I love this movie so much

To me, this movie is perfection.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Lacklustre whodunit from Warners. Plot concerns a valuable antique cabinet being brought back from France to US. The furniture item appears a mysterious piece of work that may or may not be a copy of the real thing. Reporter Moore (Lundigan) and ditzy photographer Tripod (Foy Jr.) get involved with the cabinet and an exotic someone calling himself The Black Parrot. Soon a series of mysterious deaths occur surrounding the furniture piece. Is the Parrot responsible and just who is he really.It's a typical amateur sleuth programmer from that period. Unfortunately, the results are dimmer than most. Only the unknown method of killing registers as imaginative. Otherwise, the acting, visuals, and script are pedestrian, at best. Moreover, I don't recall a single scene not taking place on a set. It's a real cheapo for the otherwise respectable Warner Bros. I suspect the project was mainly to showcase pretty boy Lundigan-- who parades through his part-- in hopes of advancing his career. If so, I doubt that it worked for him any better than it does for the audience.

I struck it rich on this one, figuring it out only minutes into the film, still unsure of my accuracy to the film's revelation, yet not proved wrong, which I usually am in these types of mysteries. But I still had a good time in spite of my certainty, becoming engrossed in the tale of a serial jewel robber, which leads to murder, a suspicious butler (with Bela Lugosi like eyes) and a hoity toity countess, as well as a dresser with several hidden compartments, one of which has a deadly surprise.The film doesn't pretend to be anything more than a standard programmer mystery, totally unpretentious in its presentation, and filled with delightfully witty dialog and the pleasure of watching a reporter (William Lundigan) solving the mystery rather than the cops. Eddie Foy Jr. ("The Pajama Game", "Bells are Ringing", narrator of the Bob Hope starred story of his famous father's life) takes over the part usually essayed by Allen Jenkins, and Maris Wrixon proves herself to be an acceptable heroine. Plenty of red herrings abound to keep you guessing if you might be wrong too, but you may find yourself figuring it out early in the game.

...not great. The premise of a stolen antique is somewhat different for this low budget war-era mystery. Could have been better, but the leading man is too stiff and the murders come too late despite the fast pace. Worth it only to see some ingenious means of death by furniture and to learn why the name of the criminal is the Black Parrot.

Fast-paced mystery programmer that times in at exactly one hour, this one doesn't give you any time to grow bored, as a piece of forged Chinese furniture turns out to be real. Eddie Foy Jr. is great as the fast-talking sidekick and the plot veers in unexpected direction. William Lundigan is earnest and stiff as always, but even the butler speaks fast in this one.