Dr. Morelle: The Case of the Missing Heiress

This is quite a decent little conspiracy mystery. "Cynthia" (Jean Lodge) is the eponymous heiress who has been living in the care of her controlling, wheelchair-bound, step-father "Kimber" (Philip Leaver - reminded me a little of Francis L. Sullivan). When she announces that she wishes to marry; he has to act and she promptly disappears. Her friend "Miss. Frayne" (Julia Lang) goes to investigate and puzzled by all of this, summons her employer - the hypnotist "Dr. Morelle" (Valentine Dyall) to get to the bottom of everything... It's a fairly routine mystery, and as it is told via retrospective we have little jeopardy - but it is still quite enjoyable to watch Lyall in full pomp and there are, as usual, some lovely scenes from Hugh Griffiths as the amiable, but scatty butler "Bensall". It's very much of it's time, this film - there is a condescension from Lyall to Lang that's over-egged a bit, but it doesn't spoil it too much - it's just a quickly paced, sometimes humorous, crime thriller that easily kills an hour - without killing anything else!

The popular detective Dr. Morelle played by Valentine Dyall is our protagonist who stars in the Case Of The Missing Heiress. The story is told in flashback and in this case a bad idea because we know that the good doctor's assistant Julia Lang has had no harm befall her. Not good especially for those not familiar with the character on British radio who knows that she would have to be back for next week's episode.

Morelle fancies himself Sherlock Holmes and he has the weapon of hypnotism at his command unlike Holmes. He also has Lang as a faithful scribe of his adventures, but Watson would have walked out if Holmes had ever treated him the way that Morelle treats Lang.

In any event Lang gets a call for help from an old friend who is being kept prisoner by her stepfather and unable to see her boyfriend. The friend stands to inherit a considerable fortune, but the friend after making the call disappears. Stepfather Phillip Leamer doesn't want publicity and neither does boyfriend Peter Drury.

We find out that the butler didn't do it when butler Hugh Griffith turns up dead as well and a frantic Lang calls Dyall for help. Of course when he comes to Devonshire where the spooky estate of Leamer is located, he solves the whole mess.

Griffith is best in the cast with his performance of a slightly daft butler who walks an imaginary dog. But the film itself looks like it was slapped together rather quickly no doubt to take advantage of the radio show's popularity.

Often called the "British Vincent Price," Americans have heard Valentine Dyall, even if his name and face are unfamiliar. His voice was used in countless films, TV and radio programs where his face (though handsome) was not seen.

Dyall's starring role as the hypnotist, Dr. Morelle, is the main reason to see "Dr. Morelle: The Case of the Missing Heiress." The plot is unexceptional, and the acting of most everyone else rather pedestrian. One exception is Hugh Griffith, (ten years before he won a Best Supporting Oscar for "Ben-Hur"), as the daft butler, Bensall.

Greedy, wheelchair-bound Samuel Kimber (Philip Leaver) wants to bump off his stepdaughter, Cynthia (Jean Lodge) to gain her inheritance. She wants to marry a struggling young author, escape the clutches of her stepfather and keep her money.

Heiress disappears between the old manor house she inhabits with her stepfather and Bensall and the author's humble cottage.

And the story takes off from there. Dr. Morelle's secretary, the aptly named Miss Frayle (Julia Lang), infiltrates the old dark house to see what she can find out about the disappearance of her friend.

Along the way, she makes an unlikely ally whose untimely demise hampers her effort to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, Dr. Morelle assumes several names and identities as he tries to ferret out the truth from Mr. Kimber and the young author.

Everything is wrapped up neatly in just over an hour, with a predictable ending arrived at by slightly unconventional means.

I've already given "The Case of the Missing Heiress" more cyber ink than it warrants, but there is something that sets this fairly ordinary late-40s Hammer thriller apart, and that is the commanding presence of Valentine Dyall.

The London-born Dyall (1908-1985) conquered every medium in his nearly fifty-year career: stage, film, TV and especially radio where his mellifluous voice was most famously heard in Britain in the 1940s as the star of "The Man In Black." Dyall's voice was heard much later in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" as that of Deep Thought.

In between there were a lot of spears to be carried, manors to be lorded over, and dead bodies for the trench-coated Mr. Dyall to hunch over. If his work in this unprepossessing little film is any indication of the overall quality of his work, I'm apt to look for his name in credits from now on.

As a point of interest, the character of "Dr Morelle" was created for the popular Monday night BBC radio series "Monday Night At 8" that replaced the earlier prewar "Monday Night At 7" (which introduced us to Inspector Hornleigh) that comprised a miscellany of brief lighthearted

items aimed to put listeners into a relaxed state before hearing the latest (censored) grim war front events on the 9 o'clock news - de regeur for the whole nation. The programme usually included a short spoof spy tale and,of course,breezy Ronnie Waldman's "Puzzle Corner" and that deliberate mistake... The film,itself,was another B support of the late 40s that cashed in on popular

earlier radio shows of the time,usually of moderately.if unexciting quality with acceptable production values. Others included Dick Barton,The Man In Black & Hi Gang!

This slim little movie was based on a British radio mystery series, with the main character of Dr. Morelle depicted as an all-knowing Sherlock Holmes-type detective.

This film is a pretty routine mystery, no better or worse than many. But it was spoiled for me by its "comedy relief", which consists of Dr. Morelle browbeating his female secretary with all sorts of very caustic epithets and comments about how stupid and useless she is. This is a running gag and goes on for the entire film. I'm sure male viewers chuckled and laughed at this abuse of a woman back in its day, but seeing it today, it is very uncomfortable to watch.

Times do indeed change in what constitutes entertainment.