No, the shoot down is not in regards to this film. What is here is a fine, basically trim and neat hour long murder mystery where the villain is instantly set up in the show's first scene, the black sheep of a wealthy family attacking their clan and going after the cash with the delightful gusto of a great melodramatic villain. He's William B. Davidson, a punch in the gut rogue who has more fun telling his family how much he hates them even more than he will at accepting what he hopes will be the grand prize. When one of the family fakes concern for him by asking if there's anything he can do for him, Davidson basically tells him to fall down the flight of stairs and break their neck. The fact that he's recovering from a gunshot to the gut shows that he hasn't learned a lesson. The writers keep this hateful but funny schemer around longer than usual, so when the ultimate predictable murder does occur, the audience is grateful that it took a while for it to happen and that the pathway to doom was indeed a long but memorable one.
The real mystery isn't who has already shot him or who will ultimately do him in. That is pretty obvious. What isn't obvious is how it will be solved and the clues that lead the solver to the revelation of the perpetrator. Yes, the solver is not a detective or a cop, and even without the presence of some dumb flatfoot, the way they solve it is most ingenious. Police do show up, but they are pretty much an afterthought to the presence of nurse Marguerite Churchill who realizes that this case is none like any other she has been in on. For one thing, the patient really doesn't act like they are in need of care (even though with a bullet to the belly they obviously do), and everybody in the house seems about as worried as they would be watching a cat chase after a mouse. Lyle Talbot gets top billing as Davidson's doctor and Marguerite Churchill's love interest, but he really has nothing to do.
In solid support of Churchill and Davidson is Virginia Brissac as the fragile but mentally sound family matriarch who knows she's surrounded by a family of greedy hanger-ons including a drug addicted son and assorted greedy in-laws. Then, there's Lottie Williams as the deaf as a post housekeeper demanding that doctor and nurse stay out of the huge mansions' private office and maid Mary Treen who keeps screaming about how the cards indicated that there would be death at Thatcher house and blames it all on the nurse. The Warner Brothers mysteries, between the Perry Masons, Crime Clubs and the various individual programmers, are a mixed bag, and while this is not a classic, there are some interesting twists and turns which make this better than average.
The real mystery isn't who has already shot him or who will ultimately do him in. That is pretty obvious. What isn't obvious is how it will be solved and the clues that lead the solver to the revelation of the perpetrator. Yes, the solver is not a detective or a cop, and even without the presence of some dumb flatfoot, the way they solve it is most ingenious. Police do show up, but they are pretty much an afterthought to the presence of nurse Marguerite Churchill who realizes that this case is none like any other she has been in on. For one thing, the patient really doesn't act like they are in need of care (even though with a bullet to the belly they obviously do), and everybody in the house seems about as worried as they would be watching a cat chase after a mouse. Lyle Talbot gets top billing as Davidson's doctor and Marguerite Churchill's love interest, but he really has nothing to do.
In solid support of Churchill and Davidson is Virginia Brissac as the fragile but mentally sound family matriarch who knows she's surrounded by a family of greedy hanger-ons including a drug addicted son and assorted greedy in-laws. Then, there's Lottie Williams as the deaf as a post housekeeper demanding that doctor and nurse stay out of the huge mansions' private office and maid Mary Treen who keeps screaming about how the cards indicated that there would be death at Thatcher house and blames it all on the nurse. The Warner Brothers mysteries, between the Perry Masons, Crime Clubs and the various individual programmers, are a mixed bag, and while this is not a classic, there are some interesting twists and turns which make this better than average.