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The Hat Box Mystery is a fun, little, noir-ish mystery. When I say little, it runs only 44 minutes and the first three or four minutes are taken up introducing, not just the characters, but the actual actors.

Overview of The Hat-box Mystery, 1947, directed by Lambert Hillyer, with Tom Neal, Pamela Blake, Virginia Sale, at Turner Classic Movies

Susan Hart, assistant to private detective Russ Ashton, is given a camera concealed in a hat box and assigned to take a picture of a woman. A gun is accidentally hidden in the box and the woman is killed. Susan is charged with murder, but Russ and his less-than-useful associate, Harvard, get on the case and prove that the fatal shot was fired by the killer from across the street.

May 08, 2012 · THE HAT BOX MYSTERY. Screen Art Pictures, 1947. Tom Neal, Pamela Blake, Allen Jenkins, Virginia Sale. Director: Lambert Hillyer. There are a few remarkable things about this 45 minute movie, and the first is that it is a 45 minute movie, obviously the quick second half of a double feature on a Saturday matinee.

The Hat Box Mystery appears to have been angling to be a little different from the average B-crime movies of the day.For one thing, it clocks in at 42'55" -- even shorter than Hal Roach's "Streamliner" comedies.