The Mandarin Mystery

This adaptation of an Ellery Queen mystery concerns the theft of a rare Chinese stamp (the Mandarin of the title), which takes place in a hotel with several shifty characters and an hysterical manager (the priceless Franklin Pangborn). The mystery, such as it is, concerns both the stamp theft and two murders, and shows Ellery and his father the Inspector as a team rubbing together just enough to solve the case.

As Ellery Queen, Eddie Quillan is all wrong - he was more at home in light comedy and musicals, and this is the way he plays the character. As the heroine/chief suspect, Charlotte Henry (only remembered nowadays as 'Alice in Wonderland') isn't too bad, while others who have some impact in the cast include Rita Le Roy and Kay Hughes as sisters, and Wade Boteler as Queen senior.

If one can simply forget the literary Ellery Queen, this is an OK murder mystery (locked room murder, etc. etc. ). the problem, for Ellery Queen fans is that the whole thing, on that basis, is WAY off the mark. Queen is an analytical detective, and his father and the Police are not dolts. The books are written with more twists and turns and excellence that most others on the mystery shelf (with the possible exceptions of S.S. Van Dyne (Philo Vance) and, of course, Agatha Christie.)Dropping the comparison, one must note the ridiculousness of some of the plot e.g. the whole world knows the value of the stamp - it even appears on the Times Square news bulletin - yet the girl carries the stamp in an envelope in her open pocketbook. Despite all of this, Quillan is a fun actor, definitely not Ellery but giving the film the spunk it desperately needs. Charlotte Henry does not have a 'clue' and thus cannot handle the idiocy of what her character says and does. Still, on a chilly night, with the rain on the window, and curled up on a comfortable chair, this passes the time quickly.

Using the Ellery Queen characters, this little yarn spins a tale of a stolen stamp of great value. A murder is committed and the victim doesn't seem to fit the situation. It has that thirties silliness where all the police are a bunch of snarly knuckleheads. They couldn't find their way out of a shoebox. Anyway the young Queen, who is irreverent and extremely amorous, condescends to enter the case because he has designs on the leading lady, a feisty thing who doesn't seem to be affected by much of anything, including a corpse. There is a little crime solving of the CSI variety built in. There's lots of comedy, including a fainting hotel manager (who actually detracts from the affairs at hand. Still the plot is entertaining and fast moving and isn't as stilted and sappy than many of its genre. Queen is a bit too much for my tastes, but, then, this was another time and another place. It shows why the Thin Man series worked so well. It was the charm of their characters and they way they played off one another. Give this one a look if you can.

Eddie Quillan was an odd choice to play the lead in this detective film because he was essentially a small smart-allecky little pip-squeak--not the brilliant or studly hero you'd expect to see in this type of film. Because of this, the film certainly IS unusual. The problem is that even with this novel portrayal, the film isn't all that interesting or well-done. At best it's a mediocre time-passer and not the equal of other series detective B-films from the period. For my time, I would much rather watch a Charlie Chan, Saint or Sherlock Holmes film--they seemed to have better production values and writing as well as a leading man that was more likable. Sorry,...I just didn't particularly care for this film.

Oh, and by the way, there is no such thing as the Chinese Mandarin stamp that is worth a fortune--this was made up for the film.

What are people complaining about! This is a pretty decent movie for what it is. It's a very entertaining movie to watch, thanks to its fine good old fashioned style of humor.

If this movie was made as a serious one it would had been a very bad movie. I mean, there is not really much to the story. There are too many characters (Atleast for an one hour movie.), which makes the story and the whole whodunit element of the movie quite confusing at times. The actual plot also just isn't that interesting and concentrates on the worlds most rare stamp, that appears to have been stolen.

The movie is really being saved by its fun. The movie foremost is like a comedy, rather than really a mystery movie. The actors are all entertaining in their roles and some of them are obviously deliberately over-the-top. It makes "The Mandarin Mystery" a real pleasant and light movie to watch. You know, the sort of movie that is great to watch in between.

Nothing too impressive, just some good old fashioned- and effective, simple entertainment.

7/10

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