Top:Hy Hazell-John Bentley-Michael Ellison
Bottom:Eddie Byrne-Hazell-Bentley
This tries to combine a murder mystery with some light hearted comedy but falls down in both attempts. Charles Farrell as newspaper editor Percy Simpson is just terrible.
Henry Crossley is married to a rich woman. He’s an amateur artist with little talent. His wife Margaret left a while ago to see her Aunt Ida. He could care less. The housekeeper Mrs. Hudson is about to leave for the day and model Stella Watson is also on her way out. Then in walks Ida.
She says Margaret never got to her place. Crossly gives Mrs.Hudson the not too subtle hint that she should be on her way. That doesn’t stop her from listening through the keyhole as Crossley and Ida argue about Margaret’s whereabouts.
At the Sunday Star, society reporter Jenny Drew (Hy Hazell) tells the editor Percy Simpson (Charles Farrell) that she wants a crime story assignment like her reporter boyfriend Mike Billings (Mike Bentley). She’s not getting anywhere.
While talking to Mike, copyboy Danny (Michael Ellison) tells them about the missing woman. His mother is Mrs.Hudson. Mike and Jenny go to Crossley’s. Already there is Inspector Corcoran (Eddie Byrne). He and Mike are friendly but Mike does get in his way now and then.
Cocoran gets an anonymous phone tip that Margaret’s body may be found in the house or the garden. The Inspector’s men dig up the garden and the basement. At the house he gets a call. He tells Crossley and Mike that the body’s been found. It’s not in the house but halfway between the train station and Ida’s house.
Suspicion falls on Crossley but he has an alibi that proves he was at the cinema. As things move along it’s revealed that Margaret made out a will leaving everything to Ida. That’s good for her since she’s heavily in debt. She writes books about Gypsy law that no one reads. A band of Gypsies are camped out at the edge of her garden. One of them, John, acts as her bodyguard.
There’s a lot of back and forth between Mike and Jenny that’s not funny and an ending that’s pretty silly, especially the scene when Corcoran comes in. The tableau presented is just stupid. Don’t waste your time.
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