When a young boy comes into the hospital Dr. Norman Kennedy (Roland Drew) is summoned to the emergency room. X-Rays are taken. Dr. Kennedy is reluctant to perform surgery on the boy until he speaks with his uncle and head of surgery, Dr. Finley Morton (Addison Richards). Nurse Carole Dale (Helen Mack) believes the surgery can’t wait and that Kennedy is afraid that if the surgery doesn’t work he will lose the position of assistant to the chief of surgery he has been vying for. Carole talks to Dr. Amos Thornton (Frank Reicher) and Dr. Bob Clayton (Bruce Cabot) about the injured boy. Clayton is also vying for the assistantship but he agrees that surgery is needed immediately. Clayton does the surgery, even though it is Kennedy’s patient.
When Morton finds out about what happened he isn’t happy with either doctor. He sees Kennedy as a coward and Clayton as flagrantly disobeying the rules. Both men are not happy with Doctor Morton. That day Doctor Morton is scheduled to perform surgery on a woman. During the operation the lights go out. When they come back on Doctor Morton has been stabbed in the back with a scalpel. Doctors Clayton and Kennedy finish the operation while Carole calls the police.
Police Sergeant MacIntosh Spencer (Thomas E. Jackson) arrives to investigate the murder. What he finds is more suspects and more motives than in any soap opera. Besides Clayton and Kennedy being in contention for the same job, Kennedy is also Morton’s next of kin and would benefit from his death. Then there is his jilted lover and nurse, Lila Haines (Joan Woodbury). In addition is Doctor Thornton. His partially paralyzed right side is due to a botched surgery years ago. The Doctor who performed the operation was Doctor Morton.
Then mild mannered custodian Tony (Frank Puglia) is found unconscious and burned from acid being thrown in his face. From their investigation into what happened the police believe he interrupted Morton’s murderer and can identify who the killer is. Until a cornea transplant can be done to restore his vision so he can identify his attacker Tony’s life is in danger.
“Mystery of the White Room” was released in 1939 and was directed by Otis Garrett. It is a murder mystery with some comedy. It is also the seventh in Universal’s low budget Crime Club Mysteries. The movie was based on the Crime Club novel “Murder in Surgery”. Officially there were a total of eight Crime Club mysteries that were made into films.
The "white room" of the title is, of course, an operating room. The movie plays like a daytime soap opera. The budget is miniscule and the sets are plain. The acting is a mix of OK and stilted. The plot is also on the less than inspirational side. All that being said it was still an interesting story to watch. It’s not great, it’s not bad.
Comic cringe is played by Tom Dugan as Hank Manley the annoying ambulance attendant and Mabel Todd as the really annoying nurse and telephone operator Dora Stanley. Most of their dialogue is barbs directed at each other. Dugan’s character Hank also annoys Sergeant Spencer as he tries to solve the murder on his own. Todd’s character Dora just annoys everyone with her laugh that sounds like a Jackass braying.