Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery

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.

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.

There's lots of intriguing goings-on in this jewel smuggling mystery. The Great Ventro is the smuggler but he soon disappears after he checks in to the Hollandsworth Hotel in New York. Ellery Queen discovers his body in a trunk which is just about to be smuggled out of the hotel. The main mystery is what has Ventro done to the jewels he has brought into the country from China?

The Oriental intrigue in this is good. Mystifying coded message are being sent. The codes in them seem to represent the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Ellery Queen has to discover their significance.

There is a bellboy at the hotel who seems to know too much. A Count Brett is sniffing around to find the jewels. A Chinese woman is also snooping and really gets up the nose of Ellery Queen's secretary. I enjoy the way that secretary always feel she has to chaperone any female that goes anywhere near Ellery Queen.

Ralph Bellamy and Margaret Lindsay play off each other well as Ellery Queen and his secretary. It's an enjoyable film that has the viewer wondering throughout.

Noel Madison who is a professional ventriloquist and also something of an international man of mystery is given a fortune in jewels to take from China to New York. The money from the sail is to provide war relief for the starving Chinese people. But complications do ensue.

When Madison disappears his daughter Ann Doran seeks out her friend Margaret Lindsay. In the only reference to a previous Queen film that I've seen so far she compliments her on assisting Ellery Queen in the John Braun death from Ellery Queen Master Detective.

With such a flattering reference how could Ralph Bellamy resist a call for assistance. Bellamy finds the dead Mr. Madison stuffed in a trunk about to be shipped to Chicago.

Bellamy has a nice collection of suspects including the mysterious Anna May Wong, business manager Russell Hicks, another man of mystery Eduardo Ciannelli to name three. Eventually the murder is solved and quite frankly I guessed who it was, but the motive came out of left field.

Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery was the second of four with Ralph Bellamy, dare I say it, the best of the movie Queens.

This outing for the famed detective really did remind me of the contemporary "Charlie Chan" adventures and to be honest, it comes off the worst. When a wealthy Chinese family donate some gems to try and help alleviate the problems of their starving population. It falls to ventriloquist "Madison" (Gordon Cobb) to get them to New York when they can be converted into cash - some $300,000! He goes missing so his daughter contacts her pal "Nikki" (an on-form Margaret Lindsay) who just happens to work for our eponymous sleuth (Ralph Bellamy) - and off we go on a rather complex cloak and dragon dagger mystery that includes a body in a trunk in a penthouse and more suspects than you can shake a stick at. Can the constantly bickering "Queen" and "Nikki" get to the bottom of the mystery before the jewels are gone forever? It's quite a characterful edition of the franchise this with Bellamy competent enough, but it's let down by a pretty formulaic story and a conclusion that is too convenient and rushed. Keep an eye out for Mantan Moreland, but otherwise this is just standard detective fayre that amiably but forgettably kills an hour.