A Close Call For Ellery Queen is the 7th of the Ellery Queen movies from the 30s and 40s. It's from 1942. Erick Taylor wrote the screenplay, it's got some additional dialog by Gertrude Purcell, the director is James P Hogan. This film has anew Ellery, played by William Gargan, Margaret Lindsay returns as Nikki Porter, as do Charles Grapewin as Inspector Queen and James Burke as Sergeant Velle.
Ralph Morgan is a rich guy who's looking for his lost daughters. Ralph's secretary asks Ellery to help him get rid of some annoying guests. Ellery falls right into blackmail and murder. Nikki and Ellery help the real daughter in getting back together with her father.
It was about the same as the other films, good bit of comedy, some murdering, a lot of running about, and a good ending. Nothing special but certainly above average. So far I'm thinking that I would want to watch the series over again. Sadly they aren't readily available, mostly the DVDs out there are bootlegs. I don't torrent but I suspect they might be available there.
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