Fans of Ellery Queen had to feel quite a bit better with what Ralph Bellamy did with this and successive Ellery Queen movies. Ellery Queen, Master Detective has Ralph Bellamy both shielding a suspect and trying to find the evidence that will clear the woman he's shielding.
The one whom Bellamy is shielding is Margaret Lindsay who would turn up in a few subsequent Ellery Queen features as his girl Friday. She's a friend of the daughter of the deceased and Lindsay resemblance to Marsha Hunt causes her and Bellamy a lot of grief.
Silent film classic director Fred Niblo plays the deceased, a kind of Charles Atlas who is a physical fitness guru. His doctor and prospective son-in-law Michael Whalen has diagnosed him with an incurable disease and faced with the prospective of a long and lingering death, Niblo kills himself. But the weapon and a new will he made out are missing. And Lindsay was the last one to see him.
As it turns out the events surrounding the crime can all be explained as they eventually are by natural causes. Except for the fact that Niblo's body is stolen twice from the hands of coroner Charles Lane. Someone had a real good reason for not wanting an autopsy.
Bellamy was quite an improvement over Donald Cook and Eddie Quillan who played the mystery writer/sleuth before. Charley Grapewin settled nicely into the role of his patient, but somewhat harassed father Inspector Queen of NYPD homicide. I think you'll find this an interesting film for the performances and for the fact the solution is a somewhat unusual one.
The one whom Bellamy is shielding is Margaret Lindsay who would turn up in a few subsequent Ellery Queen features as his girl Friday. She's a friend of the daughter of the deceased and Lindsay resemblance to Marsha Hunt causes her and Bellamy a lot of grief.
Silent film classic director Fred Niblo plays the deceased, a kind of Charles Atlas who is a physical fitness guru. His doctor and prospective son-in-law Michael Whalen has diagnosed him with an incurable disease and faced with the prospective of a long and lingering death, Niblo kills himself. But the weapon and a new will he made out are missing. And Lindsay was the last one to see him.
As it turns out the events surrounding the crime can all be explained as they eventually are by natural causes. Except for the fact that Niblo's body is stolen twice from the hands of coroner Charles Lane. Someone had a real good reason for not wanting an autopsy.
Bellamy was quite an improvement over Donald Cook and Eddie Quillan who played the mystery writer/sleuth before. Charley Grapewin settled nicely into the role of his patient, but somewhat harassed father Inspector Queen of NYPD homicide. I think you'll find this an interesting film for the performances and for the fact the solution is a somewhat unusual one.