Fri 18 Nov 2022
A Locked Room Mystery Movie Review: THE KENNEL CASE (1933).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews1 Comment
THE KENNEL MURDER CASE. Warner Brothers, 1933. William Powell (as Philo Vance), Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette. Ralph Morgan. Robert McWade. Robert Barrat. Based on the novel by S. S. Van Dine. Director: Michael Curtiz. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime (and perhaps elsewhere).
When a man who is intensely disliked by both his family and friends, it is not big surprise when soon into the movie he’s found dead in his study. What is a surprise is that an examination of his body reveals that not only was he shot, but he was also slugged and then stabbed. At first it is assumed that he committed suicide, especially when his study door has been locked from the inside and the only way to get in (or out) is by breaking the door down.
Once suicide has been ruled out, the there two questions: who did it (and there are lots of suspects) and how? The latter is answered quickly enough. Philo Vance, who seems to have an in with the D..A. and free rein on the case, [PLOT ALERT] uses a needle and a short length of thread to demonstrate. [END OF PLOT ALERT]
A dog is eventually used to identify the killer, but even before that, the title of the film is totally justified by it opening scenes, taking place at a championship dog show where all the players seem to have a stake in the action.
From all accounts, this is a fairly good adaptation of the original Philo Vance novel, and just maybe, too good. It’s not easy getting all the primary plot points of a 300 page book into a movie with only 80 minutes running time, but director Michael Curtiz moves even the draggy bits along at a fast pace. It also does not hurt that all of the players are more than competent in their roles, starting at the top with William Powell who was made to play smoothly urbane roles like this.
November 20th, 2022 at 3:31 pm
This one also reflects the Van Dine schools’ sensitivity to the portrayal of minorities, particularly the Korean servant who assists Vance.
This one probably best handles the character of Vance, though all the Powell Vance films and the Rathbone, Lukas, Lowe, and William films are fairly faithful to the books though humanizing Vance a bit in most (even the GRACIE ALLEN one follows the book fairly closely), it’s not until the Stephenson CALLING PHILP VANCE (a remake of this) that a spy plot and some nonsense with Vance in disguise in occupied Europe intervenes — and even then the rest of the film is a fairly straight forward adaptation.