Movie Review: Haunted House (1940)

Synopsis: When Olaf Jensen is convicted of murdering his employer, Mrs. Blake, the whole town of Brownsville believes he is guilty. The lone exception is Jimmie, the office boy at the local newspaper, who has dreams of being a reporter and is Olaf's best friend. When his boss's niece, Millie, comes to town, she convinces Jimmie he should investigate and catch the real killer. They narrow in on a suspect but have a hard time getting anyone to believe them.

Who's in it? The movie stars Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, George Cleveland, Christian Rub and Henry Hall.

Review: After flipping through a bunch of movies on Amazon Prime last night I settled on Haunted House, both because it had an intriguing plot and because it fit the hour-long runtime I prefer for early movie films. It wasn't quite what I was expecting but still ended up being a good choice.

The title of the movie is a bit misleading. There's a creepy house that had a murder inside of it and proves to be vital to the plot, but there wasn't even an effort to pretend it was haunted. This did, however, turn out to be a decent murder mystery, with a pair of potential suspects but both either having a solid alibi or no motive for murder.

The pairing of Jimmie (Moran) and Millie (Jones) was also entertaining. It was clear she was interested in him romantically and was trying to help him out to get his job back and keep him from leaving town. It was unclear, however, how he viewed her. At first, it looked like he shared the romantic interest but as the movie progressed, he seemed either clueless about how she felt or just too distracted to notice. That relationship, along with his car, which had seen better days, kept the movie upbeat without becoming too comical (which would have made it harder to take it seriously).

I also liked how Millie became the main protagonist in the film, pulling a sometimes-reluctant Jimmie along with her whenever she came up with a new idea. It wasn't quite the same as watching Nancy Drew but was similar and she proved to be deceptively clever.

The end of the movie was entertaining as well, with the real killer revealing himself and creating a situation that put the pair in danger. My only real complaint is I would have liked to have seen a bit more about how things got straightened out in the end since it skipped from them being arrested, along with their suspect, then having a happy ending a minute later.

Final Opinion:  The title doesn't quite match but it's an entertaining movie with a decent mystery and a good mix of laughs and drama. I'd recommend taking the time to watch it.

My Grade: A