Stubs - Mystery House

 

Mystery House (1938) Starring Dick Purcell, Ann Sheridan, Anne Nagel, William Hopper Directed by Noel Smith. Screenplay by Sherman L. Lowe, Robertson White Based on the novel Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart (New York, 1930). Produced by Jack L. Warner (Executive Producer), Hal B. Wallis (Executive Producer) Run time: 56 minutes USA Black and White Mystery

In 1935, Warner Bros. began marketing a series of films as Cine Club, aimed at increasing audiences attending WB mystery movies. The series was tied to Black Mask, a pulp magazine, and consisted of 12 films, the first The White Cockatoo (1935) and the last Mystery House. Filmed in only a couple of weeks in November 1937, the film wouldn’t be released until May 21, 1938.

The dinner party at the beginning of the film. Herbert Kingery (Eric Stanley) hosts.

The film opens at a dinner party at a private hunting lodge. Herbert Kingery (Eric Stanley), the President of a company all of the men are executives at, and which is on the verge of bankruptcy, accuses one of his guests of defrauding the company. Before he goes to bed, he adds that he will give the criminal until the next morning to confess.

That evening, the family dog howls, causing Kingery to open the door of his office to investigate. When Kingery bolts the door, a gun goes off and he is killed.

The Coroner's inquest rules Kingery's death a suicide.

At the coroner’s (Jack Mower) inquest, the death is ruled a suicide, since all of the doors to the room were locked and a gun was found in his hand. Despite the ruling, Kingery’s daughter Gwen (Anne Nagel) is determined to prove he didn't kill himself.

Kingery's daughter Gwen (Anne Nagel) speaks with her aunt Lucy
 (Elspeth Dugeon). Lucy's nurse Sarah Keate (Ann Sheridan) watches.

Gwen asks Nurse Sarah Keate (Ann Sheridan), who is taking care of Gwen's aged aunt Lucy (Elspeth Dugeon), if she can recommend a private investigator, which she does. The private detective she recommends is Lance O'Leary (Dick Purcell), whom we later learn she is romantically linked to.

Family chauffeur Bruker (Trevor Bardette) delivers
 P.I. Lance O'Leary (Dick Purcell) to the lodge.

Gwen invites everyone who was present the evening of her father's death to spend a weekend in the country, including Lal Killian (William Hopper), Gwen’s fiancé; Julian Barre (Anthony Averill); Gerald Frawley (Ben Weldon); Joe Page (Anderson Lawlor) and his estranged wife Helen (Jean Benedict); and Terice Von Elm (Sheila Bromley).

Lance investigates the death of Helen Page and speaks with
one of the guests, Julian Barre (Anthony Averill).

Shortly after the guests leave for an afternoon of hunting, Helen Page dies in what seems to be another suicide. Helen's husband Joe, who had recently asked for a divorce to marry another woman, isn’t very upset at the death. Lance, who has arrived while the others out hunting, investigates and learns that Helen was strangled and was shot after her death to make it look like suicide. All the while, the chauffeur, Bruker (Trevor Bardette), can be seen outside looking in through the window.

Bruker always seems to be lurking outside the window in Mystery House.

That night, when Lance returns to his room, he interrupts Bruker, who has been going through Lance’s bag, taking his gun. When Lance enters, Bruker knocks him unconscious with the butt of the gun.

Gerald Frawley (Ben Weldon) removes his toupee after meeting with Gwen.

Later, Gwen visits Gerald Frawley in his room, asking him to tell Lance all that he knows. Once again, Bruker can be seen lurking about outside, the gun in his hand. After she leaves, Gerald removes his toupee and writes a note to Gwen. He is then shot, just as Kingery was.

When everyone hears the shot, he manages to unlock the door. Sarah, who is asked to look at him, finds the letter Gerald wrote to Gwen, stating that the "key" is in his toupee.

Lance, still recovering from being knocked out, reads Frawley's note to Gwen.

The next morning, Gwen gives the note to Lance. When they investigate the room, they find that the toupee has been taken. Further, Lance believes Lucy Kingery, who is confined to a wheelchair, can actually walk, as he finds a woman’s footprint with a walking cane.

Lance discovers that Lucy can actually walk.

Lance tricks her into revealing this, by sticking with walking cane into the spokes of the wheelchair and discovers that she stole Gerald's toupee, which has the combination of Herbert Kingery’s safe written inside it.

As soon as Lance and Lucy leave the room, the family chauffeur rushes into the room from outside and copies the combination. After publicly ruling out the chauffeur, Lance catches him in the act of opening the safe. Bruker confesses that six years earlier, he had worked in Kingery’s company and had stolen some money. Rather than having him arrested, Kingery had him sign a confession to ensure that he would stay straight and made him the chauffeur. Bruker wanted to remove it from the safe before anyone saw it.

With Sarah's help, Lance discovers that one of the guns on
 the wall for decoration is wired to the door lock.

In the room, Lance discovers that a gun on the wall, hung as a decoration, has been rigged to fire if the office door is bolted. When Lance and Sarah leave the room, the gun is rearmed and engaged, something Sarah realizes while Lance is opening the safe.

Deciding to trick the murderer, Lance invites everyone into the office. When he asks Julian Barre to bolt the door, Barre flinches like he knew what to expect. When Lance tries to arrest him, Barre punches Lance and escapes, but is stopped by the dog.

Lance explains that he found a paper in Kingery's safe accusing Barre of forging some securities. Barre spent the money on Helen, who found out about the forgery from Gerald. Therefore, Barre killed Herbert Kingery, Gerald Frawley, and Helen Page to keep his crimes a secret.

Lance gets reacquainted with Sarah at the end of the film.

The film ends with Lance and Sarah finally alone and talking about their future together.

Critics, judging by Frank Nugent in The New York Times, were not impressed. His entire review, “Picking our way gingerly past the three corpses cluttering up the Palace's 'Mystery House,' we come to that scene in which the chief lurker-about ransacks the detective's luggage, takes his gun, and with its butt-end knocks the sleuth cold as he opens the door. After a charitable interval, the detective regains consciousness, seizes his assailant—who is still clutching the tell-tale weapon—and demands an explanation. 'I didn't want to be unarmed in a house full of murderers,' the suspect says. 'Do you believe his story?' asks the heroine. 'It's weak in spots,' the detective replies. So is 'Mystery House' and the spots are pretty big.”

He's not wrong with his assessment. Mystery House has a taught 56-minute run-time, however, most of it is filled with exposition and several false leads. There is a real sense of cozy mystery and some of the plot points, like gathering all the suspects in a room, had to be considered cliché even when the film was first released.

Dick Purcell plays Lance O'Leary.

Dick Purcell is less than impressive in the role of Lance O'Leary, the private detective hired to solve the murder of Herbert Kingery. Purcell and Chris Evans have something in common, in that they both played Captain America on film. Both surprisingly had successful runs, though in Purcell’s case, the Captain America (1944) serial he starred in is perhaps best known for the performance of Lionel Atwill as the villain. Judging by Purcell’s performance here, that is not hard to believe.

Ann Sheridan, who was on the brink of stardom, seems to be wasted here. She has very little to do but talk to Lance and get pills for Lucy Kingery. The Dallas-born beauty contest winner would be nicknamed "The Oomph Girl" and would become stars in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Naughty but Nice (1939), and It All Come True (1940).

It’s hard to find anyone in the cast to heap praise on for their performances, but Elspeth Dugeon comes close. Her performance as aunt Lucy stands out above the others. She seems to dominate the scenes she’s in. The London-born actress had a successful Hollywood career and is best known for her roles in Sh! The Octopus (1937), The Old Dark House (1932) and this film.

William Hopper would go on to play Paul Drake on the first Perry Mason TV series.

You might also recognize William Hopper, the son of Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper. His film career was filled with minor roles however, he would be well-known as Paul Drake, the private investigator on the Perry Mason TV series.

Mystery House is not really worth the less-than-hour-long runtime. If you’re a die-hard fan of Ann Sheridan, then you might feel compelled to watch. Even then, you will be disappointed.