When health-farm magnate Fred Niblo is found murdered in his study, suspicion falls on aspiring detective-story writer Nikki Porter, as played by Margaret Lindsay, who was the last person to see him. Fortunately Ellery Queen, in the person of Ralph Bellamy, decides she's innocent and to crack the case himself.
It's the first of four movies that Bellamy starred in as Queen for Columbia, with Charley Grapewin as his father. It's a locked room mystery, but not a particularly good one; after the first couple of reelsw to establish the characters and look over the crime scene with the Queens, there's half an hour of comedy, as Bellamy hides Miss Lindsay away in the apartment he shares with Grapewin, as a cook. Even so, director Kurt Neumann and a capable cast make this half-hour story watchable over more than twice that time.
It's the first of four movies that Bellamy starred in as Queen for Columbia, with Charley Grapewin as his father. It's a locked room mystery, but not a particularly good one; after the first couple of reelsw to establish the characters and look over the crime scene with the Queens, there's half an hour of comedy, as Bellamy hides Miss Lindsay away in the apartment he shares with Grapewin, as a cook. Even so, director Kurt Neumann and a capable cast make this half-hour story watchable over more than twice that time.