The Mandarin Mystery

1936 MysteryThriller 66 minutes Directed by Ralph Staub

Open in new tab

About The Mandarin Mystery

Josephine Temple brings a Chinese Mandarin stamp, valued at $50,000, to New York to sell to collector Dr. Alex Kirk. It is stolen from her hotel room. Engraver Craig is found shot in Kirk's locked library with her envelope in his hand. The envelope holds an I.O.U. from Donald Trent, not the stamp. Ellery Queen, a mystery writer who has fallen for Josephine, works with his father, Inspector Richard Queen. Two murders and a counterfeiting ring sit behind the missing stamp. Ellery works out that Kirk shot Craig and used the dead man's weight to hold the door locked.

Cast & crew

More about The Mandarin Mystery

Ralph Staub directed. Nat Levine produced, with Victor Zobel as associate. Cortland Fitzsimmons wrote the screenplay. The story is credited to Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, loosely from their novel The Chinese Orange Mystery, with John Francis Larkin, Gertrude Orr, and Rex Taylor also credited. Republic released it on December 23, 1936. Jack A. Marta photographed it. Grace Goddard edited. The U.S. running time is 66 minutes; an edited version runs 53.

Themes

  • A rare stamp as the prize
  • Two locked-room murders
  • A niece pressing for an inheritance
  • Ellery Queen ahead of the inspector
  • Ellery Queen
  • postage stamp
  • locked room
  • counterfeiting
  • hotel
  • Republic Pictures
  • New York

Background

A December 1936 Republic B mystery, one of the early Ellery Queen films, using Dannay and Lee's detective and a different plot from the novel it names.

Making

Republic cast Quillan, a light comedian, as Ellery Queen and built the mystery around a stamp and two locked-room deaths.

Look

Jack A. Marta photographed the hotel and the library locked-room scenes.

Preservation

Prints of the feature and a shorter cut survive.

Notes

  • Eddie Quillan plays Ellery Queen. Charlotte Henry plays Josephine Temple. Wade Boteler plays Inspector Richard Queen.
  • Rita La Roy plays Martha Kirk. Franklin Pangborn plays Mellish, the hotel manager.
  • This is a loose adaptation. The novel is The Chinese Orange Mystery, not a story titled The Mandarin Mystery.
  • A circulating copy runs 52 minutes 42 seconds.

Scenes

  • Craig is found shot in the locked library with Josephine's envelope in his hand.
  • Ellery shows how Kirk's body, after the shot, held the door shut.

Influenced by

  • The Chinese Orange Mystery by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee

Also available

  • Internet Archive (TheMandarinMystery)
  • Wikimedia Commons