The Mandarin Mystery (1936)
Ellery Queen solves a mystery involving a valuable stamp.
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I acquired this film in the Dark Crimes 50-Pack. It's NOT a Dark Crime film but rather a light comedy crime drama. It involves a mystery: a stolen $50,000 Chinese Mandari stamp and murder - all in a hotel. Who is the murderer? Inspector Queen & Ellery Queen must find out (a father and son team).This particular Ellery Queen is just weird. He's young and bizarre. Loves a certain young lady that had her stamp stolen, bubble baths, a strange relationship with his father, weird gestures & expressions on his face and lame humor.This film is not bad - it's mediocre. Not a film I would care to watch again but fun enough for a one time watch.4.5 /10
This adaptation of an Ellery Queen mystery concerns the theft of a rare Chinese stamp (the Mandarin of the title), which takes place in a hotel with several shifty characters and an hysterical manager (the priceless Franklin Pangborn). The mystery, such as it is, concerns both the stamp theft and two murders, and shows Ellery and his father the Inspector as a team rubbing together just enough to solve the case.As Ellery Queen, Eddie Quillan is all wrong - he was more at home in light comedy and musicals, and this is the way he plays the character. As the heroine/chief suspect, Charlotte Henry (only remembered nowadays as 'Alice in Wonderland') isn't too bad, while others who have some impact in the cast include Rita Le Roy and Kay Hughes as sisters, and Wade Boteler as Queen senior.
As a reader of EQ mysteries, and a collector of his films, I have to say that this is the absolute WORST in the entire series!EQ, far from being a "master detective", is portrayed as a bumbling fool who continually gets in his father's way.Not only that, but the background music in this film is totally UNRELATED to the action....it's as if someone off-screen turned on a radio and let it play while the movie was being shot.Pass on this one!
Nice little mystery, with a good deal of comedy mixed in. Eddie Quillan is not my favorite Ellery Queen, but he has an interesting twist to the character. I though Wade Boteler did a great job as Inspector Queen and Franklin Pangborn did a great job as comic relief as Mellish, the hotel manager.Overall, a nice film, I was quite pleased with it.