The Greene Murder Case

Philo Vance (William Powell) is back in action solving murders. He, D. A. John Markham (E. H. Calvert), and the rotund Sgt. Ernest Heath (Eugene Pallette) were delivered a doozy of a murder mystery. Several members of the Greene family were killed at different intervals.

First, Chester Greene (Lowell Drew) was shot to death while Ada Greene (Jean Arthur) was wounded by a gunshot. A week later Rex Greene (Morgan Farley) was killed. By the time it was all said and done three members of the Greene clan were murdered and with it at least two early suspects.

I didn't know who the murderer was from the start, but I certainly knew who I wanted to be the murderer(s): Ada (Jean Arthur) and Sibella Greene (Florence Eldridge). Both of them were annoying characters that I didn't care for at all. Ada because she was so posh and delicate. In a way she wasn't any different from a lot of the women on screen in that era, but I still don't like it. She was the proper type who breathed heavily and fainted at the slightest displeasing news. Sibella because she was a smug flippant woman who didn't place importance on anything.

Also of note as far as suspects were Dr. Arthur Von Blon (Ullrich Haupt),the family doctor and Sibella's lover, Sproot (Brandon Hurst), the head servant, Mrs. Gertrude Mannheim (Augusta Burmeister), another servant, and Hemming (Marcia Harris), also a servant.

As you can tell by the many servants the Greenes were a wealthy family, so naturally anyone of them could've had a motive especially since so much was at stake. The deceased patriarch, Tobias Greene, had all of them in the will contingent upon certain conditions.

Unlike "The Canary Murder Case," this one was not as obvious to me. I had my suspicions, but you gotta let Philo figure it out

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This all starts with a sort of roll-call where a lawyer checks the presence of the "Greene" family at the bedside of their mother. A condition of their late father's will is if they don't all live together for fifteen years after his demise, then they don't get a sou. Not surprisingly, they don't exactly see eye to eye so when one of them is shot, it's hardly a shock. The police - the instantly recognisable Eugene Palette as "Sgt. Heath" - duly arrive and enlist the help of detective "Philo Vance" (William Powell) who quickly discovers that any one of them could have done it. Thing is, the killer isn't content with just the one - and when the family start to drop like flies, the investigators must get a move on in case it is just them who are actually left at the end! It's very stage-bound, this, but the pace is break-neck and there are a few characters - not least the bed-ridden and grumpy mother (Gertrude Norman), to keep the investigation moving along until it's slightly unexpected conclusion. It's a bit of an hybrid of other "Dark House" style stories, but Powell and Pallette deliver simply and quite well here.

The Greene Murder Case was William Powell's second of four ventures in the role of society detective Philo Vance. In this film, he's called in as a whole family named Greene, rich society folks like Vance himself keeps getting knocked off one at a time. As Eugene Palette as Sergeant Heath says, they'd have to be crazy to keep committing the crimes while Vance and he are actually in the house investigating. Insanity is a key element in The Greene Murder Case.

The house itself holds a few clues as to the identity. And it plays a part in the crimes as they unfold because as we learn right at the beginning of the film, the terms of the late Mr. Greene has that the whole family has to live together, if not happily under the same roof for fifteen years before they can inherit. Only in these old murder mysteries do they come up with wills like that.

The Greene family is an interesting lot in and of themselves. Mother Gertrude Norman is bedridden, but keeps a tyrannical reign over her kids who consist of flapper Florence Eldridge, doormat Jean Arthur, and a pair of worthless trust fund baby sons in Morgan Farley and Lowell Drew.

The Greene Murder Case is probably the weakest of the four William Powell Philo Vance cases. It relies on some really way out solutions for Powell to identify the culprit. And if you're any kind of fan of these films you will know about a third of the way through who the murderer was. Let's say the culprit has what looks to be an airtight alibi for all the murders, especially the second of the three.

Powell of course is as debonair and smooth as always. As I did in seeing The Canary and Benson Murder Cases, I do marvel at the way Powell was able to immediately adapt almost by instinct to the requirements of talking pictures. Definitely a film if you are a fan of his.

1929's "The Greene Murder Case" was the second of three early talkie Paramounts starring William Powell as Philo Vance, coming six months after the first, "The Canary Murder Case," eight months before the third, "The Benson Murder Case." Storywise, it's perhaps the best of all three, while technically it's a huge improvement on its predecessor, the pacing agreeable, the acting more natural, and Powell again joined by District Attorney Markham (E. H. Calvert) and Sgt. Ernest Heath (Eugene Palette). Also returning as a different character is young Jean Arthur, in a far more substantial role than her cameo in "The Canary Murder Case." The Greene household, consisting of bedridden matriarch and four offspring, are beholden to the will of the late patriarch Tobias Greene, requiring everyone to remain under the same roof for 15 years before the estate can be divided evenly between them. One dark midnight, both Chester (Lowell Drew) and Ada (Jean Arthur) end up shot (Chester fatally), but the robbery motive piques the curiosity of Philo Vance, particularly as the two shots were fired minutes apart. Always intrigued by the psychological aspects of each case, Vance has his hands full under this roof, where Tobias kept an extensive library on the history of crime. He may wind up solving this one by having only one suspect left! Florence Eldridge (Mrs. Fredric March) is an assured scene stealer, but her doctor boyfriend is played by dull as dishwater Ullrich Haupt (hard to believe that two women would be interested in him). Powell is far more involved here, and his amusing rapport with Eugene Palette never goes over the top. Struggling in a role few actresses could credibly pull off, beautiful Jean Arthur was still an unknown quality at the time, but remained one of Powell's favorite leading ladies (later seen to best advantage in "The Ex-Mrs. Bradford").

...and how far his film persona has traveled since 1928's Forgotten Faces! In the silent era, Powell had played a heavy. But that distinguished sounding voice may not have been what the audience expected, but it was what they wanted once they heard it. So parts arrived for him that matched that distinguished voice.

This film opens with the dysfunctional Greene family going over the terms of the late Mr. Greene's will that says the family must live in the estate for 15 years before anything more than living expenses is awarded to any of the heirs. All share equally, and if any die or decide to live somewhere else, their share is distributed to the others. They are 10 years into the 15 years, so New Year's Eve 1934 gives them all their money and their freedom. And none of them likes the other. Mrs. Tobias Greene is bedridden because she cannot walk. Ada (Jean Arthur) dotes on her, and Ada is always being taunted by Sibella Greene (Florence Eldridge) as an outsider since she is adopted. Sibella has some secret between herself and her mother's doctor.

Then, one by one the members of the Green family begin turning up dead. The police call in Philo Vance to help, and lest the audience think it strange that a civilian is helping in police matters, several references are made to "The Canary Murder Case" in which Vance solved the crime. Vance keeps emphasizing that these things usually boil down to psychology, and that is his focus throughout the film - the psychology of the members of the Greene family, both the dead and the living. Did I mention that the servants share some in the will too and there are some very strange household servants? Eugene Palette plays Sgt. Ernest Heath of the police, and does the most interfacing with Vance. Paramount paired Powell and Palette quite a bit in the early years of sound and their contrast seemed to be very synergistic, both of them with trademark voices of a very different kind from one another.

I'll let you watch and see how this all turns out. There are quite a few surprises in the plot. I'd recommend it.