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MOVIES LIST 1935-1941
 he Spanish Cape Mystery US
(1935)
Source: novel
The
Spanish Cape Mystery In this low-budget mystery Donald Cook plays Ellery Queen in a low-key, poker-faced fashion, which may not be terribly exciting but is actually closer to the original concept than most of the movie Queens. Although some liberties are taken with the classic plot the story emerges fairly unscathed. Cook's flirtatious Ellery is unrelated to any EQ novel, and the blustery Sheriff is the worst kind of comic relief. (Click on the poster to read more...) |
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he Mandarin Mystery US
(1936)
Source: novel
The
Chinese Orange Mystery Ellery Queen solves two murders - both committed in impenetrably locked rooms and recovers stolen stamp worth $50,000. Falling in love with the primary suspect Jo Temple, Ellery sets about to retrieve the stolen goods and solve the murders. The actor whose initials were E.Q. Eddie Quillan, a talented performer was woefully miscast as Queen. Republic opted to play 'The Mandarin Mystery' for laughs -- another big mistake. (Click on the poster to read more...)
Source: stage play Danger, Men Working In this comical murder mystery, three playwrights use $500 in advance
money to get an apartment in which to write a mystery for
John Atherton. EQ collaborated on a play with Lowell
Brentano; when it died a quick death,
it became The Crime Nobody Saw (referring to the stage play,
perhaps?). With a script by Bertram Millhauser (who worked on the Basil
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 llery Queen, Master Detective US
(1940)
For reasons that defy logic, the studio elected to transform the brilliant, analytical Queen into a hopeless bumbler. Investigating the killing is Ellery Queen, his father, and another mystery writer, Nikki Porter. Lindsay has some good moments as Nikki, but there's too much talk and too little intrigue. Ellery makes a daring proposal to her at the fade out: "Will you be my...secretary?"! -even though it's clear she's got more brains in her left toe than he has in his whole carcass. A novelization (by non-EQ hands) was published (later re-issued as The Vanishing Corpse) (Click on the poster to read more...)
Like the first entry in Columbia's Ellery Queen series, this film depicts its amateur-criminologist hero as an oafish ignoramus. Wong is good as always, but wasted here. Slow going. The influence of MGM's successful Thin Man series was obvious, as Ellery and Nikki engage in more comic squabbling than in sleuthing. An interesting cast, but that's about it. Like all of the remaining Columbia entries, it was written by Eric Taylor based on the EQ radio plot “The Three (Four) Scratches” (12-17-39), and directed by James Hogan. A novelization was published, but the cousins did not write. (Click on the poster to read more...) |
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llery Queen and the Perfect Crime US
(1941)
Ralph Bellamy's third of four appearances as Ellery Queen. Probably the "best" of the Columbia Queens, since it played fairly straight with the storyline of the novel, even while totally changing its setting and characters. Still too much Thin Manning, however, to satisfy mystery fans. Nothing perfect at all in this entry about the murder of a shady stockbroker. The script was novelized and published (but not written by EQ). (Click on the poster to read more...)
Despite the fact that Ellery seems to be as dumb as a stone, he manages to solve the mystery. Loosely adapted from The Dutch Shoe Mystery, this bastardization is painful to watch. Slapstick comedy, with Hurst and Dugan as a couple of incompetent hit-men, switched bodies, broken legs, and other knee-slapping idiocies. It's no wonder Ralph Bellamy called it quits after this one. (Click on the poster to read more...)
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Introduction |
Floor Plan | Q.B.I. |
List of Suspects | Whodunit?
| Q.E.D. | Kill as
directed | New |
Copyright Copyright © MCMXCIX-MMXXII Ellery Queen, a website on deduction. All rights reserved. |
Rathbone Sherlock Holmes series) this comedy mystery sounds like it could be
an interesting little film. 
