The Hat Box Mystery (1947)

So much average

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

At UNDER 44 minutes, you wonder if this movie was severely edited down to this length. After all, B-movies ran from 55-65 minutes on average and 44 is amazingly short...too short."The Hat Box Mystery" is from Lippert Productions. When I saw that, I knew that the film couldn't be very good as all the Lippert movies I've seen have been simply terrible. Perhaps being short is a blessing!!Surprisingly, the story does start off very well. During the opening credits, the film suddenly switches to the four leading characters who have broken character! Tom Neal introduces himself and the others and then talks to the audience...and then the credits continue. This is pretty clever. The story that follows isn't.Russ (Nea)l and his sidekick, Harvard (Allan Jenkins), run a failing detective agency. When they are out of the office, their dopey secretary takes a case all on her own...an incredibly suspicious case where a man in obvious disguise gives her a camera hidden in a hatbox and instructs her on how to use it to take a picture of his cheating wife. Not surprisingly, he then rigged it up to a gun and when the dopey lady snaps the picture, she appears to shoot the lady in question. Oops. So, it's up to Russ and Harvard to figure out what really happened.As I already said, since the production is by Lippert it was practically guaranteed to be sub-par...which it was. Fortunately, being short and having a few good moments, it's an inoffensive time-passer...albeit a seriously silly one considering the plot and occasionally bad writing.

Plot summary from IMDb: "Susan Hart, assistant to private detective Russ Ashton, is given a camera concealed in a hat box and assigned to take a picture of a woman. A gun is accidentally hidden in the box and the woman is killed. Susan is charged with murder, but Russ and his less-than-useful associate, Harvard, get on the case and prove that the fatal shot was fired by the killer from across the street." While I agree with most of this, the gun wasn't "accidentally hidden". It was placed there on purpose so Susan would be charged with murder.The Hat Box Mystery is a fun, little, noir-ish mystery. When I say little, it runs only 44 minutes and the first three or four minutes are taken up introducing, not just the characters, but the actual actors. This is strictly a low-budget B-quickie, but The Hat Box Mystery overcomes some of its budget limitations (static camera, stage-bound sets, uninspired lighting), and delivers a reasonably entertaining story. Tom Neal and Pamela Blake give very nice performances. Allen Jenkins and Virginia Sale provide the comic relief that, unfortunately, misses more than it hits. The supporting cast is adequate. The movie flows fairly nicely, only interrupted by one of Jenkins' gags. Overall, not a bad way to spend 3/4 of an hour.

Taking a look at posts recently made on IMDb's Classic Film board for a poll that was to vote for the best film of 1947,I noticed that an IMDb'er listed,what sounded like an intriguing Film Noir in a "Would like to see" section of their post.Searching around online,I was disappointed to find hardly any info of the movie around,which led to me doing an extensive search on the internet,until I happily,by pure luck finally ended up stumbling upon the kept well-hidden hat box.The plot:Struggling to keep her co-owned detective agency going due to mounting bills,Susan Hart is thrilled when a new customer arrives,who offers to pay up front if Hart completes the simple job of taking a photo of his wife,who he wants to divorce.Agreeing to the task,Susan is told by the customer that the only condition which she must accept is to use a camera that he has specially built into a hat box,due to the high chance that his wife would run away the moment she sees someone holding a camera.Fininding the building that Marie Moreland is staying at,Susan gets set to capture Marie on film at the perfect moment.Pressing the shutter button the moment that Morland appears,Hart is horrified to discover,that the "shutter button" was actually the trigger for a gun.View on the film:Running at a short & sweet running time of 45 minutes,the screenplay by Don Martin,Maury Nunes and Carl K.Hittleman make the story fly by thanks to going in an off-beat direction,that goes from the fourth breaking opening scene, to one of the detectives being oblivious to the romantic "signals" being sent to them by a greasy spoon cook. (played by an easy going Viriginia Sale)Whilst some of director Lambert Hillyer outdoor scenes do have a sadly "stagey" feel,Hillyer shows that he is able to create a smooth Film Noir atmosphere in the scenes that show Hart's fellow detectives reconstructing the murder scene in order to get her free.Along with Hillyer's directing Tom Neal gives a good performance as Russ Ashton,the detective who suspects that someone is trying to frame Hart,Whilst Pamela Blake giving a very good performance as Susan Hart,with Blake showing Hart to be someone who is on unsteady ground,as she begins to regret not checking what the "special" hat was,in the now fatal box.

This Poverty Row detective film is dreadful, but for a B-movie buff like me, still has moments of interest. While struggling detective Tom Neal is out of his office, his secretary/fiancée Pamela Blake takes on a case for him; a mysterious man with an obviously fake goatee says he wants her to get photographic evidence of his wife's adulterous activities. He tells Blake where to take the picture and even gives her a hat box with a hidden camera to use. However, when Blake goes to take the photo, it turns out that the box is rigged with a gun, and she shoots the wife. With equal parts help and hindrance from bumbling sidekick Allen Jenkins, Neal works to clear Blake. The plot is serviceable but with a weak script and a 45 minute running time, this ends up feeling more like a summary of a movie with most of the action and explanatory detail left out. I like both Neal and Jenkins (though the handsome Neal, only in his mid-30's, looks rather seedy here) and they both try hard, but the weak material defeats them. Blake is totally forgettable, though comic actress Virginia Sale gets some chuckles as a burger slinger and Jenkins' long-suffering gal. The most notable part of the film is at the very beginning, when the four leads introduce themselves directly to the camera, first in character, then with Neal giving their real names.