MartinHafer This first of three B-movies is based on a popular radio program, "I Love a Mystery". It is about a mystery worked on by two pals, Doc and Jack...although, oddly, they are not that prominently featured in the film. The film begins with a rather grisly scene where one of the detectives goes to the morgue...and finds a decapitated man. The story then goes back in time to when Jefferson Monk (George Macready) came to the private detectives. He has a bizarro story about some weird story about being followed and later being approached by a secret society...because they want to buy his head after he dies! What happens next in the story is just odd and instead of telling you more, I'll just say it's very convoluted and unusual!The best thing about this film is the creepy atmosphere. Also, Macready was a great actor and was excellent here as well. As far as the detectives, however, they were a dull pair and really had little to do until the very end. Worth seeing but so strange you are left a bit confused by the whole thing.

csteidler Jim Bannon and Barton Yarborough are Jack and Doc, detectives: this particular case has them encountering a man with a peg leg, a woman mysteriously confined to a wheelchair, a Russian psychiatrist who apparently does not speak that language, and a man named Monk (George Macready) who is certain he is going to be decapitated within a matter of days. Told mainly in flashback, the story shows Jack and Doc unfolding the mystery and gradually discovering that not all of these characters are what they seem. Indeed—are any of them? Macready is excellent as the bizarrely-behaving threatened man who is either rattled or drugged or just unbalanced. Nina Foch is excellent as his wife—from her first appearance there is little doubt that there is more going on behind that face than she is letting on. Bannon is steady if unspectacular as the lead detective, essentially a no-nonsense straight man looking for logical answers. Yarborough's southern drawl as Doc is, I take it, meant to indicate his status as slightly comical sidekick; he says things like, "Hey, you mean all that stuff about the prophecy is just so much razzle dazzle?" but for the most part he stays out of the way.Overall, an inventive story and solid direction combine to produce a sinister atmosphere in which tension stays high and the viewer is kept guessing. Straightforward performances add weight to this excellently dark mystery.

collegeofuselessknowlege The "I Love A Mystery" radio series starred three heroes--Jack, played by Jim Bannon. Doc, played by Barton Yarbarough, and the British Reggie, played by an up and coming American radio voice actor named Tony Randall.The three films that were based on the series starred the original actors who played Jack and Doc--but Reggie was nowhere to be seen. What happened? Maybe Bannon and Yarborough physical appearances resembled their radio voices, but poor Randall didn't and the radio show didn't want him in the movie because it might ruin what listeners imagined what Reggie looked like.Whatever the cause, Tony Randall would have to wait about another ten years or say to get his movie fame,while Jim Bannon and Barton Yarborough would fade to nostalgic obscurity of what-ever-happened-to-land and answers to Trivial Pursuit Games.BTW. in case you're wondering. I liked the movies. They're from an age of long ago when you based movies on pulp stories and radio shows. Cheese, you say? Well, I LOVE cheese! :) Class Dismissed!

MNewbill The subtitle of this film is The Decapitation of Jefferson Monk. I think viewing this film is a MUST for anyone that actually heard the radio production of I Love A Mystery. When the film is viewed today, it is a decent mystery with a decent cast, BUT when it was viewed by a seven year old kid, it was just plain SCARY. I searched for this film for fifty years, not knowing what I was searching FOR. The opening scenes of the mysterious peg leg "decapitator" had stuck with me and I searched for a film with this character, until I stumbled onto the film, via IMDb. Try to find this film, you will enjoy it... and you would also enjoy the other two films in the series, The Unknown, and The Devil's Mask