This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Ralph Bellamy stars as Ellery Queen in Ellery Queen, Master Detective, from 1940. Margaret Lindsay plays Nikki Porter, here a competitor and a potential love interest of Ellery's. Charles Grapwin plays Inspector Queen.John Braun, who owns a fitness company and is a perfect specimen, finds out from his doctor that he's terminally ill. The next day, he changes his will, disinheriting his family and putting everything in the hands of the company.His daughter (Marsha Hunt) is estranged from him, and Nikki goes to talk to him about the situation. He's signed the will and locked himself in his study.Nikki waits a while and then finds out that she can't leave as the other door is locked. When she and Ellery finally get the door open, they find Braun dead from stabbing. The will and the murder weapon are gone. Ellery tells Nikki that as of now, she's the only one who could have done it.I haven't seen all the actors who have played Ellery Queen by any means - I remember George Nader when I was a child and Jim Hutton later on. The Jim Hutton series was marvelous. The George Nader version may have been live TV -- for some reason I distinctly remember him saying murtel and then correcting himself and saying murder. Bellamy is excellent, giving a spirited, light performance. He has good chemistry with Lindsay and with Charles Grapwin. His Ellery is super-smart and on the sarcastic side. "There's a door," Nikki says. "Oh, thank you," Ellery says. "I never would have found it." Margaret Lindsay is marvelous as Nikki, who goes after a plot that Ellery wanted to use in his next book, that of this locked room mystery. He hides her in his house, and the next day introduces her as their new cook. She can't even boil water and incurs the ire of Inspector Queen.I liked it - director Kurt Neumann keeps this 65-minute film moving. The plot is clever, and the film is enjoyable. Look for Charles Lane, who died in 2007 at the age of 102.

Ellery Queen had made two (2) previous appearances during the 1930s. THE Spanish CAPE MYSTERY (1935) Liberty Pictures, featuring Donald Cook and THE MANDARIN MYSTERY (1936) Republic Pictures, with the light-weight Eddie Quillan. Producer Larry Darmour cornered the rights to the Ellery Queen novels and through Columbia Pictures and Harry Cohn launched a new series of films. Starting with ELLERY QUEEN, Master Detective (1940).Ralph Bellamy for the first four (4) pictures played 'QUEEN' with Margaret Lindsay as romantic interest and side-kick, 'NIKKI PORTER'. Bellamy after a strong start at RKO had slipped into character parts and second leads by the latter half of the 1930s. The same could be said about Ms. Lindsay over from Warner Brothers. This series kept them working and in the company of other professionals like Charlie Grapewine as Inspector Queen. Here also was Marsha Hunt, up and comer on loan-out from M.G.M. and Katherine DeMille who plugged in character parts too her other interests. Former Silent Director Fred Niblo (BEN-HUR, 1925) also picked up a check. For plot details, read the synopsis, it's all there.Bellamy plays 'QUEEN' with a light touch, but with a earnest intelligence, making him a viable character. Ms. Lindsay also hits her mark with a attractive appearance and winning smile. Though She seems to wear the same suit the entire film. The rest of the cast and a quick running time makes this a worth while watch. After the first four (4) films William Gargan would pick up the 'QUEEN' mantle with Ms. Lindsay soldiering on. Gargan proved a acceptable replacement and would rate the entire series a even IMDB******Six(6) or a Standard Rating of Two(2)**Stars.

This is the first entry in the "official" Ellery Queen film series (though actually the third film starring that character); Ellery is played by Ralph Bellamy, who is just a tad colorless in the part (Donald Cook of "The Spanish Cape Mystery" remains my favorite so far), but he does have a certain sweet chemistry with the beautiful Margaret Lindsay, especially when he wakes up in the middle of the night to cook her something to eat; Lindsay's presence and smile brighten the movie, and I'm glad they decided to make her a recurring character in the series. The plot is pretty ingenious - a seemingly unsolvable puzzle (the dead man is found in a locked room with his throat slashed; there is only one way in, but we know nobody went through there; he might have committed suicide, but then where is the weapon?) with a simple, oh-but-of-course! solution. But the film is not very exciting or suspenseful, although it does end with a brief car chase / crash which was somewhat of a surprise for a production of this caliber. ** out of 4.

(Possible spoiler ahead) Ralph Bellamy stars as Ellery Queen,best selling author and son of Inspector Queen of the New York Police force. Ellery gets mixed up in the death of a fitness guru who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. However after changing his will and letting the vultures around him know they have all been cut out the old man is found dead. The body begins to go missing and Ellery has to keep the prime suspect out of police hands. First in a short lived series, its an okay comedic mystery but a far from a great one. To be certain Bellamy is better than Eddie Quillan who played him in the truly awful Mandarin Mystery a few years earlier, but he's too lethargic and a bit too dense for such a great detective. Granted he's ahead of everyone else, but he doesn't seem to actually do much. The rest of the cast is fine consisting of a good group of supporting player stalwarts who play it as real as B-mysteries get. The real problem with the film is the script, plot holes abound, however the movie moves along at a good clip and its easy to forgive most of them. Not so easy to forgive is that three minutes in its plainly clear not only who the murderer is going to be, but also whats going on and why. I've never seen a killer so clear outside of a Columbo mystery where the whole point of the movie is to watch the detective and killer crash heads. It ruined the film since all suspense was drained from the proceedings, even with some final revelations (which raised more plot questions). Okay at best, its not one I'll probably watch again (I'll take out my tapes of the old Jim Hutton TV show).