Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery

This outing for the famed detective really did remind me of the contemporary "Charlie Chan" adventures and to be honest, it comes off the worst. When a wealthy Chinese family donate some gems to try and help alleviate the problems of their starving population. It falls to ventriloquist "Madison" (Gordon Cobb) to get them to New York when they can be converted into cash - some $300,000! He goes missing so his daughter contacts her pal "Nikki" (an on-form Margaret Lindsay) who just happens to work for our eponymous sleuth (Ralph Bellamy) - and off we go on a rather complex cloak and dragon dagger mystery that includes a body in a trunk in a penthouse and more suspects than you can shake a stick at. Can the constantly bickering "Queen" and "Nikki" get to the bottom of the mystery before the jewels are gone forever? It's quite a characterful edition of the franchise this with Bellamy competent enough, but it's let down by a pretty formulaic story and a conclusion that is too convenient and rushed. Keep an eye out for Mantan Moreland, but otherwise this is just standard detective fayre that amiably but forgettably kills an hour.

There's lots of intriguing goings-on in this jewel smuggling mystery. The Great Ventro is the smuggler but he soon disappears after he checks in to the Hollandsworth Hotel in New York. Ellery Queen discovers his body in a trunk which is just about to be smuggled out of the hotel. The main mystery is what has Ventro done to the jewels he has brought into the country from China?

The Oriental intrigue in this is good. Mystifying coded message are being sent. The codes in them seem to represent the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Ellery Queen has to discover their significance.

There is a bellboy at the hotel who seems to know too much. A Count Brett is sniffing around to find the jewels. A Chinese woman is also snooping and really gets up the nose of Ellery Queen's secretary. I enjoy the way that secretary always feel she has to chaperone any female that goes anywhere near Ellery Queen.

Ralph Bellamy and Margaret Lindsay play off each other well as Ellery Queen and his secretary. It's an enjoyable film that has the viewer wondering throughout.

A missing man coming to the States from China ends up dead in his trunk. Who's responsible and why did they do this? Well, Ellery Queen, his lady friend Nikki (Margaret Lindsay) and Ellery's dad all work together to try to put all the pieces together.

Over the years, many actors played Ellery Queen and I would have assumed that Ralph Bellamy would have been among the best. After all, he was a fine actor. But despite this, this film is just not very good. Much of it is because Ellery comes off like a grouchy know-it- all and much of it is because the script just isn't very good. And, the formulaic comedy within the film amazingly lame. So, despite an almost A-picture budget, the results are no better than a sub-par B.

Ventro the ventriloquist disappears just days after his arrival in New York. His daughter asks friend Nikki Porter for help, knowing that Nikki works with mystery writer and amateur detective Ellery Queen. They discover Ventro's dead body in his penthouse hotel suite....but who killed him? And where is the treasure he brought back from China to raise money for his Chinese friends?

Ellery and Nikki alternately flirt and bicker in this entertaining but not overly exciting series mystery.

Margaret Lindsay is fun to watch as Nikki, Ellery's spirited secretary. Fed up with typing for Ellery, Nikki quits and heads to the hotel to investigate the murder. She sneaks into the suite but she's not alone: A crook is sneaking around in the dark, a mysterious woman watches from a neighboring balcony, the coroner and his team come in to collect the body - it's a busy place.

Ralph Bellamy is fine as Ellery Queen, although his effectiveness as a genius crime-solver is perhaps hindered by the fact that he seems more interested in Nikki than he is in the actual case. Bellamy and Lindsay do their best to generate one of those witty rivalries but most of the dialog between the pair just isn't that good. (Lindsay: "The way you order me around, anyone would think I was your wife." Bellamy: "Yeah. Listening to you a stranger would assume you were.")

Unfortunately, as the plot thickens, the action slows way down. The somewhat muddled story involves Russell Hicks and Eduardo Cianelli as crooked business associates with a scheme to grab Ventro's treasure; Anna May Wong is Ventro's mysterious Chinese contact who may be involved somehow. Mantan Moreland brightens up his scenes as Hicks's butler.

It's plenty passable for fans of mystery series and character actors....but overall this one just lacks focus.

This time around, Chinese ventriloquist Gordon Cobb (Noel Madison), is murdered by a gang of jewel thieves. Baffled by the contradictory clues, Inspector Queen (Charles Grapewin) asks his son Ellery (Ralph Bellamy) to help out.

A little complicated plot, yet still fun with the pretty Margaret Lindsey doing her amateur sleuthing. Love how Ellery, played Ralph Bellamy, is trying to avoid getting involved in another mystery. Mildly enjoyable mystery that doesn't overstay its welcome.