The Unknown

"The Unknown" (1946) is a surprisingly entertaining and atmospheric mystery inspired by the "I LOVE A MYSTERY" radio program. It is actually one of three Republic B-movies based on the program, all featured straight arrow detective Jack Packard and his corn-pone partner Doc Long (Barton Yarborough).

In "The Unknown" Jack and Doc are hired to escort young Nina Arnold (Jeff Donnell) to her ancestral mansion in Kentucky for the reading of her grandmother's will. The twist is that Nina was placed in foster care as an infant and will be meeting her mother Rachel (Karen Morley) for the first time. The mansion is spooky with her grandfather's body buried behind the fireplace and a mausoleum full of seemingly restless ancestors located outside the house.

I was very surprised at how well written and nicely paced this film was. It's a good yarn with a lot of misdirection and some unexpected plot elements.

Although Bannon and Yarborough are the series regulars, top billing for "The Unknown" went to Morley. Deservedly so as it is clearly her film, she plays an addled woman who never recovered from the loss of her baby daughter. She keeps a baby crib in her bedroom and hears a baby crying throughout the film. The was probably Morley's best performance, shortly after she fell victim to the HUAC hearings and worked very little in the industry from that point.

The other two "I LOVE A MYSTERY" thrillers are also quite entertaining but neither has anything to match Morley's performance.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

The third and last film based on the I Love A Mystery series has San Francisco PIs Jim Bannon and Barton Yarborough accompanying Jeff Donnell for the reading of andma's will at the Martin Family estate. The Martins are an old southern family in the Tennessee Williams/William Faulkner tradition and they are on creepy bunch.

Donnell has been raised away from them in a boarding school all her life and she's now meeting her family including her unbalanced mother Karen Morley for the first time. There's grandma s will to be read, but a whole lot of strange things going on including one real murder.

Good thing Donnell has teo {Is with her as Bannon and Yarborough get to the bottom of things,

Nice if cheaply made mystery with some horror overtones.

Although there's a little too much Southern exposition to set the stage for a present day story, THE UNKNOWN is a better than average programmer in the Columbia studio's "I Love A Mystery" series. Getting to the heart of the story takes up too much time at the start, but once the story starts dealing with the mysterious things going on in an old Southern mansion, it keeps building interest until the mystery is solved.

The cast is an interesting one, even though there are hardly any big names involved. KAREN MORLEY is the troubled woman on the brink of madness, ROBERT WILCOX is her lover who has been banished from the grounds, JIM BANNON is Jack Packard, the detective, and BARTON YARBOROUGH is again his partner. JEFF DONNELL is the lady who stands to win an inheritance and MARK ROBERTS is the young lawyer designated to read the will.

All of it is directed in nimble style by Henry Levin, an old hand at these sort of programmers and, despite the low budget, given some handsome settings.

Summing up: Gets off to a slow start but gradually builds interest.

Re: the review of the Unknown by the reviewer from Kentucky. Republic Studios did not produce the I Love A Mystery series. It was Columbia Pictures. I have the original lobby card from the first film, "I Love A Mystery" (adapted from the radio play "The Decapitation of Johnathen Monk) and probably the only film in the series that was faithful to the radio series. The other two films simply used the characters of Jack Packard and Doc Long. My friend, Carole Mathews appeared in the first film, and signed the lobby card for me. She also provided me with a DVD of the film. Columbia also produced the Whistler film series, which for some reasons lasted longer. There were only 3 films made in the I Love A Mystery series and why they were discontinued is anybody's guess. Probably box office appeal.

Unknown, The (1946)

** (out of 4)

The third and final film in Columbia's short-lived "I Love a Mystery" series. This time out Jack (Jim Bannon) and Doc (Barton Yarborough) travel to the South with a woman who claims to be the granddaughter of a woman who recently died. The will is about to be read and those who were expecting more money aren't too thrilled with the new family member and soon they're trying to uncover a secret from the past. Having now seen all three entries in this series I can easily say this is a major step up from the second film (THE DEVIL'S MASK) but not quite as good as the first (I LOVE A MYSTERY). I think this films biggest flaw is that there's simply way too much story and too many mysteries trying to be solved. The film starts off with a good ten-minute prologue that sets up various things that are going to happen throughout the film. I thought the opening was handled very well but the rest of the film didn't really build on it. Once in the present day it takes way too long for all the characters to be introduced and in the end the mystery just has too much fluff and not enough interesting things. Both Bannon and Yarborough slide into their roles quite nicely, although I'm sure there are going to be some that won't enjoy their brand of "comedy" so to speak. The real star is is Karen Morley who even manages to get the top billing. I thought she delivered a fine performance and really made her character quite interesting. The film's Southern settings are actually pretty good and we're really given a dark and Gothic look in this old mansion. There are many horror trappings mixed in with the comedy and drama but in the end THE UNKNOWN simply doesn't have strong enough of a screenplay to make everything work.