That was an excellent one.

It is a performances centric movie

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

... in this short feature based on the old Mignon Eberhart book The Mystery of Hunting's End. A wealthy financier asks a bunch of associates up to his hunting lodge. There he tells them the only way to save the corporation is to use the value of the stock that each of them has. They push back at this for various reasons, some of them saying that the stock is all they have in the way of finances. The banker pulls his trump card and says that they will either let him use the stock to save the company or he will expose one of them as an embezzler. Then he goes to bed.Shortly thereafter, a shot rings out and the financier is found shot dead in his locked bedroom, a gun near his body. The death is ruled a suicide over the daughter's protest that her father would not end his own life. The nurse (Ann Sheridan), who is caring for the dead financier's wheelchair bound sister, recommends her boyfriend, Lance (Dick Purcell), as a dependable P.I. So the daughter hires the P.I. and invites everybody who was there at the time of her father's murder to the hunting lodge again. None of them can decline because they know they will look guilty.The P.I. is on hand to try to solve the case. There are some murders among the group as well as some near misses, a shadowy figure traipsing around in the snow outside of the house and peering into windows, the disappearance of some rat poison, and the radio mysteriously just stops working. And why is crippled old aunt Lucy so adamant about not investigating her own brother's death? Watch and find out.This is only an hour long, and even though it has no time for character development whatsoever, or even the development of any significant Thin Man style clues to help the audience, it has great atmosphere. It does seem though that the entire cast is running from one room to another as someone screams or someone else is shot dead, so there really is no room for much conversation in the face of all of this activity.Not bad for what was probably a second feature, and Ann Sheridan stands out among the largely anonymous cast.

When the film begins, the head of a corporation tells the other board members who are there at his hunting lodge that he knows one of them forged company documents. Not surprisingly, before he can tell who it is, he's found dead in his room with a gun in his hand. It's quickly ruled a suicide--which makes you wonder what these board members told the police*. So it's up to a private dick, Lance O'Leary (Dick Purcell) to determine what really happened. However, soon ANOTHER suicide occurs.This short murder mystery is just about exactly the same as about 95% of the B-murder mysteries. There are many clichés here. One is the guy who thinks he knows whodunnit--and vows to say something in the morning....only to then be killed! Another is whenever anything important is said, someone unseen just happens to be listening outside the window! It also features the scene with everyone in the room and the killer betrays himself! And, when the dick is attacked near the end...everyone just stands around except for one dopey lady who, naturally, slugs the dick on the head! All in all, as brainless and mind-numbing as a typical mystery with not to distinguish it.*I checked and apparently testing the body for gunshot residue to determine if a person actually DID kill themselves was not done until the 1970s, so this is not a hole in the story.

Mystery House (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Rare murder/mystery from Warner has a banker committing suicide but his daughter thinks he was murdered so she invites all the guests from that night back to the house hoping the killer will slip up. Only God knows how many of these "old dark house" films were made throughout the 1930s but this one here is pretty good due to some nice direction and a short running time that makes the film fly by. All of the characters are a lot of fun so this keeps the movie going as well. The ending comes out very well and the mystery is a good one.

I enjoyed this movie very much. Considering it is a B-movie, in my opinion, it is a good B-movie. It is based on the mystery novel "The Mystery of Hunting's End" by Mignon G. Eberhart, and the movie title "Mystery House" is very appropriate, since a group of people are gathered together in a house where a man was murdered. The acting by the entire cast is good. With the exception of Dick Purcell and Ann Sheridan, I was not familiar with any of them. It is a short movie, but there is much action in less than one hour. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in a good mystery movie. The hour went by very fast.