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MOVIES LIST 1941-1979
 hadow of the Thin Man
US (1941) Director: W.S. Van Dyke II Cast includes: Nick Charles: William Powell Nora Charles: Myrna Loy Lt. Abrams: Sam Levene "Whitey" Barrow: Alan Baxter Paul Clarke: Barry Nelson Molly Ford: Donna Reed Major Jason I. Sculley: Henry O'Neill Nick Jr.: Dickie Hall 97 min, Black & White Not an EQ film in any sense, however it makes our list because Dannay and Lee worked on the script. They didn't do enough to warrant screen credit, but we think we've spotted their contribution to the story: the scene where Nick finds a gun in a drain: pure EQ logic! The flippant nature of Shadow of the Thin Man can be attributed to screenwriters Irving Brecher and Harry Kurnitz, both longtime friends and associates of comedian Groucho Marx. (Click on the poster to read more...)
60 min, Black & White. William Gargan takes over from Ralph Bellamy as the title character. He lacked Bellamy's charisma but unlike Bellamy, who played the role of Ellery Queen for laughs, Gargan adopts a more sober approach, much to the overall benefit of the film. The budgets were getting even thinner, but it was definitely a step up from the Murder Ring atrocity. (Click on the poster to read more...) |
Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen US (1942)
Source: Radio play "The Good Samaritan" 06-09-40
(EQ) Gargan's second shot as Queen is no better than the first. This entry in the series follows Queen as he investigates the case of a woman's missing husband, a banker. Together with Nikki, Ellery travels to San Francisco to check out the man, thought dead, who is seen alive. Before long, someone is dead, and that's about as surprising as this film gets. Lilian Bond as a burlesque queen is the only lively thing in this entry. (Click on the poster to read more...)
Producer: Ralph Cohn 64 min, Black & White Columbia's Ellery Queen series called it quits with this timely 1942 entry Ellery's secretary Nikki Porter ending up in the Nazi's clutches at one juncture. Boasting a formidable lineup of "heavies" (Gale Sondergaard, Sig Ruman, et. al.), easily the best of the undistinguished series. This isn't even a mystery plot per se, and the title gives away most of the story! Still, the guest cast is full of entertaining character actors who give delightfully hammy performances and it's a fast 64 minutes. (Click on the poster to read more...) |
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Study in Terror aka  og (1965)
Written, directed and produced by James
Hill
Source: novel
Ten Days' Wonder Often fascinating to watch, possibly the weirdest EQ adaptation of all, this one wrenches the tale out of Wrightsville and into French wine country. Ellery is replaced by "Paul Regis" but otherwise the plot of the book is fairly well duplicated (with one or two significant alterations that are not beneficial) but the many obscurities and the atrocious dubbing make this a disastrous farewell to the big screen. (Click on the poster to read more...)
Source novel: Calamity Town Based on a EQ-novel (Galbraith, Stuart. The Japanese Filmography, 1996). Mistumasa Karasawa, a wealthy banker in Hagi, has 3 beautiful daughters: Reiko, Noriko, Keiko. Noriko was engaged to be married to a worker in her father's bank: Fujisawa. However shortly before the wedding he disappeared for no apparent reason. 3 years later, he returns. .... Subsequently the sister dies and investigations begin. (Click on the poster to read more...)
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Introduction |
Floor Plan | Q.B.I. |
List of Suspects | Whodunit?
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directed | New |
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