Now THERE's a mystery if ever there was one: John Braun, who's always been the perfectly healthy and athletic model for his fitness enterprise, learns that he's incurably ill - and changes his will the next day, disinheriting his family and leaving everything to his company. His daughter's friend Nikki goes to his home to talk to him right after he's signed the will and locked himself up in his study. She waits in the anteroom - and soon finds out that she can't get out, because the other door is locked as well; and when they finally manage to open the door, they find Braun sitting at his desk, stabbed, and both the will and the murder weapon missing - which leaves Nikki as the ONLY person who could have committed the murder...
In this third 'Ellery Queen' mystery, Ralph Bellamy for the first time plays the police detective's son, writer, and hobby sleuth; and he does quite well, although he isn't quite as charming and funny as Donald Cook in the first one - he's more the serious, clever, and slightly ironic type. But the center of attraction (in every way) is Margaret Lindsay as Nikki, who is TRAPPED in every sense of the word...
This is one of the movies to which should be added 'Don't tell the ending to anyone!' - because it REALLY takes a crime film or novel expert to solve the case. Classic murder mystery at its best here!
In this third 'Ellery Queen' mystery, Ralph Bellamy for the first time plays the police detective's son, writer, and hobby sleuth; and he does quite well, although he isn't quite as charming and funny as Donald Cook in the first one - he's more the serious, clever, and slightly ironic type. But the center of attraction (in every way) is Margaret Lindsay as Nikki, who is TRAPPED in every sense of the word...
This is one of the movies to which should be added 'Don't tell the ending to anyone!' - because it REALLY takes a crime film or novel expert to solve the case. Classic murder mystery at its best here!