A pair of brothers are murdered & Philo Vance is on the case in this 1933 mystery directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca/ Mildred Pierce) & starring William Powell (his second & last time playing the role) & Mary Astor. Based on the suave debonair character created by S. S. Van Dine, we find Powell about to leave the country via ocean-liner for vacation when he overhears from a radio someone has committed suicide, that same someone Powell ran into the day before at a dog show. Hooking up w/the district attorney, Powell makes his way to the victim's apartment & all is not what it seems when the corpse is found to have been in fact murdered (he was shot, stabbed & hit over the head w/a blunt object). One of the suspects may've been his own brother but when his corpse turns up in a hallway closet, the suspect list begins to grow exponentially. The main victim, not being the most liked in his orbit, has plenty of people who wanted him gone so it's up to Powell to get to the bottom of all the lies & red herrings to find his killer. An early triumph from Curtiz (this film is considered to be the best version of a Vance mystery) which rises above the stagey film productions of the time (there's even a rare slow motion shot of a window being shattered) even though the majority of the action takes place in one location, it still hooks you in w/the tried & true tenets of the whodunnit & as all the clues & persons of interest start to pile up, Vance is the only one who can put everything into perspective by film's end. Also starring Eugene Palette (he of the deep voice delivery) as the head detective on the scene.
Review of The Kennel Murder Case
