The Kennel Murder Case
by Michael Curtiz
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Actor: Eugene Pallette, Mary Astor, Ralph Morgan, Robert McWade, William PowellDirector: Michael Curtiz
Brand: Bayside ENT Dist
Cinematographer: William Rees
Editor: Harold McLernon
Writer: Peter Milne
Writer: Robert N. Lee
Writer: Robert Presnell Sr.
Writer: S.S. Van Dine
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 73 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-07-30
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Alpha Video
DVD Reviews of The Kennel Murder Case
DVD Review: "It's a maze of conflicting clues. Any one of seven people might've done it."
Summary: 4 Stars
In the annals of pop culture, that famous amateur detective Philo Vance probably won't register much of a blip, not nowadays. But, back in the depression era, Philo Vance was big noise. S.S. Van Dine wrote the mystery novels, and in 1929, with THE CANARY MURDER CASE, William Powell and his patented pencil mustache brought Vance to cinematic life. Vance was popular enough that he garnered a series of films. THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, coming out in 1933, is Powell's fourth and final turn as Philo Vance and overall the fifth movie in the series (Basil Rathbone had played Vance in the preceding film, THE BISHOP MURDER CASE). THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is considered to be the best entry in this B-movie franchise. In this one, our refined crime solver runs into his most challenging puzzler yet.
When well-known sportsman and collector Archer Coe is found in a locked room, dead with a gun clutched in his hand, Philo Vance highly doubts it's a case of suicide. Indeed, further investigations would bear out Philo's opinion, that this is a complex murder mystery, with many puzzling elements. And, of course, with the victim so unlikable, there's no dearth of motives and grudge holders. So line up the suspects. Philo Vance is on the case and, with the film only 73 minutes long, he doesn't take too long to unravel the mystery and nab the killer (okay, so another corpse turns up before Vance solves the thing).
THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is a minor classic, modestly entertaining, and serves as a cinematic time capsule, granting us a peek into a period when coppers and reporters hung out and played cards in smoky rooms and traded in gruff banter. I don't see that happening much nowadays, do you? Back then, folks like Philo Vance and Nick Charles (more on him in a bit) are so well respected by the law enforcers that they're allowed to casually saunter onto a crime scene or into a police precinct and throw their weight around. Never mind that they hold no official standing. This whodunnit also keeps within the cherished guidelines of the 1930s murder mystery genre. So, here, the amateur sleuth and the reporters crack wise, the flatfoots are befuddled, and the upper crust acts all snippy. However, one genre device isn't utilized as Vance fails to gather all the suspects in one room for the big denouement.
Minor gripe: It bugged me a bit that so many of the male characters here sport thin mustaches. For a while, I had trouble placing who was who.
Michael Curtiz, who would later direct classics like The Adventures of Robin Hood (Two-Disc Special Edition) and Casablanca (Two-Disc Special Edition), helms this one and he mostly maintains a no-nonsense pace. I say mostly, because at times the film does bog down in excessive exposition. Vance's solving of the original murder is one of the most convoluted explanations I've ever heard, but pretty absorbing. THE MALTESE FALCON's Mary Astor shows up as the love interest (but not Powell's love interest), while old reliable Eugene Pallette grumbles and fumbles as Detective Sgt. Heath. I also dig Etienne Girardot, the cranky physician who keeps getting his meal plans interrupted as bodies insist on surfacing ("I want food! And if you got any more corpses, bring 'em out now, will you?"). And, as mentioned already, an abundance of the cast strolled around in their thin mustaches and confused me.
My dvd copy comes from the Alpha Video folks, who produce a lot of public domain movies. As such, the film quality could be better. The film looks washed out and scratchy in places, and the audio at times was a bit tinny. Of course, this movie is pretty old, coming out in 1933.
William Powell is my favorite actor in classic Hollywood. Dude may actually be my favorite actor of all time. William Powell has never been less than witty and debonair and engaging. His THIN MAN (Nick and Nora Charles) series is justifiably more celebrated (his screen partner Myrna Loy has something to do with that), but Nick Charles owes something to Philo Vance, who paved the way on film. There's even a foreshadowing of Nick Charles's wonder dog Asta here, as Vance gets a minor assist from his Scottie terrier.
At least nine actors have played S.S. Van Dyne's sophisticated amateur sleuth, but concencus states that William Powell is the definitive Philo Vance. Didn't make much sense that in 1940, for this or that reason, THE KENNEL MURDER CASE was remade as the inferior CALLING PHILO VANCE, with some guy named James Stephenson as Vance. C'mon, really, how do you improve on William Powell?
Description of The Kennel Murder Case
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