On this day in movie and book history - Mystery House and The Mystery of Hunting's End (both 1938)

Mystery House

directed by Noel M. Smith,

written by Sherman L. Lowe and Robertson White,

based on the novel The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart,

was released in the United States on May 21, 1938.

Music by Howard Jackson.

Cast:

Dick Purcell, Ann Sheridan, Anne Nagel, William Hopper, Anthony Averill, Dennie Moore, Hugh O'Connell, Ben Welden, Sheila Bromley, Elspeth Dudgeon, Anderson Lawler, Trevor Bardette, Jean Benedict, Loia Cheaney, Stuart Holmes, Jack Mower, Paul Panzer, Eric Stanley.

Recommended reading:

The Mystery of Hunting’s End

by Mignon G. Eberhart.

Filmed as Mystery House (1938), directed by Noel M. Smith.

Published by University of Nebraska Press.
First published 1930.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0803267371
ISBN-13: 978-0803267374
 
Description:

The Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Mignon G. Eberhart lived as a newlywed, inspired the setting of this 1930 chiller. Smack in the middle of the rolling desolation is Hunting's End, a weekend lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. To that place socialite Matil Kingery invites a strange collection of guests-the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of "heart failure" exactly five years ago. She intends to find out which one of them murdered him. Posing as another guest is the dapper young detective Lance O'Leary. At his recommendation Matil has engaged Nurse Sarah Keate to care for Aunt Lucy Kingery at Hunting's End-not a pleasant assignment, as it turns out. Gathered at the lodge, Matil's guests are shut off from the outside by a November snowstorm. A collie named Jericho mopes around, and a stray cat seems to herald new, clearly unnatural deaths. What a trap to spring on people used to good wine and fresh-cut flowers at dinner! Nurse Keate is the same sharp-eyed, stiletto-tongued, strong-stomached Nightingale and sleuth who was introduced in The Patient in Room 18 and While the Patient Slept. She helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction.

Born on this day – Anne Nagel:

Anne Nagel

Actress

September 29, 1915 – July 6, 1966

Credits:

100 Years of Horror (1996); A Bride for Henry (1937); An Innocent Affair (1948); Appointment for Love (1941); Argentine Nights (1940); Armored Car Robbery (1950); Black Friday (1940); Blondie's Holiday (1947); Breakdowns of 1936 (1936); Bullets or Ballots (1936); Bungalow 13 (1948); Call a Messenger (1939); China Clipper (1936); Cinemassacre's Monster Madness (2014); Circus Boy (1957); College Humor (1933); Coming Out Party (1934); Coming Soon (1982); Convict's Code (1939); Diamond Frontier (1940); Dog of the Wild (1949); Don Winslow of the Navy (1942); Down the Stretch (1936); Escape by Night (1937); Every Girl Should Be Married (1948); Everybody's Old Man (1936); Evil Deeds / Segment: Hell Beast (2004); Family Honeymoon (1948); Gang Bullets (1938); George White's 1935 Scandals (1935); Guns of the Pecos (1936); Here Comes Carter (1936); Homecoming (1948); Hoosier Schoolboy (1937); Hot Money (1936); Hot Steel (1940); Hypnotized (1932); I Found a Dog (1949); I Loved You Wednesday (1933); King of Hockey (1936); Legion of Lost Flyers (1939); Love Begins at 20 (1936); Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me (1940); Man Made Monster (1941); Meet the Chump (1941); Meet the Stars #5: Hollywood Meets the Navy (1941); Mighty Joe Young (1949); Murder in the Music Hall (1946); Music Is Magic (1935); Mutiny in the Arctic (1941); My Little Chickadee (1940); Mystery House (1938); Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941); One Touch of Venus (1948); Pal, Canine Detective (1950); Pal, Fugitive Dog (1950); Pal's Gallant Journey (1951); Pal's Return (1948); Polo Joe (1936); Prejudice (1949); Redheads on Parade (1935); Road Agent (1941); Romance Road (1938); Saleslady (1938); Schlitz Playhouse (1952); Sealed Lips (1942); She Loved a Fireman (1937); Should a Girl Marry? (1939); Sitting Pretty (1933); Stagecoach Buckaroo (1942); Stand Up and Cheer! (1934); The Adventurous Blonde (1937); The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937); The Dawn Express (1942); The Devil's Saddle Legion (1937); The Footloose Heiress (1937); The Green Hornet (1940 / 1990); The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1940); The Hucksters (1947); The Invisible Woman (1940); The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942); The Mad Monster (1942); The Range Rider (1951); The Secret Code (1942); The Spirit of West Point (1947); The Stratton Story (1949); The Trap (1946); The Witness Vanishes (1939); Three Legionnaires (1937); Traffic in Crime (1946); Under the Big Top (1938); Winners of the West (1940); Women in Bondage (1943).