Otto Penzler ranks, analyzes, & celebrates the 106 greatest crime films of all-time. Catch up on the series and find new installments daily here.
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The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
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TYPE OF FILM: Detective
STUDIO: Warner Brothers
DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz
SCREENWRITERS: Robert N. Lee and Peter Milne
SOURCE:The Kennel Murder Case, novel by S.S. Van Dine
RUNNING TIME: 73 minutes
PRINCIPAL PLAYERS:
William Powell … Philo Vance
Mary Astor … Hilda Lake
Eugene Pallette … Sgt. Ernest Heath
Ralph Morgan … Raymond Wrede
Robert McWade … District Attorney Markham
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DID YOU KNOW?
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One of the greatest of all film historians, William K. Everson, in his important book, The Detective in Film (1972), identified three films as the greatest detective movies ever made: The Kennel Murder Case, The Maltese Falcon, and Green for Danger. His criteria were that the films bring the same scrupulous attention as the books to planting fair clues and a cerebral resolution to the case, while remaining entertaining and fast-paced throughout, and keeping the ending a surprise until the very last.
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THE STORY
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When wealthy and heartless Archer Coe is found dead—an apparent suicide—Philo Vance and the New York police sergeant Ernest Heath suspect murder. They join forces and attempt to sift through the myriad suspects, all of whom had ample reason to wish Coe dead. Hilda Lake, Coe’s ward, hated his tight control over her money. Sir Thomas MacDonald wanted to marry Hilda and shared her anger at Coe; further he blamed Coe for the death of his prize show dog and threatened vengeance. Raymond Wrede was Coe’s secretary and believed Coe was all that stood between himself and Hilda, with whom he was in love. Doris Delafield was Coe’s mistress but was preparing to run away with Eduardo Grassi, an art dealer; when Coe caught them together, he canceled a big deal with Grassi and dumped Doris. Liang, Coe’s cook, had helped his employer illegally obtain ancient Chinese art; when Liang hid evidence, he, too, became a suspect. After an attempt is made on Sir Thomas’ life, Vance arranges a scenario to prod the killer into another murder attempt. With the use of a fierce Doberman pinscher and a carefully constructed miniature house, Vance proves who the murderer was and how he or she accomplished the apparently impossible crime.
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There were seventeen full-length feature films about Philo Vance, four of which—The Canary Murder Case (1929), The Greene Murder Case (1929), The Benson Murder Case (1930), and The Kennel Murder Case, starred William Powell. Powell was easily the best Vance, the detective role with which he was most associated until he again played a sleuth, Nick Charles, in The Thin Man series, beginning in 1934. Other Vance portrayals were made by Basil Rathbone in The Bishop Murder Case (1930), Warren William, a bit more nondescript in The Dragon Murder Case (1934), Paul Lukas in The Casino Murder Case (1935), and Edmund Lowe in The Garden Murder Case (1936). The Kennel Murder Case was remade in 1940 as Calling Philo Vance, starring a lackluster James Stephenson as the detective updated to an American agent trying to solve the murder of the traitorous Coe.
Warner Brothers was paying Powell the star quality sum of $6,000 a week when the Depression hit and his pay was reduced to $4,000, making him unhappy enough to leave the studio. Although his departure was publicized as a desire on Powell’s part to work as a freelance actor rather than a contract player, the fact is Warner was happy to see him go because his box office take did not justify his large salary demands. Within a few years, the enormous success of The Thin Man (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936) catapulted him to the top of Hollywood’s box-office attractions.
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BEST LINE
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The medical examiner, after closely inspecting the corpse of a man who had apparently shot himself to death in a locked room, states, “Gentlemen, when that bullet entered this man’s head, he had been dead for hours.”
