Murder in the Blue Room

Quite an entertaining little gem. The Jazzy Belles are hilariously delightful. Humor and Mystery abound. The cast of characters are all great. If you're looking for some light entertainment I recommend this movie.

This is a very hard-to-find 'old house film'....but SEE IT if you get a chance! The plot synopsis was given earlier, but i'd like to give my personal comments on it.

At first, the "Andrews Sisters clones" get on your nerves, but you grow to like 'em after a bit! Anne Gwynn is lovely, as always....

It's kind of a mish-mosh of musical, mystery, drama, but it WORKS!

See it if u can! MOST enjoyable!

Murder in the Blue Room was a personal favorite of it's star, Anne Gwynne. Anne told me herself that she thought the picture 'was snappy' and 'really moved along'. I couldn't agree more! Yes, kind of odd that a Universal Pictures mystery-thriller would be laced with Boogie Woogie tunes, but, surprisingly, the numbers tie in well with the plot and are not overdrawn. Probably the best tune is the novelty number "Boogie Woogie Boogie Man", sung by the girl group to captive butler Ian Wolfe! Anne's song, "One Starry Night," dubbed by vocalist Martha Tilton, is also a very good tune. Without giving away the plot, there is an interesting twist, all wrapped up in a seaside ghost-mansion setting. Very atmospheric scenes include the interrupted party scene wherein the ghost makes an appearance at the piano, the appearance of ghoulish-costumed Larry Dearden at the costume party, and the climactic gun play in the caves underneath the mansion. Made by any other studio with other actors,this film would not have been half as good, and unfortunately the movie is rarely seen today. A great example of classic '40's Universal.

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.

Nobody made films like Universal Studios in the 1940s! They had a great stable of contract players, costumes by Vera West, and set designs that just scream of that decade! This film is a wonderful example of it all!

In an old mansion there is a mysterious bedroom, "the blue room," where a man died 20 years earlier,and now, anyone who spends the night in the room disappears!

Grace McDonald, Betty Kean, and June Preisser, as The 3 Jazzy-Belles, steal the show with their comic antics, jive dance routines and songs (Boogie Woogie Boogie Man is a highlight). Their roles originally were to be played by The Ritz Brothers! Thankfully (no offense to Ritz Bros. fans), that did not occur.

A fantastic murder-mystery-comedy-musical-combination that is truly fun! This film is a remake of two previous Universal movies THE SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM, and THE MISSING GUEST.