The Dragon Murder Case

I've seen two of the Philo Vance movies and I've been disappointed with both. It isn't the actors involved. Warren William will always be the best Perry Mason, in my opinion; and, William Powell is one of my favorite leading men. The acting in this movie was great; it was the writing that failed, however.

Movies were still in their infancy, so I can understand a whodunnit set up like a stage play. But, Philo Vance had literally no personality. It was as if George Lucas had directed it. "Whatever you do, DON'T draw attention to yourself".

On the plus side, the underwater parts were excellent and the insane aunt set a higher bar for movie lunatics, I can tell you.

At one of those closed gatherings of suspects so popular in murder mysteries where a whole lot of the guests have good enough reason to do the victim in, George Meeker dives into a swimming pool and does not emerge. The disappearance is enough to call in the District Attorney, Robert McWade who just happens to be out on the town with famous private detective Philo Vance in this film played by Warren William.

One thing about the Philo Vance series that I always found amusing was that the District Attorney and the police in the person of Sergeant Heath, Eugene Palette, never are too proud to accept and be grateful for the help that super sleuth Vance gives them. They were anticipating Adrian Monk by a couple of generations.

Of course the body is found later on with the appearance that he may have been done in by something terrifying and unknown. The pool is not a pool in the usual sense, it's a dammed up stream and legends have it that a monster lived down there back in the days when the Indians were the only ones around.

Philo Vance was getting into science fiction it seemed. But of course he does solve the case and the culprit is quite human with some very human motives for the crime.

S.S. Van Dine for reasons I can't explain sold his various novels piecemeal to different studios. Which is why there are so many Vances on the screen. Warren William is one of the best of them.

This particular Vance is not one of the best, but it's still a pretty good mystery though fans of mystery films I think will figure out early on who the murderer is.

"The Dragon Murder Case" (1934) is not nearly as weak as some of these comments would lead you to believe. It should be cut some slack based on when it was made (it has Code Certificate #109) and viewed from the perspective of its intended audience. At the time its claim to fame was as a murder mystery packaged inside a lot of clever misdirection. For today's viewers, these sorts of twists will seem rather routine. Not so forgivable are several huge plot holes but as long as you are suspending disbelief anyway….

There is even a (Stanley) Kubrick-style subtext about Native Americans although they don't take it as far as he did in "The Shining".

This is a Philo Vance story (basically an early version of William Powell's Nick Charles character) with Warren Williams replacing Powell. Williams is nothing exceptional but the supporting cast and the production design are quite good. Eugene Palette (Friar Tuck) steals all his scenes with the funniest lines and the best delivery; his stuff alone makes the film worth viewing. The quotes section has his line about women generally speaking. Helen Lowell has a lot of fun playing the loony grandmother; she was born in 1866-wonder how many pre-1870 actors can claim lines in a talking picture. Margaret Lindsay is extremely beautiful as she was in "Jezabel" (1938); beautiful enough to stand out from all but a handful of her contemporaries.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

In this Philo Vance film from Warner Brothers and director Bruce H. Humberstone, Warren William stars as the famous detective.

A group of wealthy people are partying at the Stamm household, and apparently several people are upset that Bernice Stamm (Margaret Lindsay) is planning to marry Monty Montague for reasons that seem to have nothing to do with love, but that she will not reveal. She's actually in love with Dale Leland (Lyle Talbot), who confronts her about it, and her brother is so upset he is drinking himself into a stupor. The guests assemble at the Dragon Pool - a kind of dammed stream - for some late night swimming. But when Monty dives in he never comes out. The police are called by Leland, who suspects foul play. The next day Monty's body is found a good distance from the pool with claw marks on his throat. There is a myth surrounding the pool about a flying dragon, a prehistoric creature, who still lives in the area. Is Philo Vance about to go X-Files in this installment? Watch and find out.

Warren William is very smooth and debonair in the role of Vance, but he spends lots of time picking on and insulting Sgt. Heath (Eugene Pallette) where in previous film installments, Vance and Heath were allied and treated each other as peers. Of course, William Powell was playing the famous detective in those previous films, and Warren William always played even his roles as a protagonist as a bit caddish.

Although Vance systematically interviews witnesses and investigates clues, the final deductions that he makes seem to come out of nowhere. And the actual killer makes a complete confession when he really hasn't been found out at that point at all. Released right after the production code began to be enforced, it seems robbed of the hard bitten situations and dialogue you would expect from a similar film just the year before. It does have its charms though. Warren William is always fun to watch, though Robert Warwick steals the show as a coroner who gets cranky if he is called to a crime scene and there is no corpse.

S. S. Van Dine's sophisticated, witty, "gentleman" detective Philo Vance is back once again in this murder mystery about a group of rich people who have hidden/outward dislikes for each other attending a party and then deciding to take a dip in a naturally-made pool called the dragon pool. One man goes in and never comes out, and soon, with a host of suspects, Philo Vance, the district attorney, and the ever affable, blunderbuss of a policeman - Sergant Ernest Heath(Eugene Palette) arrive to take aim at cracking the mysterious disappearance and later death that is discovered. As mysteries go, this one really is not that bad, it has some real red herrings laced throughout and never gives too many obvious indications of just who the guilty party is. Warren William plays Vance and I thought he was adequate, though not in the league of previous Vance William Powell(who is?) or Basil Rathbone even before him. As with most Vance film, the best lines go to Eugene Palette who never seems to tire of making wonderful wisecracks and not thoroughly thought-out observations. The things that caught my attention more than anything else was the fish room in the palatial house with all of its aquariums. It really showed how the fish-keeping hobby had been started(through wealthy men tracking down different species abroad and bringing them back here). The collection was most impressive. A good period mystery all in all.