The Mandarin Mystery

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Charlotte Henry and Eddie Quillan in The Mandarin Mystery (1936)

Two murders are committed and a $50,000 Chinese Mandarin stamp is stolen, tossed around and eventually recovered as an aggregation of costly-stamp counterfeiters are uncovered through the ma... Read allTwo murders are committed and a $50,000 Chinese Mandarin stamp is stolen, tossed around and eventually recovered as an aggregation of costly-stamp counterfeiters are uncovered through the mastermind investigation by Ellery Queen.Two murders are committed and a $50,000 Chinese Mandarin stamp is stolen, tossed around and eventually recovered as an aggregation of costly-stamp counterfeiters are uncovered through the mastermind investigation by Ellery Queen.

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IMDb RATING

5.3/10

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YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Trivia
Even though records show the film as 66 minutes long, copies that are available today are only 53 minutes long and have fade-outs throughout as though the movie were playing on commercial television. It's unclear what happened to the missing minutes, but the cuts were made by Republic Studios in 1952 when they sold their library to television syndication.

Goofs
No philatelist, not even in the 1930s, would treat a rare stamp the way the Chinese Mandarin was treated in this film. Touching the stamp with bare hands, keeping it loose in a folded up piece of paper, licking and posting a stamp, etc. While "hinges" (tiny bits of sticky paper) could be used by everyday collectors to attach a stamp to a book or display case in this era, elite collectors still would have been loathe to ruin a stamp so rare.

Quotes
Ellery Queen: [to Inspector Queen] Congradulations. You now have two suspects. Now all you need is one murderer.

Connections
Edited into The Gay Rub: A Documentary (2018)

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Review

Featured review

6/10

Ellery Stamps Out the Villains

Josephine Temple arrives in New York with a rare stamp, the Chinese Mandarin, which she has arranged to sell to stamp collector, Dr. Alexander Kirk, for $50,000, which upsets his two nieces (Martha and Irene, as well as her fiancé Donald Trent) who don't like him spending their inheritance as an investment. Soon after she arrives, Josephine finds that the stamp has been stolen, and races up to Kirk's room. Soon after Josephine leaves the room, the real crook, Craig, is found murdered in the library adjoining Dr. Kirk's room. Inspector Queen goes up to solve the case, while son Ellery's interest is in Josephine (smart boy) which he seems to be protecting. Ellery finds out that many of the stamps in Dr. Kirk's collection are counterfeit and when he goes to Craig's apartment he discovers his counterfeiting tools, but not before he is knocked unconscious by Howard Bronson, another stamp collector, who expressed a high interest in the Mandarin. The stamp is later found on an envelope sent by Martha, but when she is confronted with the evidence, she is mysteriously killed. Who is the murder of Craig and Martha Kirk. A good B mystery from the 30's, but the injection of humor and Quillan's aw shucks persona, really kill the movie at several occasions. Much of the plot and characters are not fleshed out as deeply as a Charlie Chan or Philo Vance film and the ending is rushed with explanations that would bewilder any audience member. The plot is a standard B mystery with the usual clichés and twists, which does work. Rating, based on B mysteries, 6.