Philo Vance's Gamble

Private Detective Philo Vance (Alan Curtis ) gets involved with a succession of murders and a mystery concerning the disappearance of an emerald that has been smuggled into the United States.

Philo Vance's Gamble is a decent, if a little confusing and sometimes hard to keep up with the twist and turns ( or maybe it's just me!). It's quite watchable, well-paced with a killer who likes to poke guns through curtains and fire away; one of the victims is a heel who upsets Vance by spreading it around that he's protecting his diamond. Alan Curtis is adequate in the role of Philo Vance, though his character is more PI than a debonair Detective.

I thought Philo Vance's Gamble was a very solid effort, especially for a movie that is a long way down the list of Philo Vance films done. It was a solid mystery, with a little comic relief, good acting and a better than average cast.

I have seen almost all of the Philo Vance films, and besides two or three of the early ones (Kennel Murder Case is a classic), this is one of the better films in the long running series.

This is one of the two Philo Vance films starring Alan Curtis made during the waning days of PRC Pictures (see my review of the other one, PHILO VANCE'S SECRET MISSION). During this period, PRC was also making a series of Michael Shayne films starring Hugh Beaumont, and the Vance films are not unlike those (neither the Vance nor Shayne characters are much like their literary versions, but forget about that and just accept the films on their own terms and you'll enjoy them much more). Alan Curtis played both comedy (Buck Privates, Sue My Lawyer, etc.) and drama (High Sierra, Hitler's Madmen) equally well in his other work, and that skill allows him to be both convincingly tough and effortlessly witty, as this detective character requires. Terry Austin is a seductive but dangerous femme fetale, And PRC regular Frank Jenks is once again the lovable sidekick. The mystery has some clever angles (I like the cold cream and candy dispenser elements... you'll see what I mean in the actual film), there are a number of red herrings thrown in along the way to make things more interesting, and the climax is exciting. Curtis is an excellent Vance and I'm sorry he did not make more Philo Vance films. Still, the two we have are both very good for fans of gritty but witty low-budget, post-World War II detective films and are worth finding.

Dan Seymour has set up a syndicate to fence a stolen emerald. He plans to cheat them all -- investors and girlfriend and fly off to South America. Alan Curtis as Philo Vance takes an interest; Seymour told theres of the syndicate he had hired Curtis to guard the emerald. Curtis meets him in Seymour's study. While they speak, the lights go out, two shots are fired and Seymour is dead.

As with the other two PRC Philo Vances, it's a well-constructed mystery if not exquisitely produced. Curtis still doesn't look or act anything like the Philo Vance of S.S. Van Dyne's books. He's a middle-class PI who knows all sorts of interesting people. Basil Wrangell directs for speed and efficiency, and the number of interesting performers is kept to a mimmum : Grady Sutton as a secretary, Joseph Crehan as the District Attorney, and Tala Birell as a suspect. At an hour's length, it does what a mystery movie is supposed to do, but no more.

Although this PRC film had its usual bottom of the barrel production values, Philo Vance Gambles might have been a much better film had it been done at a major studio like the previous Vance movies were. Alan Curtis is the urbane and dapper detective who resents false rumors going out about him.

Dan Seymour plays one of his usual oily crooks, he's a jewel thief who has a valuable emerald and he's put out the rumor that Alan Curtis is on his payroll. Not a rumor that Curtis wants to have circulating especially after Seymour and his girlfriend Tala Birrell are bumped off.

Given Vance's outstanding record of solving difficult cases the DA gives him a chance to be his own client. Do you doubt that Philo Vance will solve the murders which total three by the end of the film?

Alan Curtis is hardly William Powell who is more my idea of what Philo Vance should be like. Still he does the job and sad it wasn't in a better produced film.