This one is getting a 7/10 from me just on originality, even if the proceedings were a bit rushed and confusing. The film opens with a radio announcer asking the listeners to solve the mystery. But then the film solves it for you? A well dressed fur wrapped woman (Karen Morley as Jenny Wren) is going around town running errands. She is being followed by a man (Ricardo Cortez) yet unnamed for an unnamed purpose, but he does not want to give his correct name and keeps calling himself "Mr. Farnesbarnes" to anyone who asks. He obviously does not know the woman because he poses as somebody interested in renting her soon to be vacated apartment, and she does not recognize him.
That night Jenny has arranged for all of the married and well connected men with whom she has been having affairs to meet at the Andes seaside retreat home, "Crestwood", where she announces she is blackmailing them all for large sums of money so that she can retire in style. In a completely separate development, Jenny's little sister is there to with her fiancé, Frank Andes, the son of one of the men Jenny is blackmailing. Little sister is hoping to be welcomed into the Andes family. In the middle of the night, Jenny is killed with a dart to the neck, the police are called before the phone goes out, and in burst several hoods led by Gary Curtis alias Farnesbarnes, who has nothing to do with the murder but is a well known criminal. Knowing the police will try to pin the murder on him he sets about to try and solve the crime. He can do this because he and his companions are all armed. Oh, and the road is washed out too, delaying the police.
What follows is part Sherlock Holmes, part Old Dark House, part Poe (those portraits!), part German Expressionist with some crazy camera work, a ghost, hidden passage ways, and more murders. I was expecting this all to be the work of George Zucco, but alas he wasn't in the film. Ricardo Cortez is a real hoot in this one, showing a bit of his comedic side.
