The Unknown

This is the third of the three I Love a Mystery movies based on Carleton E. Morse's radio series. It's not based on any of the radio shows, though it shares the gimmick of "The Thing that Cries in the Night."

In The Unknown, Reggie and Doc escort a young woman, Nina Martin (played by Jeff Donnell, whom I remember as "crazy old Alice from George Gobel's TV show) to a ruined southern mansion for the reading of a will. There's a complicated backstory to this, and it's set up in the opening scenes, which take a while to set things up. After that we're left in the mansion with the principals, the creepy family members, the faithful retainer, and a lawyer. There's a phantom baby crying in the night, lots of roaming through secret tunnels, a murder, a nice little twist. The atmosphere's well done, and the acting is okay. Not a great movie, but entertaining enough, and not too much over an hour long. Not as good as the radio show, though.