Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery

In his heyday, Ellery Queen made good reading and was justly popular. Hollywood, in its usual wisdom, made a mockery of poor Ellery. Although Ellery Queen appears as author of these screenplays, they were actually written by contract screen writers. We'll never know whose idea it was to turn Ellery into a comedian. All the Ellery films were on par with most of the stuff of the thirties and early forties, but that is not a compliment. Trite plots, corny situations and some absolutely terrible choices for the roles. The later Ellery, Ralph Bellamy, a wonderful actor, was badly miscast and looked awkward and was completely out of step with his character. Inspector Queen as well, and they made a clown out of Sergeant Velie à la Thin Man Series (much classier films). Only in the seventies with Jim Hutton, David Wayne and Tom Reese did Hollywood finally get it right. All three of these fine actors were perfectly cast for the parts they played, and displayed the intelligence one should expect. The highlight of this outing was the unexpected appearance of Mantan Moreland. A servile part, but he was always a pleasure to watch. Despite their shortcomings, I watch the old detective movies anyway when they come around, even if they are silly. It brings back the good old days, scrunched in a dark theater with a bag of popcorn in hand, all for 15 cents. For that I'll cut them some slack.

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.

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.

"Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery" from 1941 was a B movie. One of the reviews here complained about the casting and the script. I'm sure this film was slapped together, but I can't say I really minded it. I

The cast was terrific: Ralph Bellamy, Margaret Lindsay, Anna May Wong, Ann Doran, James Burke, Eduardo Ciannelli, Charles Lane, and Mantan Moreland.

Noel Madison (Gordon Cobb) is a ventriloquist currently in China. He is known to the Chinese, so he is given jewels that will bring about $300,000 (nearly $5 million today) and provide relief for starving China, who were invaded by Japan in 1937 and brought them under brutal rule.

The Japanese military regime murdered near 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most probably almost 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war.

Madison makes it back to New York but disappears. His daughter (Ann Doran) asks her friend Nikki (Margaret Lindsay), who works for Ellery, to help locate him.

Nikki not only works for Ellery, but she's his competitor. He catches her at one point writing a book on his time about Madison's disappearance.

Mr. Madison is found in his trunk, about to be sent to Chicago. No jewels anywhere. Plenty of suspects though.

I actually like Bellamy in this role. The script provides some humor and he has a nice chemistry with Lindsay. Are these movies true to the Ellery Queen books? No - he didn't have someone like Nikki around, for one thing. Viele was not an object of derision. How often have we seen this type of thing with books made into movies? Tons.

It was a surprise to see the wonderful comic actor Mantan Moreland make an appearance, as well as Charles Lane, who died at age 102 in 2007 after a 65-year career. In 1941 alone, he made 19 films. I remember Ann Doran as one of the mothers in "Lassie" - she's very young here.

All in all, entertaining, though even at a little over 60 minutes, these films can seem longer.