MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM (1944)

Several years ago, Linda Kirkland's husband died, apparently by suicide (he may have been being blackmailed), in the Blue Room of their seaside mansion. There have been rumors that the house is haunted by the man's ghost, but since then Linda has remarried and her husband Frank has agreed to reopen the house for a big party. As the guests mingle, a newcomer arrives: a ghostly shape with a disfigured face. Surprise! It's just Larry, a young admirer of Linda's daughter Nan. Nan's stepfather Frank isn't especially happy that Larry refers to the mansion as the ghost house, since Frank wants to dispel any such rumors, but just as Larry makes a joking reference to claps of thunder and lights going out, there's a clap of thunder and the lights go out. Later as the party breaks up, Larry decides he wants to spend the night in the supposedly haunted Blue Room. Another guest, mystery novelist Steve Randall, decides he'll do the same the next night. The next morning, Larry has vanished and the police are called in. When Steve vanishes the next morning and Larry's dead body is found in the room, the ghost rumors don't seem so fantastical.

This B-film is a remake of the 1933 mystery SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM. The plot is altered a bit, and the villain here is not the same character it was in the original. But the biggest change is that it's sort of a musical comedy, and the surprise is that it actually works. Despite the top billing that Anne Gwynne (Nan) and Donald Cook (Steve) get, the real stars are Grace McDonald, Betty Kean, and June Preisser who play a singing trio called the Jazzybelles. They are invited by Nan, who used to be a singer, to sing at the party and even though they don't stay the night, the police inspector (Regis Toomey) insists that they return to the house for the duration until they catch the killer. So the three gals end up being the audience-surrogate detectives, snooping around, seeing a ghost, and singing a sprightly tune every so often. My favorite number is "The Boogie-Woogie Man" which they sing in a darkened room to a frightened butler (the reliable Ian Wolfe, who almost gets to crack a smile here).

There are lots of nice spooky touches, like a secret passage, a piano that suddenly starts playing itself, and a creepy taxi driver. There is an actual ghost that pops in from time to time but has no real role in the story. A few lazy plot holes crop up, the biggest of which is that Toomey can come up with no real reason why the Jazzybelles should return to the house, just that the plot demands it. I also wonder why the Blue Room wasn't thoroughly searched by the cops after Larry vanished—again, a plot demand, because if the most cursory search had occurred, the movie would have been over in half an hour. A favorite line: when the taxi driver arrives for the Jazzybelles, he says, "I've come for the bags," and Betty Kean replies, "Not only is he gruesome, he's insulting!" The acting is fine, though Gwynne and Cook get overshadowed by the three singers. Bill Williams as Larry is handsome but a bit weak in the acting department, though he would go on to a long career in movies and TV (and he married Barbara Hale and is William Katt's father). I was surprised how enjoyable this was. Currently unavailable on region 1 home video, Universal should put this out on a DVD or Blu-ray with the original film. At top right are the Jazzybelles singing to the almost frightened Ian Wolfe. At left are Donald Cook, Bill Williams, and John Litel as Frank. A good October night choice. [YouTube]