THE UNKNOWN

Jim Bannon, Jeff Donnell, Mark Roberts

THE UNKNOWN (1946). Director: Henry Levin. 

An old Southern family is shattered when daughter Rachel (Karen Morley) tells her parents that she has married Richard (Robert Wilcox of Mysterious Dr. Satan) instead of the fiance who had been chosen for her. After accidentally shooting Rachel's father, he flees the house. Decades later, Rachel and Richard's daughter, Nina (Jeff Donnell), arrives at the creepy old Confederate mansion for the reading of her grandmother, Phoebe's (Helen Freeman) will. Accompanying her are a lawyer (Mark Roberts of Exposed) and two private detectives (Jim Bannon of Dangers of the Canadian Mounted; Barton Yarborough). Rachel has been a bit batty for years and doesn't realize Nina is her daughter, and her two uncles (James Bell; Wilton Graff) are grumpy and unwelcoming. Then someone is found stabbed in the family crypt. 

Robert Wilcox

The Unknown is a modestly entertaining and rather suspenseful variation on an "old dark house" mystery. In addition to crypts and murders, we've got babies crying in the night, a wandering cat, secret rooms and cobwebby passageways, but all in all it's a trifle far-fetched and doesn't add up to that much. The back story of the secret marriage and its repercussions is not without interest, but most of the modern-day story has very little to do with that. The acting is a bit stilted at times. The Unknown was the third of three films based on the "I Love a Mystery" radio series. Jim Bannon played Jack Packard in all three (the other two were I Love a Mystery and The Devil's Mask). 

Verdict: Pleasant but unspectacular time-passer. **1/2. 

EXPOSED (1947)

Adele Mara and Mark Roberts

EXPOSED (1947). Director: George Blair. 

"He probably got admitted to the bar too often." -- referring to attorney-turned-drunk Severance. 

Lady private eye Belinda Prentice (Adele Mara) is hired by Colonel Bentry (Russell Hicks) to investigate the doings of stepson William Foresman (Mark Roberts of The Brothers Brannigan), who has supposedly been acting strangely. Belinda and associate Iggy (William Haade) have barely gotten started when the client is found dead in his study. Suspects include William, his sister Judy (Lorna Gray), the attorney turned drunken butler Severance (Harry Shannon), the lawyer Lowell (Charles Evans), seedy gunsel Chicago (Bob Steele), Dr. Richard (Colin Campbell of The Lost World) and the odd Professor Ordson (Paul E. Burns). Belinda's father, Inspector Prentice (Robert Armstrong), just happens to be the lead cop on the case, and he doesn't appreciate his daughter's interference. 

Robert Armstrong and Adele Mara

The notion of a female private eye was still unusual enough in the forties, but while Exposed starts out in snappy enough fashion, it soon bogs down into a very routine Republic studios programmer that lasts less than an hour and is much less entertaining than the average episode of Perry Mason (Mark Roberts appeared eight times on that series). There are no clever murder schemes nor any surprises whatsoever. In fact, the only memorable sequence is a protracted and explosive fight between Iggy and Chicago that reminds one of the kind of fisticuffs you would see in one of Republic's serials. The actors are all professional enough although none of them especially distinguish themselves. Mara seems over-rehearsed throughout. 

Verdict: Except for the lively fight scene, this is pretty dull. *1/2.