The Studio Murder Mystery

The Studio Murder Mystery finds that intrepid team of sleuths Donald Meek and John Hamilton trying to solve a mystery committed right on a sound stage. Before a murder scene is done, a real murder of actress Thelma Tipson is committed and with a usual group of closed area suspects, it's a matter of eliminating the right one.

This series was written by S.S. Van Dine the author of the Philo Vance and rather than have the elegant private detective come in and do the police's work for them, Van Dine kind of makes it up to the cops by having slow, but methodical John Hamilton actually solve the crime.

Of course he can't really do it without forensic science and that's where Donald Meek comes in. At this time Philo Vance was normally being played by William Powell over at Paramount and Etienne Girardot was an integral part of that series as the coroner Dr. Doremus. This series at Warner Brothers was like they eliminated Vance and left Girardot and Eugene Palette as Sergeant Heath to their own devices.

Hamilton and Meek seem to get the job done.