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To me, this movie is perfection.

Sadly Over-hyped

A Masterpiece!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

NOTES: As a general rule, picturegoers and TV viewers don't like spoofs unless they are warned beforehand – in which case they probably won't watch the movie at all. The 1934 novel depends upon "Alice in Wonderland" for some of its scenes and characters, but the 1936 movie version goes the whole way. Republic made the mistake of publicizing the "Alice" connection in their initial pressbook. As a result, the movie was subsequently blackballed by most of the trade. It had no New York release and had to wait six months for a spot in Los Angeles.COMMENT: Not so much a picturization of Ellery Queen's 1934 "The Chinese Orange Mystery", this flick is a take on Paramount's 1933 "Alice in Wonderland", with Miss Henry snugly and smugly repeating her part as the innocent abroad, while Eddie Quillan makes impotent if cheeky woo as the bungling knight. Alas, although the knight's role is little more than a cameo in "Alice", the writers here have mercilessly expanded the part, even though it meant treading on the lines of more capable players like break-your-heart Rita La Roy (a most engaging and super-attractively regal young duchess) and Kay Hughes' pleasing Cheshire Cat who, as we might expect, disappears from the action, alas, for long spells. We are left too often with Wade Boteler's far too bellicose Queen (which although rather cleverly based on the "Alice" Queen becomes rather monotonous when played on the one note for this length of time), and are also forced to suffer far too much tiresome comic relief from Tweedledum's Franklin Pangborn, although admittedly William Newell's occasional input as Tweedledee is just about right.Worse still, Ralph Staub (who squeezed maybe a dozen feature assignments in between his excruciating "Screen Snapshots" series) has handled "TMM" in a mercilessly heavy-handed and thoroughly routine style that almost totally smothers every latent spark of wit in a screenplay that was none too promising to begin with. Photographer Jack Marta also follows the "Alice" line by smothering the sets with far too much light. Routine "B" production values don't help either. (Available in Mill Creek's 250 Mystery Movies Collection).

The Mandarin Mystery is the second of two Ellery Queen films done by Columbia Pictures and it features Eddie Quillan as the amateur sleuth and son of a professional one. Instead of the shy bookish Ellery as realized best by Jim Hutton on a shortlived television series, we get a Smart Aleck punk who lives to show up the police department, especially Inspector Queen played here by Wade Boteler. No wonder fans of the series were up in arms.The Mandarin referred to here is a Chinese stamp which was a rare misprint edition because the Mandarin portrayed on the postage stamp had his clothes on backwards. Charlotte Henry is going to sell the stamp to collector George Irving, but the stamp is stolen and the thief killed.Unfortunately several minutes were eliminated from this film by YouTube so I had to piece it together in my mind. Not a bad story, but Quillan really kills this film.

Eddie Quillan struck me more as a second-banana comic-relief type actor than one who can carry a film. But such is the casting in many a B film. The script and Eddie's acting sets up Ellery Queen as some kind of goof ball crime solver. Eddie pretty much grins his way through the movie. I kept expecting another actor to show up with more gravitas, push Eddie aside, and say, "Thanks for filling in Eddie, I'll take over now." As the fussy hotel manager, Franklin Pangborn was his usual reliable self as he provided the best comedic moments in a film that otherwise really struggled to be funny. The mystery aspect of the story wasn't too bad. The killer certainly made good use of a dead body.

Josephine Temple arrives in New York with a rare stamp, the Chinese Mandarin, which she has arranged to sell to stamp collector, Dr. Alexander Kirk, for $50,000, which upsets his two nieces (Martha and Irene, as well as her fiancé Donald Trent) who don't like him spending their inheritance as an investment. Soon after she arrives, Josephine finds that the stamp has been stolen, and races up to Kirk's room. Soon after Josephine leaves the room, the real crook, Craig, is found murdered in the library adjoining Dr. Kirk's room. Inspector Queen goes up to solve the case, while son Ellery's interest is in Josephine (smart boy) which he seems to be protecting. Ellery finds out that many of the stamps in Dr. Kirk's collection are counterfeit and when he goes to Craig's apartment he discovers his counterfeiting tools, but not before he is knocked unconscious by Howard Bronson, another stamp collector, who expressed a high interest in the Mandarin. The stamp is later found on an envelope sent by Martha, but when she is confronted with the evidence, she is mysteriously killed. Who is the murder of Craig and Martha Kirk. A good B mystery from the 30's, but the injection of humor and Quillan's aw shucks persona, really kill the movie at several occasions. Much of the plot and characters are not fleshed out as deeply as a Charlie Chan or Philo Vance film and the ending is rushed with explanations that would bewilder any audience member. The plot is a standard B mystery with the usual clichés and twists, which does work. Rating, based on B mysteries, 6.