One Mysterious Night (1944)

To help raise funds for the war effort, a collection of jewels is being displayed at a posh hotel. That's manna from heaven for a thief and when the famous "Blue Star of the Nile" diamond goes walkabouts and "Blackie" (Chester Morris) is found in the vicinity, well then what else might "Insp. Faraday" (Richard Lane) do but accuse his long-term, if almost always helpful, nemesis. Of course we know all along what's going on, but it's going to be down to "Blackie" and the ever reliable "Runt" (George E. Stone) to clear their names and help the police so that they all find out who did the pinching and retrieve the priceless stone. None of this is really helped by the tenacious journalist "Dorothy" (Janis Carter) who is determined to get the story and who has some useful distractions in her arsenal to trick people into helping her, or giving her information. Though it's perfectly watchable for an hour, this is not one of the more memorable outings from our comedy sleuths, and the story doesn't really give Morris so much opportunity to impose his usually wise-cracking charisma on the proceedings either. Dorothy Malone features sparingly but adds little as the procedural drama does it's job, but not much more, as it reminds the audience to chip in for the war effort.