a5c7b9f00b 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.
The Ashton Detective Agency needs money badly, so when Russ Ashton is called away to Washington on a case, secretary Susan Hart takes on an infidelity case where she has to photograph a man's wife as she leaves an apartment using a camera disguised in a hat box. Susan doesn't realize that the camera camouflages a gun, and Mrs. Moreland (the woman) is shot. Ashton returns to find Susan in jail, so he tries to find the man (Stevens) even though he has a vague description. Stevens and his gang find out that Ashton and his sidekick Harvard, are on his trail so he tries to get him out of the way. Ashton then uses Susan as bait to trap the killers in order to prevent her from being tried for murder. Decent programmer with an enjoyable foursome of Neal, Blake, Jenkins, and Sale making the film seem like an OTR mystery show. The pacing of the film is great, with a lot going on considering the film's run time of 44 minutes. The plot is a bit predictable and done before, but the characterizations make it fun. Rating, 7.
When I saw that Robert Lippert was listed on the credits as 'presenter' a lot of questions about The Hat Box Mystery were answered. Shortly Lippert would found his own studio that did poverty row quickies, some were better than others. Though it was a product of the short lived Screen Guild Productions, this film has all the earmarks of a typical Lippert.<br/><br/>Tom Neal takes over a ramshackle detective agency that's up to the privates in debt. Girl Friday Pamela Blake works for Neal as does Allen Jenkins whom he keeps around for laughs. And also due to the fact that Jenkins's girl friend apparently feeds them from her hamburger stand when they can't afford a meal.<br/><br/>A rather elegant man in spats and a van dyke beard says he'd like some incriminating evidence on his wife, a photograph coming out of a building where presumably a paramour resides. Blake volunteers and she has a camera concealed in a hat box. Only there's a gun in there and when Blake shoots a picture, the victim Olga Andre falls over shot.<br/><br/>I won't go into any more of this very short B film, but simple forensics which Neal does and the police should as a matter of routine would have cleared Blake. Just where were the CSI technicians when this prominent society woman was shot?<br/><br/>Allen Jenkins is simply Allen Jenkins, the none too bright sidekick on either side of the law in so many Warner Brothers films. But his presence in the movie was a Bob Lippert trademark. In about a third to half of the films at Lippert Studios they had a resident comedian who functions like Jenkins here. No doubt Lippert got the idea to put Sid Melton under contract and he made a few dozen Lippert films always the comic relief on either side of the law. And in some dreadful films just like The Hat Box Mystery.