Mon 25 May 2009
TCM ALERT- Wednesday, May 27th: PHILO VANCE, JUNGLE JIM, and More.
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Mystery movies[4] Comments
27 Wednesday 2009
6:00 AM Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, The (1930)
A fishing trip leads Laurel and Hardy to a mansion where a murder has been committed. Cast: Frank Austin, Stanley Blystone, Robert ‘Bobby’ Burns. Dir: James Parrott. BW-30 mins,
6:30 AM Bishop Murder Case, The (1930)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a series of murders inspired by Mother Goose rhymes. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Leila Hyams, Roland Young. Dir: Nick Grinde. BW-87 mins, TV-G, CC
8:00 AM Kennel Murder Case, The (1933)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show. Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette. Dir: Michael Curtiz. BW-73 mins, TV-G, CC
9:15 AM Dragon Murder Case, The (1934)
Society sleuth Philo Vance looks into a murder near a mysterious “dragon pool.” Cast: Warren William, Lyle Talbot, Eugene Pallette. Dir: H. Bruce Humberstone. BW-67 mins, TV-PG
10:30 AM Casino Murder Case, The (1935)
Society sleuth Philo Vance takes on a series of murders at an aging dowager’s mansion. Cast: Paul Lukas, Rosalind Russell, Alison Skipworth. Dir: Edwin L. Marin. BW-83 mins, TV-G, CC
12:00 PM Garden Murder Case, The (1936)
Society sleuth Philo Vance suspects dirty doings behind a mysterious series of suicides. Cast: Edmund Lowe, Virginia Bruce, Nat Pendleton. Dir: Edwin L. Marin. BW-61 mins, TV-G, CC
1:15 PM Calling Philo Vance (1939)
Society sleuth Philo Vance tangles with foreign agents when he investigates the murder of an aircraft manufacturer. Cast: James Stephenson, Margot Stevenson, Henry O’Neill. Dir: William Clemens. BW-62 mins, TV-G, CC
2:30 PM Call of the Jungle (1944)
An amateur detective in the South Seas tries to track down a pair of jewel thieves. Cast: Ann Corlo, James Bush, John Davidson. Dir: Phil Rosen. BW-60 mins, TV-PG
3:45 PM Jungle Jim (1948)
The famed explorer tries to protect a lady scientist searching the jungle for a polio cure. Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Virginia Grey, George Reeves. Dir: William A. Berke. BW-72 mins,
5:00 PM Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land (1952)
The famed explorer leads an anthropologist to a lost civilization of giants. Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Angela Greene, Jean Willes. Dir: Lew Landers. BW-65 mins,
6:15 PM Jungle Manhunt (1951)
Jungle Jim searches for a famous football player lost in the jungle. Cast: Johnny Weissmuller, Bob Waterfield, Sheila Ryan. Dir: Lew Landers. BW-66 mins,
May 25th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I’ll be on the lookout for the Laurel and Hardy Murder Case.
Of the Vance films Bishop is worth seeing only for historical importance. Rathbone is an awfully dull Vance, and considering it is one of the best of the books the film doesn’t do much with multiple nursery ryhme murders. Rathbone is very disappointing as Vance considering what he would do with Holmes.
Kennel is not only the best of the Vance films, but one of the best mystery films of all time. William Powell is Vance, if not the one of the books — Philo never saw the day he was this charming, though the film is faithful, right down to Van Dine’s shots at racism.
Dragon is surprisingly good and faithful to the original with William a good Vance, and the ever reliable Eugene Pallette back as Vance’s favorite policeman. Good cast has Lyle Talbot and Robert Barratt as suspects and a well done murder in the Dragon Pool, though you may beat Vance to the solution as well as the murder method. Not exactly an impossible crime, but close to it.
Casino has it’s moments, with the romance between Russell and Lucas Vance trying for Thin Man country, but Lucas accent makes him an unlikely Vance, ubermensch or not. The business with the heavy water is interesting.
Garden hasn’t a lot to do with the book, but Lowe makes a good Vance, and the bit at the end with the hypnotist was lifted virtually without change for Sherlock Holmes and the Woman in Green.
Calling is the last time Vance was on screen as Van Dine intended him (later actors turned him into a sort of rich private eye), with James Stephenson quite good — though the film is a remake of Kennel, and at best a shadow of the original.
With luck TCM will show one of the shorts created by Van Dine with Donald Meek as the medical examiner and John Hamilton (Tv Superman’s Perry White) as the D.A.. Some of these six films are as good as many features. Though more likely we’ll get another of those talking dogs in clothes shorts and the umpteenth rerun of the very funny, but overexposed Joe Doakes and Robert Benchley shorts on how to be a detective.
Of Jungle Jim, despite nostalgia and fond memories, I’ve seen some of these recently and I think I’ll just dig out my gorgeous color reprints of the Alex Raymond comic strip and look at them instead. Johnny was really just playing Tarzan in shirt and pants anyway. I’d rather watch Ramar reruns.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
That’s a fairly fair assessment of the Vance films, David. I intend to tape them all, but who knows, I may have already done so — but piecemeal, scattered here and there in several shelves full of old video tapes.
I have one of the Van Dine shorts which TCM played earlier this month, but as usual, I haven’t watched it yet.
As for Jungle Jim — the movies, that is — I remember seeing them at the local movie theater when I was 10 or 12, and thinking even then that they weren’t very good. I suspect that, as you seem to be hinting, they haven’t improved with age.
No matter. I’ll tape them anyway. Nobody says I have to watch them — but I probably will. Call me curious.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
The most interesting thing about the Jungle Jim films are some of the guest stars who show up, Buster Crabbe, George Reeves, Onslow Stevens, and Robert Bray (Mike Hammer).
The Crabbe is one of two films he and Weismuller did together(Captive Girl, Swamp Fire — two Tarzan’s for the price of one), Crabbe playing the villain in both (probably because Buster could act). In the later Jungle Jim’s they dropped the pretense and just called JW Johnny.
May 28th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
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