1941 at the age of 35.

Mystery of the White Room was probably the best of the Crime Club pictures. They were made to be at the bottom half of a Universal double feature. Oddly enough this movie was included in the original Shock Theater package the Universal Studios offered television stations across the country in 1957. It was marketed as a horror film rather than a mystery. Certainly not brilliant film making but an enjoyable way to pass an hour.

Dr. Finley Morton is murdered when the lights go out during a surgical operation and the suspects are numerous. Dr. Kennedy (Morton's nephew) was considered for the position of Dr. Morton's assistant until he refused to perform an operation because of cowardice. Dr. Clayton, who went and performed the operation, had a row with Morton for disobedience when following hospital regulations. Also, Dr. Thornton, who was formerly chief surgeon at the hospital until an operation performed by Morton left him without the use of his right arm. The only clue that Sergeant Spencer has lies with the deaf janitor Tony, who caught a glimpse of the murderer until a jar of acid was thrown in his face blinding him, but Dr. Clayton (who is Spencer's chief suspect) decides that the corneas from Dr. Morton can be used for Tony giving him the chance to see and identify the murderer, that is if the murderer doesn't prevent the operation. Decent movie that fills out it's just under one hour running time with few slow spots. The only thing that hurts the movie is Tom Dugan playing amateur detective, but Jackson's responses to Dugan's help are humorous. The acting is decent with the entire cast playing the murder movie stereotypes, and the plot doesn't really give too much away keeping the viewer in suspense. Rating, 7 out of 10.