Monday, October 15, 2018

Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring (1941)

A murder mystery set in a hospital with a high degree of farce, maybe a bit too much but it is undeniably entertaining. Ralph Bellamy plays the famous mystery writer/amateur sleuth Ellery Queen this time with Charley Grapewin his old man on the force and Margaret Lindsey as Nikki, Ellery's assistant.

The rather unpleasant Augusta Stack (Blanche Yurka), benefactor of a local hospital, calls in the police as she suspects one of her surgeons is a murderer. Ellery Queen gets drawn into the case but when Augusta is bought in after an auto accident and mysteriously dies during an operation he begins to investigate the strange goings on in the hospital.

Unfortunately for the Queens possible suspects start get bumped off too. Quite a lot of the film is a bit of a romp in the hospital as an injured hoodlum tries to escape the police. If you can get past the farce it is quite an interesting murder mystery.