TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

mark.waltz "Oh, the cleverness of me!" I recall as a kid saying that to myself and others when I came up with a smart answer or a particularly good paper in school, and I can just hear the writers of this intelligent but smug mystery saying that as they put their final stamp on the completed script. The first of a three part series of little "B" mysteries is intriguing but bogs down with chatty plot development that takes this down a convoluted road. It starts off fine with the seemingly accidental death of a prominent citizen (George Macready), decapitated in a car accident. Jim Bannon is detective Jack Packard who arrives at the mortuary, not at all surprised by what has happened to Macready. Through flashbacks, a confusing mix of Asian cult religion and marital discord between MacReady and his supposedly wheelchair bound wife (Nina Foch) is examined, taking this into areas that are often morbid, frequently thrilling, but ultimately a tangled mess that tosses the viewer into a state of frenzy.In spite of all this in the state of confusion, there is something to be said for the imagination which went into this, and even if everything is explained in the horrific outcome, it takes a lot of thought afterwords to put it all together. A lot of the characters are not who they appear to be, utilizing disguises, alternate personalities and phony illnesses to achieve a nefarious goal. Other than Bannon, the characters are mostly morally bankrupt, and as the world moved from the end of World War II into a very cynical age, this was appropriately novel in its approach. Like any major piece of modern art, this is to be taken at an individual face value by each viewer as to what they get out of it. For me, it's an impressive attempt for a screenwriter to be very literary but ultimately just drops into a huge abyss where the writer must dig themselves out with the force of volcanic emotion erupting beneath him.

cm-albrecht This woeful film begins with a flimsy, transparent and preposterous plot, followed by wooden performances and action from actors who recite their stilted lines mechanically. George Macready was so outstandingly bad that I'm amazed he wasn't immediately banned from Hollywood forever. Fortunately for all of us he survived to become a pretty good actor. The direction was slow and predictable every step of the way and of course, since this was obviously filmed on pocket change, the entire production showed it. "I Love a Mystery" may have been a popular radio show in its day, and evidently some fans enjoyed this film as well. When TCM offered this, I taped it, hoping for something more in the line of some of the other '40s noir films. Sad.

blanche-2 "I Love a Mystery," based on the radio program of the same name, is a 1945 film starring Jim Bannon, Barton Yarborough, George Macready, and Nina Foch. Packard and Doc Long (Bannon and Yarborough) meet Macready in a nightclub with a woman - apparently he knows when he's going to die. A cult, whose ancient leader Macready resembles, wants his head, I guess to replace it on their leader's mummified body, and one of the members is following him. The detectives agree to follow Macready home to see if they can spot the man, and they do.As preposterous as it sounds (and it is), this is actually a pretty neat mystery, done on New York set at Columbia. There's lots of dry ice and a dark, noirish atmosphere, as well as a few plot twists. It's quite entertaining as well as not being terribly long. And it's a good cast, with the highlights being Macready and Foch as his crippled wife. Growing up, Nina Foch to me was an older woman who did television and quiz shows; later on, I knew she became a big acting teacher in L.A. It's fun to see her as a young woman in films such as this one. It was also fun because I remember Bannon's son from "Lou Grant."

sol ***SPOILERS*** Hum dingier of a mystery involving sleuths Jack Parker and his sidekick Doc Long, Jim Bannon & Barton Yarborough,in the case of the missing head, that was foretold to happen a year in advance, of San Francisco socialite Jefferson Monk, George Macready.Monk already lost his head in a car accident just as the movie started so there was no mystery if he'll keep his head or not. It's then that we get the whole story, in flashback, from Jack Packard and Doc Long to the events that lead to Monk ending up a head shorter and about eight to ten pounds lighter.It all started three days earlier at the Samovar Club where Packard and Long were having a few drinks. Seeing Monk go crazy when his lady friend Jane Anderson, Carole Mathews, called him a coward Packard tries to get the very disturbed and angry man to settle down by offering him a strong hot Russian coffee. It's when the flaming coffee pot suddenly, and accidentally, falls and almost burns Monk that Packard and Doc Long agree to walk the very nervous Monk home. It's then that they get the story right from the horses, Jefferson Monk, mouth as to the reasons for Monks acute paranoia.Monk has been scared out of his wits after he returned from India with his now invalid wife Ellen, Nina Fuch. Being directed by this blind man, who seemed to have been following him all the way from India, that he ran into on the Streets of San Fancisco to this secret underground monastery Monk's learns the truth about himself and his destiny. Monk finds all this out from the blind mans master who calls himself Mr. "G", Justin Reeves.Mr. "G" turned out to be the Grand Master of the secret society that calls itself the Barokan. A society that originates beyond the ice locked mountains of Tibet. Monk is told that he's a dead ringer of the societies founder and spiritual leader "the Great One' who's been dead and mummified for some 1,000 years! With "The Great One's" head now quickly giving into the rigors of time and weather Mr. "G" wants Monk to replace the cults founders now decomposing head with his own! Mr."G" even goes so far as offering Monk $10,000.00 to sell his head to him! This just scratches the surface of what the movie "I Love a Mystery" has in store for it's audience. The film really has to do with murder betrayal a falling out between thieves and a number of puzzling events that all lead to the truth behind both Mr. "G" predictions as well as his true identity.Monk who seems to be normal at first, despite his paranoia, goes homicidal when he finds out the real reason for what's been happening to him since his trip with Ellan, who's suddenly falling ill was also predicted by Mr. "G", to India. This all has to do with two million dollars that Monk is to inherit under very strict and unusual circumstance's. You get the impression that Monk's head, or loss of it, has really nothing to do with what's going on in the film. Except in the cold hard fact that Monk is somehow being set up to be murdered, or forced to commit suicide, for the two million dollars that he's soon to inherit.It's only later that the prediction of Monk losing his head, in order to replace the decomposing head of "The Great One", becomes a reality that has you left wondering what all this losing your head business is really about. It's also that reality that has both Jack Packer and Doc Long who were on "the Missing Head Case" wondering, as they recall the mysterious story of the now dead and headless Jefferson Monk, if there really is something supernatural about the whole thing after all?