Obviously this was a programmer made to fill out a double bill in theatres. Robert Lippert, the producer, made a career of it. The film itself features the capable Tom Neal and Allen Jenkins in an otherwise no-name cast. It's a flat-footed mystery with Neal in charge of his low-rent yet financially strapped detective agency (is there EVER a movie featuring a detective agency that actually makes money?) He gets a job investigating a caper that involves killing someone with, yes you guessed it, a hat box (tricked-out with a gun inside). It's such a short film at 44 minutes that it barely qualifies as a feature and, if made a few years later, would have been an episode of a TV mystery show most likely. Aside from an opening gag involving an out-of-work phone that is funny, the only thing of note is the prologue wherein the actors introduce themselves and the characters they are about to play. An odd thing and possibly the only time it's been done on film (there has been end-of-film bits where the actors bow or are presented by a voice over, but I don't know of another where actors come out at the start to announce themselves).
Review of The Hat Box Mystery
