La invitada misteriosa

PI Stephanie Bachelor and pal Isabel Withers are invited to a party at a ranch. That's the cover story. It seems that Helen Heigh is cheating on husband Richard Fraser. Then Fraser turns up murdered and Miss Bachelor has to contend with sheriff Bob Livingston in this modern-dress western mystery with occasional gusts of comedy.

For every four or five westerns Livingston made for Republic, he made some other movie: a fantasy or a murder mystery or such. Here they back him up with an interesting cast that includes Betty Blythe and John Dehner in this high-speed B movie that times in under an hour.

No great profundity here, just a charming little comedy-mystery-romance starring Bob Livingston, an actor of great charisma and wit, as a small-town sheriff pitted against/teamed with visiting big-city detective Stephanie Bachelor. Ms. Bachelor was in a number of films between 1943 and 1948, then seems to have dropped from the big screen. She too is an actor with charisma and charm, and the romantic disagreements between her and Livingston are delightful. Add to this a slate of colorful and quirky supporting characters, and a mystery that could have held its own in a serious mystery film, and you've got an hour of solid b-movie entertainment that is typical of what Republic Pictures did so well.

You can't see crucial parts of this film. The screen is just black. No point in that whatsoever. I assume it's the age of the film that has led to the light deteriorating and perhaps some budget processes during the making of the film. If not, it's completely stupid of the director to film like this and he should be fired. On the spot dismissal.

The undercover woman is Stephanie Bachelor (Marcia) who has been invited to a society do by Helene Heigh (Laura). Heigh wants Bachelor to get evidence that her husband Richard Fraser (Gregory) is having an affair. It's pretty obvious, really, as Elaine Lange (Juanita) runs around with him everywhere. It's a comedy detective story so we get a murder and the film plays out as a whodunnit. I'm going to be honest and admit that I didn't guess correctly but my wife called it on her first go. Pay attention as it can get a bit confusing with the cast of characters and good luck with following anything during the end sequence. You can't see anything. Then an explanation is fired at you which would normally need a bit more time to digest. End of film.