The Mandarin Mystery *½ (1936, Eddie Quillan, Charlotte Henry, Rita La Roy, Wade Boteler, Franklin Pangborn) – Classic Movie Review 10,500

Director Ralph Staub’s 1936 Republic Pictures crime thriller The Mandarin Mystery stars Eddie Quillan, who takes over Donald Cook in The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935) as an unconvincing Ellery Queen in a confused, unsatisfactory second series entry in which two murders are committed and the debonair detective finds a killer and a stolen $50,000 Chinese Mandarin stamp.

Wade Boteler also stars as Ellery’s policeman father Inspector Richard Queen, along with Charlotte Henry as Josephine Temple, Rita La Roy as Martha Kirk, Franklin Pangborn as Mellish the hotel manager, George Irving as Dr Alexander Kirk, Kay Hughes as Irene Kirk, William Newell as Detective Guffy and George Walcott as Donald Trent.

Loosely based on the story The Chinese Orange Mystery by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee [writing as Ellery Queen], this film is now in the public domain. It is the Ellery Queen crime plot that provides the film’s main remaining interest, undermined by the comedic tone, though the film is short enough at 66 minutes and pacy enough to be watchable.

It is followed by Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940) with Ralph Bellamy as Ellery Queen.

It is available for free download at the Internet Archive.

Also in the cast are Edwin Stanley as Howard Bronson, Edgar Allen as Detective, Bert Roach, Richard Beach as Reporter, Monte Vandergrift as Detective, Grace Durkin as Girl on Street Corner, Mary Russell as Girl on Street Corner, Mary Bovard as Girl at Cocktail Bar and June Johnson as Girl at Cocktail Bar.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,500

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com