Mystery House

At a company retreat, Hubert Kingery announces that there has been fraud within the company. Later that night, a shot rings out and his dead body is found in his room. His death is ruled a suicide but his daughter Gwen (Anne Nagel) believes it to be murder. Her aunt's nurse Sarah Keate (Ann Sheridan) suggests her detective boyfriend Lance O'Leary (Dick Purcell). Gwen gathers everyone back to the lodge for the weekend and they get snowed in.

I wasn't really following the various suspects. The movie is less than one hour long and doesn't spend much time giving each character some depth. Quite frankly, the perpetrator can be anybody other than the aunt and Gwen. In fact, the aunt has one of the better twist. Lance and Sarah are not particularly compelling investigators. There are better investigating duos from that era.

MYSTERY STREET gives laconic DICK PURCELL the leading role, while ANN SHERIDAN is seen in one of her early roles at a time when the studio was grooming her for bigger things in the future. She's a nurse caring for a crotchety old woman (ELSPETH DUDGEON) in a wheelchair, an old woman who is annoying as all get out as she bosses everyone around.

The setting is a snowbound hunting lodge, a handsome cabin where all of the suspects in a rich man's murder are gathered for the weekend, while Sheridan summons her boyfriend detective Purcell to unravel the murder case. He does so, with the help of a few clues that lead to the murderer's identity and in time for a happy ending with Sheridan promising to marry him.

It's standard stuff, respectable enough to play the lower half of double bills back in the '30s. Fans of "Perry Mason" on TV, will recognize WILLIAM HOPPER (with dark black hair), but most of the cast consists of largely unknown players.

Lasting only a brisk 56 minutes, it passes the time quickly and is a moderately entertaining B-film mystery.

Mystery House (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Rare murder/mystery from Warner has a banker committing suicide but his daughter thinks he was murdered so she invites all the guests from that night back to the house hoping the killer will slip up. Only God knows how many of these "old dark house" films were made throughout the 1930s but this one here is pretty good due to some nice direction and a short running time that makes the film fly by. All of the characters are a lot of fun so this keeps the movie going as well. The ending comes out very well and the mystery is a good one.

Noel M. Smith, Director of this film was a veteran of films and created many films during the Silent Era. This film takes place in an old house, more like a cottage and it occurs during a very bad snow storm with horrible winds blowing and drifting snow against the window panes. There is a group of men attending a board meeting and their wives and girlfriends who are visiting this mysterious house. The men have found out that their business has been cheated out of a large sum of money and they have all gathered together to find out just who forged papers and stole all the company's funds. There is a man who kills himself in a locked room and two other murders happen. Lance O'Leary, (Dick Purcell) is an investigator who is called in by a nurse Sarah Keate, (Ann Sheridan) who attends one of the older members of the household. This film is a B film, but will definitely hold your interest and keep you glued to your seats. Enjoy.

All things considered Mystery House is not a bad product coming out of Warner Brothers B picture unit. It's another one of those classic shootings in a locked room, where the verdict can be nothing else, but suicide. Or can it?

The members of the board of directors of a company are gathered on a retreat where the president confronts them with his suspicion that one of them is guilty of embezzlement. He's found shot to death in a locked room, but the man's daughter can't believe it wasn't murder so she hires a private detective and invites the whole lot of them back to the retreat where the crime occurred.

Two murders later and we have an answer. No hints at all as to who and how, but I will say the weapon is in plain sight.

Ann Sheridan and Dick Purcell are our leads and television fans will spot a future detective in William Hopper who played Paul Drake on the Perry Mason series.

Back in 1938 when it ran as the second feature of a double bill, I don't think too many people left their seats.