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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

I thought THE MANDARIN MYSTERY was a rather middling murder mystery with a good premise and weak story progress. The film features the character of master detective Ellery Queen himself as he hunts for a priceless Chinese stamp that a murderer has got his hands on.The early parts of this thriller are a locked room murder mystery which is portrayed in an interesting way. Unfortunately, the rest of the film has a sluggish pace and a strictly ordinary denouement. Eddie Quillan can't make much of the leading role and the supporting characters are too clichéd to be really believable. The film has a lightness of touch which works in its favour but is too bogged down with romance and peripheral character play to really be entertaining.

I haven't seen many of Eddie Quillan's movies but it wouldn't be the first time that the characters in a film fail to resemble their bookish originals.Josephine Temple (Charlotte Henry) arrives in New York with the world's most valuable stamp - the Chinese Mandarin. For something so precious it is carelessly handled - she shows it to various people at the wharf and then carries it around in her purse. Of course it is stolen but the thief winds up dead and the stamp ends up with Josephine. This is one of those locked room mysteries. There is no end of suspects apart from Josephine. There is Donald Trent (George Walcott), who knew the dead man and owed him money. Irene (Kay Hughes) and Martha Kirk (Rita La Roy), sisters, who can't live on the allowance their uncle provides. Martha is just about to tell all she knows when she is killed by an unknown assassin. Ellery Queen (Eddie Quillan) solves the mystery with a re-creation of the crime. I quite liked him in the role. The rapport between him and his father was good. Franklin Pangborn does his turn as a harassed hotel manager.Charlotte Henry made a very lovely heroine. Her career was scuttled in 1933 when she won the coveted role of Alice in "Alice in Wonderland". After that, she said, people could only see her in those type of roles. It is very nice to see her portray a modern young woman.Recommended.

Josephine Temple (Charlotte Henry) arrives in New York with a very valuable stamp known as the Chinese Mandarin. Her intention is to sell the stamp to Dr. Alexander Kirk (George Irving), a noted stamp collector. But before she can go through with the sale, the stamp is stolen and the thief is found dead in a locked room. The police, including Inspector Queen (Wade Boteler), naturally suspect Miss Temple of having committed the murder. Fortunately for Miss Temple, however, the Inspector's son, Ellery Queen (Eddie Quillan), has taken a liking to her and will prove she couldn't possibly be guilty.I can think of far worse ways to spend an hour than watching The Mandarin Mystery. I'm sure that movie fans more accustomed to modern, thrill-a-minute movies would find it all so dull and boring (even I'll admit that at times it can be creaky), but it worked pretty well for me. The Mandarin Mystery is one of those mystery/comedies that seem to have been popular in the 30s. The mystery elements were interesting and even the comedy bits generally hit their mark. It wasn't uproariously funny or anything, but it was amusing. I've seen Eddie Quillan in a few other movies and he's honestly never impressed me much. He's seemed capable enough, but not really noteworthy. With The Mandarin Mystery, he makes the movie work. The on-screen relationship with Wade Boteler, who played his father, is very entertaining. Finally, I enjoyed the final reveal. I won't give it away other than to say it works.

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.