Kurt Neuman directed Secret of the Blue Room, a pre-Code murder-mystery, starring Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Paul Lukas, and Edward Arnold, and based on the German film, Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers, made in 1932.
Universal remade it twice: as The Missing Guest in 1938, and as a comedy with song titled, Murder in the Blue Room, in 1944.
Tommy (William Janney) pursues Irene von Helldorf (Gloria Stuart), challenging his two rivals to spend a night in a room in which several murders had occurred, always at 1 a.m. Tommy sleeps there on the first night but disappears at 1 a.m. The second man sleeps there on the second night. At 12:30 a.m, he starts playing the piano, but is shot half an hour later.
On the fifth night, the third man sleeps in the Blue Room. However, he places a dummy in an armchair and conceals himself behind a coat. At 1 am, a revolver fires at the dummy. The man and several police officers jump out of their hiding. After a gunfight, the villain is apprehended and revealed: It’s Tommy, the first suitor, who had disappeared.
Running time: 66 Minutes