#42 Mystery House

February 9, 2021
Mystery House (1938) ** 1/2
TCM
Free
Wildcard

“That’s all right, you can talk in front of Miss Keate. Nurses hear a lot of things they shouldn’t.”

This was the first time in a while I was stuck for something to watch and unable to choose, just randomly watching five or ten minutes of various films on the TCM app before noping out.

First I tried Murder She Said, then The Thief of Baghdad, then The Phantom of Crestwood, before finally lighting on the completely random Mystery House. It’s another murder mystery from the ’30s that’s about an hour long, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite kinds of movies, particularly for watching at midnight as a last resort.

A man says to his dinner guests, all employees, “One of you has been embezzling! I have proof and will take it to the police, but first, Goodnight!” Never do things in that order, particularly in a hunting lodge chock full of guns. He is shot and killed and everyone goes CLEARLY SUICIDE LETS ALL MOVE ON! Except for his daughter, who won’t let it go.

Also in the house is the dead man’s wheelchair-bound and VERY crabby sister, who has a beautiful nurse played by Ann Sheridan. The daughter asks the nurse, “Say, by the way, do you happen to know of a good private detective?” And she does! I found out afterwards that this was a series of books and movies about this nurse and detective pair, which makes this weirdness make sense. I mean, you don’t say, “Why is this old lady butting in on this murder case?” when you are watching a Miss Marple, but that’s because you know at the beginning that it is a Miss Marple, it was not at all clear that the nurse was the main character at all, that Nurse Keate and Detective O’Leary were a running series.

The daughter invites everyone who was there for the “suicide” back to the lodge, and they all come, because if they didn’t it would be like an admission of guilt. But nobody wants to and nobody likes each other, and everyone had a motive, as the old boy was a difficult sort. Also, there is a guy and his wife and his mistress and that’s a whole thing there.

Everyone picks up a gun to go out hunting, and right before leaving the house, the wronged wife says, “I KNOW MANY THINGS ABOUT HOW THAT MAN DIED I WILL TELL YOU LATER NOW OFF INTO THE WOODS WITH GUNS AND PEOPLE WHO DON’T LIKE ME,” and then whoops! Apparently she commits suicide too, because this murderer is an idiot with only one idea.

This is a pleasant little B movie, and it is available on Warner Archive in a six movie set called Horror Mystery Double Features, which includes another Nurse Keate/Detective O’Leary film, The Patient in Room 13 and I’m totally buying it.