Watch Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

Lack of good storyline.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In between being bested of the leading lady in numerous comedies, Ralph Bellamy played Ellery Queen in the second of four mysteries for Columbia. It's a nicely tangled murder. Noel Madison has been asked by the Chinese government to bring some gems to New York to be auctioned for poor relief. When he turns up dead in a trunk, with the jewels missing, there are plenty of people to suspect, and plenty of talent on view, including Margaret Lindsay as girlfriend/secretary Nikki Porter, Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen, Anna May Wong, Charles Lane, Mantan Moreland, Theodore von Eltz... lots of familiar faces for fans of old movies. Director James Hogan directs efficiently with no particular flair, but with his fine company, it's an enjoyable trifle and mystery fans should have no issue with the rules of the game.

A missing man coming to the States from China ends up dead in his trunk. Who's responsible and why did they do this? Well, Ellery Queen, his lady friend Nikki (Margaret Lindsay) and Ellery's dad all work together to try to put all the pieces together.Over the years, many actors played Ellery Queen and I would have assumed that Ralph Bellamy would have been among the best. After all, he was a fine actor. But despite this, this film is just not very good. Much of it is because Ellery comes off like a grouchy know-it- all and much of it is because the script just isn't very good. And, the formulaic comedy within the film amazingly lame. So, despite an almost A-picture budget, the results are no better than a sub-par B.

In the fourth 'Ellery Queen' movie and the second starring Ralph Bellamy, for the first time the detective's son and hobby sleuth in his own right gets involved with wartime affairs concerning China (due to the year of production; at the same time, 'Charlie Chan' was also working for the Secret Service against the Japanese danger to his country): rich Chinese have donated their jewels in order to help the starving population, but they have to be smuggled into the US in order to be sold there to raise money - but, of course, some reckless gangsters are after the 'hot stuff' as well...A PRETTY complicated plot with lots of suspects for the amateur film fan sleuth to choose from; but nothing really inventive concerning the criminal part of the story. We must, however, give credit to the film for making the audience aware of the suffering of the Chinese people...And as for the entertainment - the constant quarrels between Ellery and his assistant Nikki provide plenty of that again! So this otherwise routine serial movie does have some interest for the fans of Ellery Queen in particular and for the classic crime genre in general.

A ventriloquist is sent on a mission to smuggle some priceless jewels from China to New York, but almost as soon as he arrives there, he gets killed and the jewels are nowhere to be found. His daughter happens to be a friend of Nikki Porter, who is now working as Ellery Queen's secretary. And that's how Ellery himself gets involved in the case, although he insists that all he wants to do is finish writing his latest book. The second entry in the Ralph Bellamy - Ellery Queen series (and fourth film starring this character in total) is occasionally fun to watch, especially thanks to the delightful Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter and the comic relief provided by Inspector Queen's dim-witted assistants, but suffers from a shockingly weak "climax" - the entire solution to this rather complex case is over and done with in about 30 seconds with as little fanfare as possible. ** out of 4.