Spiffy murder mystery for William Powell, his penultimate film under contract to Warners, sees him reprising Philo Vance (S.S. Van Dine’s ritzy amateur detective*) after sleuthing in a trio of Vance films made when he was still at Paramount.* (It’s also something of an accidental dry run for THE THIN MAN series at M-G-M, Powell’s next studio.) Modest, but with a grand supporting cast (Mary Astor; Eugene Pallette; Robert Barrat; Etienne Girardot; all in a tizzy over show dogs, Chinese porcelain & murder) delivering loads of personality, and director Michael Curtiz, positively juiced behind the camera; at last, fully unshackled from the restraint of Early Talkie technology. While there’s still no background score, everything else is fully up to speed under Curtiz, adding his voice to the advances shown from Capra in AMERICAN MADNESS and von Sternberg in SHANGHAI EXPRESS the year before. Fun to see all those flourishes, wipes & trick edits, with Curtiz matching movement to mise en scène, swinging for the fences even on such mid-budget fare. The film is at its best in the first half, before too many murders call for too many elaborate explanations with the exposition wearing down the screenwriters. The Dine novels are probably meant to be closer to Dorothy Sayers than Agatha Christie. But this is generally good fun as a mystery and great fun as technical display.
DOUBLE-BILL: *Powell played Vance in THE CANARY MURDER CASE/’29; THE GREENE MURDER CASE/’29 and THE BENSON MURDER CASE/’30. Warren William took over from Powell on THE DRAGON MURDER CASE/’34. (not seen here)
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