Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

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.

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.

In his heyday, Ellery Queen made good reading and was justly popular. Hollywood, in its usual wisdom, made a mockery of poor Ellery. Although Ellery Queen appears as author of these screenplays, they were actually written by contract screen writers. We'll never know whose idea it was to turn Ellery into a comedian. All the Ellery films were on par with most of the stuff of the thirties and early forties, but that is not a compliment. Trite plots, corny situations and some absolutely terrible choices for the roles. The later Ellery, Ralph Bellamy, a wonderful actor, was badly miscast and looked awkward and was completely out of step with his character. Inspector Queen as well, and they made a clown out of Sergeant Velie à la Thin Man Series (much classier films). Only in the seventies with Jim Hutton, David Wayne and Tom Reese did Hollywood finally get it right. All three of these fine actors were perfectly cast for the parts they played, and displayed the intelligence one should expect. The highlight of this outing was the unexpected appearance of Mantan Moreland. A servile part, but he was always a pleasure to watch. Despite their shortcomings, I watch the old detective movies anyway when they come around, even if they are silly. It brings back the good old days, scrunched in a dark theater with a bag of popcorn in hand, all for 15 cents. For that I'll cut them some slack.