Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring

This was more of a comedy than an Ellery Queen mystery from 1941.

Mrs. Stack (Blanche Yurka), the owner of a private hospital suspects her chief surgeon (George Zucco) is up to no good. Inspector Queen (Charley Grapewin) sends Ellery (Ralph Bellamy) in as a patient. Meanwhile, her son (Leon Ames), indebted to mobsters, needs his inheritance early so he arranges to have his mother murdered.

The would-be killers Page and Lou (Paul Hurst and Tom Dugan) try to run her over and fail. Mrs. Stack is injured and brought to the hospital along with Page, who broke his leg.

Nikki (Margaret Lindsay) shows up, disguised as a nurse. She mistakes what she sees going on in Mrs. Stack's room and tells Ellery the hospital is on fire. He runs out of his room, wrapped in his bedclothes with his pants on one leg and dragging his hospital bed. His other leg is stuck in a suitcase.

Turns out Mrs. Stack was indeed murdered. Page tries to get out of the hospital with the help of partner Lou, with Page posing as a corpse as he smokes a cigar under the sheet. His body is mixed up with that of Mrs. Stack.

There are more murders. It's mayhem. Nikki gets right in the middle. In fact she ends up in a trunk.

Also one of the orderlies mentions bank night. That refers to prizes given out at the movies to encourage people to attend. You can see how sometimes people might have needed an incentive.

Ralph Bellamy made four Ellery Queen movies for Larry Darmour, releasing through Columbia in the early 1940s. The fourth is a typically well constructed murder mystery. Blanche Yurka is a penny-pinching rich woman whom everyone wants dead: her son, Leon Ames, whom she won't give any money to; her daughter, Jean Fenwick, whom she keeps on a similarly tight leash; George Zucco, the head doctor at the hospital she owns, who wants to give his medical advance to the world, when she insists she owns it; and gangsters Paul Hurst and Tom Dugan, who have run her off the road to kill her on Ames' instruction. She winds up in the hospital, not dead.... but dies, strangled.... everyone wants her dead. No one could have done it.

A fine mystery and, like the others in the series, it plays fair with the fans of the genre. Unfortunately, it's a lot weaker than earlier entries, being weakened by a ot of dumb humor to eke its length out to a standard length of just over 69 minutes. It's good to see Bellamy, Margaret Linday as Nikki Porter and Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen again, but the movie would have been more pleasing had it been a bit less stereotyped. and rote.

The fourth and final film of the Ellery Queen series that Ralph Bellamy starred in has the mystery writer checking into a hospital that grande society dame Blanche Yurka has endowed. Later on when Yurka is killed there are a lot of suspects at home and in the hospital. Her two children Leon Ames and Jean Fenwick who are about to be cut from her will for instance. Doctor in charge of the hospital George Zucco has a vested interest as does gangster Paul Hurst whom Ames is into for a lot of money. Not to mention all kinds of hospital staff and patients.

Two more deaths occur before Bellamy, girl Friday Margaret Lindsay and Inspector Queen played always by Charley Grapewin figure it all out.

There's more comedy in this Ellery Queen mystery than in any of the others I've seen, a lot of it involving Paul Hurst trying to break out of the hospital with the 'help' of his chief gunman Tom Dugan. Bellamy and Lindsay get a few laughs as well with her sneaking into the hospital disguised as a nurse.

Ellery Queen And The Murder Ring was a good farewell for Ralph Bellamy in the series.

Augusta Stack was almost killed in a deliberate traffic accident. As a result, she's in the hospital...where Ellery Queen (Ralph Bellamy) is working undercover. She was shaken up and her leg broken...but oddly she died in surgery! Soon, other bodies start piling up and when the cops and Queen investigate, they find lots of people who had reason to kill the old woman...and perhaps the rest. Can Ellery solve the crimes before his lady friend, Nikki (Margaret Lindsay) gets herself killed while snooping into the case as well?

During the 1930s and 40s, a zillion B-murder mysteries were made in Hollywood. They all had a lot of similarities and cliches (such as in this one where Nikki essentially confronts the murderer while having no backup nor a weapon with which to defend herself!). But it is an enjoyable film...worth seeing if you like the genre and a bit better made than usual.

By the way, unlike many sleuths (such as Charlie Chan), tons of different actors played Ellery Queen and none came to own the role or appear in more than a few films. It's a shame Bellamy didn't do more of these films...he was pretty good here.

Ralph Bellamy made his fourth and final appearance as literary sleuth Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring. On this occasion, Ellery and his police-inspector father (Charley Grapewin) are summoned to a private hospital by its owner, philanthropist Mrs. Stack (Blanche Yurka). There've been some very weird goings-on at the hospital as of late, and Mrs. Stack wants to get to the bottom of things.

An ok-ish Ellery Queen where comedy features heavily, overriding the mystery and detecting; Margaret Lindsey and Ralph Bellamy carries things along, but it's just passable. George Zucco also stars, playing a menacing doctor.