“Scoop” Hanlon (Paul Kelly) is a reporter for the Daily Blade newspaper. Currently he is in the doghouse and is the editor of the Beauty Hints section of the paper. He gets called in to see the editor, Frank Kendall (Harlan Briggs). Kendall tells him that he has an assignment for him that doesn’t involve cold cream or any other beauty hint. He wants Scoop to spend the night in the famous “Blue Room” of the local haunted house. Scoop balks at the assignment, but Kendall tells him it is the only way to get out of the doghouse.
The house had been closed for 20 years, after the mysterious death of the former owner, Samuel Kirkland. The house now belongs to the Kirklands’ daughter, Stephanie (Constance Moore). After her father’s death, Stephanie had been living with her adopted parents, Frank and Linda Baldrich (Selmer Jackson and Florence Wix). The history of the mansion, as well as the blue room, goes back two hundred years. Several people went missing from the room over the years. To dispel the bad mojo of the house, the Baldriches have a costume party and invite their friends.
To gain access to the house, Scoop stages a car accident in front and pretends to be injured. He is taken to the guest room to rest. He is found out by the butler, Edwards (P.J. Kelly) and summarily ejected from the house. After the guests leave there are only a few people left in the mansion. One is Larry Dearden (William Lundigan), a family friend and Stephanie’s suitor. Larry decides to dispel the myth by spending the night in the blue room.
In the morning, Larry is missing. In his place Scoop is found in the guest room, having bribed his way into the house during the night. When Scoop finds out that Larry has disappeared, he begins his own investigation into the strange event.
“The Missing Guest” was released in 1938 and was directed by John Rawlins. It is an American murder mystery comedy with old dark house elements. The film was based on the story “Secret of the Blue Room” by Erich Philippi and is a remake of the 1933 Universal film “The Secret of the Blue Room”. Another remake of the story was done in 1944 under the name “Murder in the Blue Room”.
Paul Kelly, who plays Scoop Hanlon, went to prison for killing Ray Raymond, the husband of Dorothy Mackaye, a woman he was having an affair with. Kelly was in San Quentin prison under a manslaughter charge. He was sentenced to ten years but was released after 25 months. Kelly and Mackaye married after Kelly was paroled.