A Sombra da Morte

Ralph Bellamy makes the third of four appearances as "master detective" Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime. The principal villain is crooked stockbroker John Mathews (Douglass Dumbrille), whose Wall Street manipulations render Ray Jarden (H. B. Warner) penniless. Mathews' chicanery seems particularly coldblooded, inasmuch as his daughter Marian (Linda Hayes) is engaged to Jarden's son Walter (John Beal). When the latter disappears, Mathews asks Ellery Queen to locate the young man.

An entertaining enough Ellery Queen mystery that has humour and plenty of monkey business. The suspects are quite diverse, one of them is Spring Byington who steals every scene she is in. She's dizzy one minute and callous the next. The ending, though, could've been clearer. The zaniness needed to be reined in a bit.