The Key (1934)

The Key (1934) is one of four pre-code movies included in the Warner Archive DVD set William Powell at Warner Bros. The Key was directed by Michael Curtiz. The script (based on a play by by R. Gore Brown and Jocelyn Lee Hardy) is by Laird Doyle.

The setting is Ireland in 1920. Ireland is a dangerous place. Tensions are high between the Sinn Fein separatists and the British troops. British soldiers are constantly being shot by snipers.

Captain Andrew Andy Kerr (Colin Clive) is a British intelligence officer and the stresses are starting to get to him. His wife Norah (Edna Best) worries about him.

Then Captain Bill Tennant (William Powell) arrives on the scene. He has just been posted to Dublin. He had a colourful career, full of brave deeds and scandals. The scandals invariably involve women.

Bill and Andy are old friends.

Things could get awkward, since Bill Tennant and Norah have a shared past - a passionate love affair before she met Andy Kerr. That’s all over now. At least that’s what Bill and Norah thought.

Dublin is more and more unsettled. It’s more or less open guerrilla warfare.

Andy’s task is to track down Sinn Fein leader Peadar Conlan (Donald Crisp). A very dangerous task indeed.

Bill and Norah soon discover that they’re still madly in love. Breaking this news to Andy is not going to be easy.

Obviously this could all end very badly, with plenty of emotional turmoil and the constant background threat of sudden death.

William Powell gets a rather nuanced role here. Bill has been a hell-raiser but now he’s thinking that he should have married Norah when he had the chance. Bill is a man who finds that he will to re-evaluate his life. Powell manages to make him sympathetic even while he’s stealing another man’s wife.

Edna Best is good. In this same year she landed her best-known role, the lead in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.

As so often Colin Clive is the weak link. He’s as pompous and stuff as ever which is a problem because the audience needs to sympathise with him as the wronged husband.

Andy is a brave man but a man obsessed by duty. Bill has some sense of duty but given a choice between duty and love he will choose love every time. And given a choice between duty and friendship he will choose friendship every time.

The most pre-code element is that it’s made very obvious that while Andy was out hunting Sinn Fein leaders Bill and Norah spent the night together.

Although it was shot in Hollywood this film has a mostly English cast. The casting of William Powell as a British officer is neatly explained when we’re told he is a Canadian.

The subject matter was potentially dicey. The movies tries not to pick sides but since the two male leads play British officers we inevitably get more of the British viewpoint. It tries to be both a thriller and a romantic intrigue and does so fairly successfully.

William Powell is the reason to watch this one. It’s reasonably enjoyable. Recommended.

The Key gets a very good DVD transfer. I’ve reviewed other movies in this set - The Road to Singapore, Private Detective 62 and the excellent High Pressure.

Private Detective 62 (1933)

Private Detective 62 (1933) is one of four movies in the Warner Archive DVD set William Powell at Warner Bros. Pre-code William Powell is always fun.

There’s a very odd prologue. Donald Free (Powell) is an American diplomat who has just been deported from France. It’s fairly obvious he was no diplomat but an American intelligence agent and the French not unreasonably took exception to his espionage activities. But we don’t find out exactly what he was up to and this entire angle has no connection to the rest of the movie.

Donald ends up having to swim ashore in New York but his problems have just begin. The Depression is in full swing. He can’t find a job and he’s flat broke. Finally he talks his way into a partnership with private eye Dan Hogan (Arthur Hohl). Hogan isn’t just down-at-heel, he’s pretty much down-and-out.

He hasn’t had a client for so long that he’s even more broke than Donald. But while Hogan is lazy and incompetent Donald is a live wire and the agency is soon back on its feet.

Unfortunately Hogan is also dishonest and while his connection with racketeer and gambling club owner Tony Bandor (Gordon Westcott) brings in lots of business Donald is increasingly uncomfortable with the increasingly ethically dubious nature of the agency’s jobs. He doesn’t like frame-ups and blackmail.

Tony has a very big problem. Janet Reynolds (Margaret Lindsay) has won huge amounts of money at his gambling joint. Tony can’t pay her what he owes her. Donald’s job is to frame her so that she can be blackmailed into not pursuing Tony for the money.

Donald falls for Janet straight away. She’s young and beautiful but he’s also attracted to her devil-may-care attitude and sense of fun. She gambles for the kicks, not the money.

The frame-up leads to an unexpected consequence and a possible murder rap.

That’s the plot and it’s a bit thin but quite serviceable. It would have been cool had the spy angle been developed a bit.

The movie’s biggest asset is of course William Powell. Donald is no Boy Scout but he has his limits and he’s reaching the point where he’s going to be totally morally corrupted if he’s not careful. Powell gets this across effectively. He’s always charming but I particularly like him when he’s charming and just a tad ethically challenged.

Margaret Lindsay is pretty good. There’s not quite enough chemistry between the two leads.

Ruth Donnelly is fun as Hogan’s disapproving secretary Amy Moran. Arthur Hohl as Dan Hogan is a sleazeball and a weasel and he’s terrific.

Michael Curtiz once again demonstrates his ability to make good movies in any genre.

A major plus is the 66-minute running time which means there’s no fat at all to this story. It zips along very smoothly.

How pre-code is it? There are lots of drug references. It’s very upfront about the sleazy nature of private detective work. There’s no suggestion that gambling is immoral, as long as you don’t welch on your debts.

The private eye genre was still in its infancy and this movie is only marginally hardboiled. It’s a setup that would, a decade later, have made for a decent film noir.

Private Detective 62 is lightweight but enjoyable and William Powell is just so watchable. Recommended.

Private Detective 62 gets a perfectly acceptable transfer.

I’ve reviewed other movies in this set - The Road to Singapore and the excellent High Pressure.

High Pressure (1932)

High Pressure, released in 1932, is one of the movies William Powell made during his time at Warner Brothers.

The Warner Archive released a four-movie DVD set of some of the lesser-known less remembered movies William Powell made during his time at Warner Brothers.

One of these movies is High Pressure, released in 1932. Powell is Gar Evans, a company promoter. He is not a con man. Well, not exactly. He will not do anything that is actually illegal. If he’s going to promote a company that makes bicycle clips there has to be an actual factory that manufactures actual bicycle clips. Gar’s genius lies in persuading investors and the public that such a company makes the finest bicycle clips ever devised and that the company will soon be bigger than Standard Oil.

In this case it’s a company that makes artificial rubber from sewage. “Colonel” Ginsburg (George Sidney) assures him that the process actually works and produces actual artificial rubber. He has seen the formula devised by the genius scientist. Thus reassured Gar sets out to create the necessary hype. He will sell people on the idea that the Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company is a goldmine and that they would be crazy not to put money into it.

It’s all about creating the right impression. If you rent a luxurious suite of offices, expensively furnished, in a fancy office building people assume the company really is going to become a vast business empire. Everything gives the impression of prosperity even though the impression has been created by borrowed money. And he has an uncanny ability to persuade people to offer him insanely attractive deals, such as halving the rent on the suite of offices.

Gar is careful not to tell any actual lies. He simply presents the truth in an imaginative and artistic way.

Soon the company is booming. The stock price is skyrocketing. Nothing can stop the Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company. And the great thing is, it’s all on the level. The artificial rubber processing system really exists. At least Gar assumes that it exists. The Colonel assured him that the inventor had assured him that it works. It must be on the level. It has to be. Gar would just feel a bit happier if they could actually find the inventor. Nobody else has been able to make any sense of his formula.

If the invention doesn’t exist they’ll all end up behind bars.

Gar has woman problems as well. He’s been stringing Francine (Evelyn Brent) along for years but his promises of marriage never seem to come to anything. Francine is getting fed up. She’s also suspicious that Gar might have his eyes on his new secretary, a pretty blonde.

It has to be said that Evelyn Brent is just a little bit dull.

There are some terrific character actors in the supporting cast. Guy Kibbee, who pays the hapless clueless president of the company, is always a delight. And there’s Charles Middleton - Fu Manchu himself!

High Pressure loses focus at times. It’s William Powell who carries the movie and he does so effortlessly. He’s all manic energy and bravado and fast talking slick ultra-confidence. He’s in superb form. Gar is a bit of a scoundrel but he’s so much fun and has so much charm. We don’t care if he’s not entirely honest. He’s so brazen that we want him to succeed.

High Pressure is sparkling entertainment and a treat for William Powell fans. Highly recommended.

The DVD transfer is extremely good.

The Road to Singapore (1931)

The Road to Singapore, released in 1931, is one of the movies William Powell made after moving from Paramount to Warner Brothers.

It’s a pre-code melodrama with a tropical setting. There truly is nothing I love more than sex, sin, madness and scandal in the tropics. The setting in this case is a seedy flyblown port named Khota somewhere in the British Empire, possibly in India or Ceylon.

The heat, the isolation, the boredom all serve to encourage dangerous illicit passions and forbidden lusts.

And apparently some of these outposts of the British Empire really were notorious for steamy sexual liaisons that were not necessarily sanctified by marriage.

There is much consternation in Khota. The rumour is that Hugh Dawltry (William Powell) is back. He left some time earlier after a scandal - a matter of stealing another man’s wife. He has now returned aboard a steamer. Onboard he encountered Philippa Crosby (Doris Kenyon) and she certainly aroused his interest.

He lures her to his bungalow and makes a rather desultory (and unsuccessful) attempt to seduce her. They both know it won’t end there. The attraction is still there.

Philippa has come to Khota to marry the very respectable and dedicated Dr George March (Louis Calhern).

Marriage is a disappointment to Philippa. She was hoping for romance, passion and excitement. George is a crashing bore and is interested only in his work. Of course Philippa is not going to offer any encouragement to Dawltry. He is clearly a bounder. And he drinks too much. And he’s the sort of man who might be dangerous to a lady’s reputation, and to her morals. No, she certainly won’t encourage him. On the other hand dangerous men can be rather exciting. Especially good-looking charming dangerous men.

George’s young sister Rene March (Marian Marsh) is also not immune to the charms of such men. She’s a sweet girl but an incorrigible flirt. And she’s in the mood for playing games.

Naturally George suspects that Dawltry has evil intentions but he’s inclined to assume that Rene is his target. He doesn’t really trust either Philippa or Rene. And he’s aware that it’s an established medical fact that the tropical heat can drive a woman man-crazy. He broods.

Whether Dawltry really does intend to seduce either woman is uncertain, although the thought has certainly crossed his mind. He’s no Boy Scout.

In the pre-code era a screenwriter was under no constraints in regard to the ending of a story. It could end with virtue triumphant, or virtue vanquished. It could end happily, or tragically, or ambiguously. A good pre-code melodrama such as this one keeps the audience guessing about such things.

William Powell gives an assured performance and succeeds in keeping us unsure just how much of a cad Dawltry is. Marian Marsh is naughty and adorable. Louis Calhern is effective as a well-meaning but pompous and ineffectual man who has zero understanding of women. Doris Kenyon is fine as Philippa.

Alfred E. Green was a solid journeyman director who made his best films in the pre-code era, his most famous being Baby Face (1933). His Union Depot (1932) is rather delightful. He wasn’t usually flashy but in The Road to Singapore he pulls off a very ambitious very impressive long tracking shot and it’s not a mere gimmick - it enhances the feel of encroaching tropical madness.

The Road to Singapore is a fine overheated melodrama and it’s highly recommended.

The Benson Murder Case (1930)

The Benson Murder Case, released in 1930, was the fourth of the Philo Vance movies. The history of the film adaptations of S.S. Van Dine’s novels is rather complicated. Van Dine did not sell the rights to the whole series of novels to a single studio, but sold them individually. As a result there were Philo Vance movies made by several studios. The Benson Murder Case was the third of the Paramount adaptations and the third to star William Powell.

S.S. Van Dine was a hugely popular author at that time. His reputation has not lasted particularly well compared to other popular detective fiction writers of the era which is rather unfair. The Philo Vance novels are huge amounts of fun.

One thing that you have to bear in mind when judging Van Dine’s novels and the movies based on them is that the plot devices they utilised were not clichés at the time. The Benson Murder Case, the first of the novels, was published in 1926. At that time the fair-play puzzle-plot murder mystery represented a new, fresh and exciting approach to detective fiction. The Benson Murder Case uses a formula that became very common in English detective fiction - the country house murder in which a small group of people are staying in a country house when a murder is committed. The murderer must be one of that small group. There are usually no more than half-a-dozen suspects.

In this case the setting is a hunting lodge not very far from New York but the formula is the same.

This is a story that uses the 1929 Wall Street Crash not just as background but as an essential plot point. The story of the Crash is told in a superb and imaginative opening montage.

The Crash has wiped out the fortunes of many of the clients of stockbroker Anthony Benson (Richard Tucker). He has ruthlessly sacrificed his clients in order to protect his own interests. They have lost everything. He hasn’t lost a dime.

For various reasons several of his clients happen to be at Benson’s lodge the night after the Crash. All of them have motives for murder. Money is the obvious motive but there are complicated romantic and sexual entanglements which could also provide motives. Genius amateur detective Philo Vance just happens to be present (another cliché which had not yet become a cliché).

There is of course a murder. Some of the people at the lodge have alibis but the alibis are not necessarily rock-solid. There are some clues - an unusual gun and the possibility that there was something very unusual indeed about the gun.

The clues may be helpful but Vance believes that psychology is of more use in solving crime than physical clues.

Vance’s friend, District Attorney Markham, also happened to be present at the time of the murder. Naturally Detective Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette) is on hand as well.

In keeping with the conventions of the puzzle-plot mystery the number of suspects is small. There is Harry Gray (William 'Stage' Boyd), a man long suspected of involvement in large-scale crime. There is Mrs Banning (May Beatty), a rich middle-aged lady, and her much younger lover Adolph Mohler (Paul Lukas). Mohler is quite clearly a gigolo. And there is a younger woman, Fanny Del Roy (Natalie Moorhead). Fanny has been having romantic adventures with both Benson and Mohler. 

And lastly there’s Benson’s manservant Albert (Mischa Auer) - he’s unlikely to have been the murderer but he may have been involved.

All of them had monetary motives and perhaps motives of both revenge and jealousy.

All of the supporting players are fairly solid (and Eugene Pallette is extremely good) but of course the movie belongs entirely to William Powell. Not everyone like the Philo Vance of the novels (although I do like him). Powell softens and humanises the character and makes him much more likeable. In fact he makes him very likeable. And Powell has the charisma that the role requires.

Frank Tuttle is once again the director and bearing in mind the technical difficulties associated with very early talkies he does a fine job and makes the visuals as interesting as he can. It does have to be said that visually this movie is less impressive than The Greene Murder Case.

The Benson Murder Case is thoroughly enjoyable. It does play fair with the viewer. The clues are there. The plot is ingenious but plausible. William Powell is a joy to watch. Highly recommended.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray transfer looks very good and this is a rare case of a release with an audio commentary that is actually worth listening to.

I’ve also reviewed other Philo Vance movies - The Canary Murder Case, The Greene Murder Case, The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The Casino Murder Case (1935) and The Bishop Murder Case (1929).

The Greene Murder Case (1929)

The Greene Murder Case was the second of Paramount’s Philo Vance murder mysteries and the second of four outings for William Powell as Philo Vance. Many other actors later got to play the role but truly there was only ever one screen Philo Vance and that was Bill Powell.

The detective story had been around for quite a while but in the early 1920s a new variant appeared - the fair-play puzzle-plot mystery. It was understood that the clues had to be there to allow the reader to solve the mystery. It was up to the author to provide enough misdirection to make sure this didn’t happen. This new type of murder mystery first appeared in Britain. S. S. Van Dine (real name Willard Huntington Wright) has a strong claim to having introduced the form to American readers. He was certainly the one who popularised this new type of detective story in the United States.

It didn’t take long for Hollywood to get interested. Van Dine’s first novel was published in 1926. The first movie adaptation, The Canary Murder Case, came out in 1929.

It’s worth pointing out that this movie was released before the Wall Street Crash. At this stage Hollywood was still booming and it’s obvious that Paramount spent quite a bit of money on The Greene Murder Case. It’s technically quite ambitious with some rather nifty shots. I love the overhead shots of the roof garden. The sets do not look cheap. There’s a well-conceived well-executed action finale.

The Greene family is very rich and clearly very dysfunctional. Old Tobias Greene left one of those nasty wills calculated to cause his heirs a lot of inconvenience and misery. To inherit his money they have to live in the Greene mansion for fifteen years, not a very pleasant prospect since they all hate each other. Old Tobias’s widow is paralysed. She’s miserable and querulous. The elder son, Chester (Lowell Drew), is a good-for-nothing layabout. The younger son, Rex (Morgan Farley), is a neurotic mess. The elder sister Sibella (Florence Eldridge) is a bit of a party girl. The younger sister Ada (Jean Arthur) is adopted. She’s sweet but nervy. There’s also the family doctor Dr Von Blon who seems to spend most of his life at the Greene mansion.

Now somebody seems intent on killing off the family one by one. Gentleman dilettante detective Philo Vance handles difficult cases for District Attorney John F. X. Markham on a semi-official basis. He is invariably assisted by Detective Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette). Lots of things about this case puzzle Vance. The killer seems to be staying one step ahead all the time.

It’s a neat plot. Anybody in the Greene household could be a suspect, given that they certainly all hate each other enough to start killing each other. This is pretty much a fair-play mystery. The clues are there.

William Powell is of course marvellous. Not everybody likes the Philo Vance of the novels but Powell softens the character a bit, taking the edge off his arrogance. And he has that William Powell charm.

One thing I really like is that the film resists the temptation to make Sergeant Heath a comic relief character. Heath is often wrong but his reasoning is far from foolish. He’s a competent policeman and Vance clearly respects his professionalism. At no time does Vance make Heath the butt of jokes. It’s obvious that despite their very different backgrounds these two men like each other.

Jean Arthur is good as the perpetually somewhat frightened Ada. The supporting performers are all quite good, with Morgan Farley as Rex being the only one who goes a little over the top at times.

Director Frank Tuttle is sometimes dismissed as a hack which is a bit unfair. He handles things here with reasonable skill and he keeps the pacing taut.

The Greene mansion itself becomes a character in the movie. The layout of the house is important, as is the atmosphere.

Very early talkies have a reputation for being clunky, with too many excessively static shots. That’s not the case here. Frank Tuttle’s directing is rather lively. The actors on the whole seem quite comfortable with the new sound format.

The Greene Murder Case is a fine murder mystery. Highly recommended.

This movie is included in Kino Lorber’s three-movie Philo Vance Blu-Ray boxed set. The Greene Murder Case gets a very nice transfer. As is usually the case these days the audio commentary is best dispensed with.

I've also reviewed the wonderful The Kennel Murder Case, also with Powell as Vance.

The Canary Murder Case (1929)

The Canary Murder Case is both an incredibly important movie historically and an oddity. Its importance lies in the fact that it’s one of the first detective story movies made with sound, and you can see the way the challenges presented by the genre were approached. Its oddity lies in the fact that it’s a hybrid - it was shot as a silent movie and then turned into a sound picture. That accounts for its peculiarities and its weaknesses.

S. S. Van Dine (real name Willard Huntington Wright) was the most significant pioneer of the new style of detective story - the fair-play puzzle-plot mystery - in the United States. Paramount saw the cinematic possibilities immediately. In 1929, just three years after Van Dine’s first novel was published, they released the first cinematic adaptation.

The opening sequence is fascinating. It introduces us to the Canary (Louise Brooks) but it was shot for the original silent version so instead of hearing her sing we see her on a swing, sailing above the heads of the audience. It works superbly. It’s unusual and striking and it’s a fantastic way to introduce Louise Brooks and to show off her glamour and seductiveness. This is a girl who likes to play. We’re not at all surprised to find out that she likes to play with men.

The Canary is nightclub star Margaret O’Dell (Louise Brooks), and she’s a very bad girl. At the time the Canary would have been described as a vamp but she is in fact a figure who would become familiar in movies in the 40s - the femme fatale. The Canary is a blackmailer but it’s not money that she wants. She’s more ambitious than that. She intends to blackmail the young and foolish Jimmy Spotswoode into marrying her. Jimmy is heir to a fortune but more importantly he is part of the social elite. And the Canary is determined to be part of that social elite.

She is also blackmailing a number of very rich middle-aged men.

This leads to murder and since the plot contains some rather cool elements I will be very very vague about it. There are at least five suspects.

The very early sound pictures have a reputation for being clunky, with too many excessively static shots. Various technical problems initially experienced with the sound recording technology made static camera setups necessary. It also meant that if you wanted to shoot a movie fairly quickly it was desirable to use very few sets, and very simple sets.

It took a while to find an easy convenient solution to that. The Canary Murder Case does suffer from having very static camera setups which gives it a stagey feel. And there are too many scenes shot on the same one or two very bare sets (such as the District Attorney’s office) using the exact same camera angles.

The Canary Murder Case was in fact shot as a silent picture. It was directed by Malcolm St. Clair. Reshoots were needed to turn it into a sound picture (these were done by Frank Tuttle). Those very static scenes are presumably among the reshoots. Dialogue was also dubbed over silent footage. The biggest problem was that Louise Brooks refused to do any of the reshoots. As a result her voice was dubbed (horribly) by another actress. The Canary Murder Case destroyed Brooks’ career in Hollywood, which is sad because it was a great role that should have boosted her career.

It’s interesting to compare this movie to the next in the Paramount series, The Greene Murder Case, released just six months later. The technical problems associated with sound had been solved. The second movie was directed with energy and flair by Frank Tuttle. The Greene Murder Case has none of that clunky static early talkie feel. It also had a bigger budget and some very cool sets. Progress in sound picture production was breathtakingly fast.

One thing needs to be said about the detective hero of the story, Philo Vance (played by William Powell). Vance is not a rich American. He is an upper-class American. He is from a family who are very much Old Money. He is American aristocracy. As such he has had an education and upbringing very much like that of an English gentleman of that era. He is highly cultured. Like Willard Huntington Wright himself he is an aesthete. He has the exquisite manners of a gentleman. But it would be a mistake to think that he is effete. He is entirely masculine, but in the self-assured manner of a gentleman. He is an upper-class American of a type that no longer exists, which can cause the character to be misunderstood.

Many actors went on to play Vance. William Powell is the only one who counts. Powell was born to play Philo Vance. He is a joy to watch.

Eugene Pallette as Detective Sergeant Heath is always fun. The other actors are competent but a bit stiff, probably because when this movie went into production in 1928 no-one was quite sure how to approach acting in this new medium, the talking picture. Louise Brooks looks fabulous but as I mentioned earlier her voice was dubbed which somewhat ruins her performance.

For all its problems The Canary Murder Case has its virtues. It has an excellent plot with some clever and ingenious elements. The poker game is a fascinating example of the use of psychology in crime-solving. There are plot devices that might seem clichéd today but in the late 20s when the novel was written and when the film was made these were fresh and exciting plot devices. And they’re executed pretty well.

If you can ignore its technical flaws The Canary Murder Case is quite enjoyable and it’s recommended.

This movie is part of Kino Lorber’s three-movie Philo Vance Blu-Ray boxed set. It gets a very nice transfer.

I’ve also reviewed The Greene Murder Case and The Kennel Murder Case (1933).

The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

There were fifteen movie adaptations of S.S. Van Dine’s Philo Vance murder mysteries, although the last three films have little or nothing to do with the novels. That still leaves us with an even dozen adaptations made between 1929 and 1940, a tribute to the popularity of the Philo Vance books at that time. One of the best of the books is The Kennel Murder Case, and it was turned into the best of all the Philo Vance movies.

William Powell played Vance in four of the movies and he’s vastly better in the role than any of the other actors who attempted it. Powell was born to play Philo Vance.

Not everyone likes Philo Vance. Some readers find the character in the novels to be too obviously affected and American upper class, and some are annoyed by Vance’s extraordinary knowledge of so many esoteric subjects. Personally I like Vance a lot. Those who do have trouble connecting with the character will find Powell’s interpretation of the role more congenial - he makes Vance charming and likeable without sacrificing any of the essential characteristics that go to make up the character.

The Kennel Murder Case was released by Warner Brothers in 1933.

Financier Archer Coe is found dead in his bedroom. It was suicide. That’s obvious to everyone but Philo Vance. Vance has a hunch, and both District Attorney Markham (Robert McWade) and Sergeant Heath of Homicide (Eugene Pallette) have learnt from experience to listen when Vance has a hunch.

And there are a number of people with plausible motives for murdering Archer Coe. One of the motives is a dog. The dog was definitely murdered, and it was not just a much-loved do, it was a show champion. Those Chinese antiquities could be a motive as well. There are others with more personal motives.

And that’s just the first murder.

Michael Curtiz directed and as a result it’s a fast-moving very professionally made movie with a few nice little visual touches.

The cast is solid. Eugene Pallette as Sergeant Heath provides comic relief but it’s not excessively intrusive or irritating. William Powell is of course simply wonderful and he’s the biggest reason to see this movie.

The plot is complicated although hardcore fans of golden age detective fiction might solve the puzzle before Vance does. This is a locked-room mystery, although not a terribly elaborate one. It turns out to be pretty basic. Fortunately that’s not the main focus of the plot - the big puzzle is the murder method. Or methods. The victim seems to have been killed three times in three different ways.

This is a murder that appears to have been intricately planned and yet it went badly wrong. The attempt to make it look like suicide was crude and unconvincing and Vance can’t help wondering why the murderer would go to so much trouble when there was no hope that the police would accept the suicide explanation.

There are a lot of potential suspects. Vance has some ideas but his solutions always seem to leave at least one clue unexplained.

The story does involve dogs, although from memory our canine friends played a more significant role in the novel. They do provide a couple of clues.

And we discover that Vance is a very serious dog lover. His Scotch Terrier, Captain McTavish, manages to uncover one of those clues.

This is one of six movies included in the Warner Archive Philo Vance Murder Case collection on DVD. The Kennel Murder Case has always been easy to find but in rather poor public domain releases. It’s great to finally have a worthy release of this film. Unfortunately quite a few of the William Powell Philo Vance movies are still unavailable.

This is the only film in the set wth Powell in the lead role. While the other actors all fail to deliver really satisfactory performances it is at least interesting to watch some talented actors (like Basil Rathbone) making the attempt.

The Kennel Murder Case is definitely an above-average 1930s murder mystery and it’s highly recommended.

I've also reviewed The Dragon Murder Case, The Casino Murder Case and The Bishop Murder Case from the boxed set.