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Crime novelist Broderick (Chester Morris) is doing research on a
serialkiller who always announces his murders and leaves an ace of spades
as his calling card. So he pays a visit to crime psychologist Drake (Henry
Stephenson), an expert on the killer - just in time to witness Drake
receiving a death threat from the Ace of Spades Killer his assistant
Winters (Grant Mitchell) finds within a puzzle. Drake has the perfect
solution of course: Why not go to his mansion in Louisiana for the
weekend: That time he would be flying in an airplane high up in the air at
the appointed time, and nobody could touch him. Drake does so of course,
but takes a whole lot of people with him, besides pilot Henderson
(Cornelius Keefe), Broderick whom he hardly knows, assistant Winters and
Winters' daughter (Vivienne Osborne), and two bumbling detectives (Frank
McHugh, Allen Jenkins). Eventually, the light goes out on board the
plane and a murder happens - but it's not Drake who dies but Winters (for
whom the threat could very well have been all along). At the mansion, the
two detectives show remarkable talent in messing everything up, they allow
Henderson to be killed, they allow a phony mortician (Charles Middleton)
to examine Winters' body, they lock everybody up in their rooms but make
sure everybody has plenty of opportunity to escape, they lose vital
evidence (a confession of sorts found in Winters' pocket), and they jump
at every sound and are thus always conveniently lured away from any real
action. Ultimately, Broderick reveals Drake to be the real killer who
has killed his victims with a retractable blade from his walking cane, and
together witht he phony mortician (really one of Broderick's men), he
tries to get hold of him - but Drake and his gardener (Gus Robinson) put
up a valiant fight that is only ended when Drake is killed by his own
weapon of choice ... Not great and a tad on the predictable
side, but a murder mystery that moves along rather swiftly, is carried by
an assortment of colourful characters (even if Broderick remains a bit on
the pale side throughout), and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Sure,
there are better ways to spend an hour or so, but there are also waaay
worse murder mysteries, so there's nothing really to complain about ...
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