The Dragon Murder Case

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.

For all of us seasoned armchair detectives, Warren William remains one of the best in his class. He more than likely solidified that image with his entertaining portrayal of Perry Mason in a short series produced by Warner Brothers, who was crankin' out whodunits about as fast as they could in the early 30s. In fact, William Powell's portrayal of the THIN MAN came pretty darn close to William's portrayal of Mason, and it could justifiably be argued the other way around at that.

One interesting note is that William replaced Powell as Philo Vance, beginning with THE DRAGON MURDER CASE. Now you had William playing Vance fairly similarly to Perry Mason. Go figure. But it all was so much fun to watch because William, like Powell, was a terrific actor, in fact extremely hard to dislike, charming and a tad on the mischievous side. This Vance entry also took a turn to the macabre, often compared to a horror film, though not quite. It is a close call and most definitely more fun to watch late at night as Vance investigates the death of a pro swimmer who drowned in a mysterious pool, said to be haunted...

Leave it to those imaginative writers at Warners to come up with this one, and the identity of the murderer will keep you guessing through and through. Good supporting cast with the likes of Margaret Lindsay and Lyle Talbot, but you have to hand it to frog-voiced Eugene Pallette as the second guessing, cigar chimping long arm of the law coupled with Etienne Giardot as the ever frustrated coroner. Very atmospheric with some nice, spooky touches and DO NOT forget a host of red herrings to match.

Soooo, if you can, just sit back and enjoy this neat little thriller that keeps on giving in glorious black and white. Remastered separated on dvd by Warners, or in box sets with other episodes. Thank you TCM for the memories.

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.

Dragon Murder Case, The (1934)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

William Warren takes over the role of Philo Vance in this entry, which plays more like a horror film than just a mystery. A world class swimmer jumps into a pool during a party and never comes up. The next day the pool is drained but there isn't a body so various people are looked at as suspects but certain clues lead to a legend dealing with an Indian dragon monster. The Kennel Murder Case is the best known film in the series but this one here is just as exciting and entertaining. Warren is terrific in the role of Vance bringing his usual charm and brains to the role. The supporting cast including Lyle Talbot, Margaret Lindsay, Robert McWade and George E. Stone are all terrific but it's the overweight and funny talking Eugene Palette that steals the show. The mystery behind the killing remains interesting throughout the entire film and all the horror elements ranging from ghosts to dragons to a crazy old woman play out very well. This is certainly one of the better mysteries I've seen from this period.

This is the seventh Philo Vance film, the first after the retirement of William Powell from the lead role, and the first and only one starring Warren William as Vance. William is very insouciant and droll, more so than Powell was. (Powell had not yet fully found himself, as he had not become the future Powell of the Thin Man films. But then, he had not found his Loy yet either, with whom he was later to create his ALL-LOY of magic, fusing his silver with her gold.) William also has greater warmth and manages a far better rapport with Eugene Palette as the idiotic Sergeant Heath. When Palette keeps boasting of 'my knowledge of criminality', William genuinely grins sympathetically and teases him very gently like a friend. This works very well, since in previous films, Palette had been floundering around like a stranded fish and over-acting to an embarrassing extent, and Powell never engaged with him. On the other hand, this film lacks the effectiveness of the coroner's grumbling except with exasperation. In the previous film (THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, 1933, see my review) we saw him (played by Etienne Girardot, who despite his French name was born in London and in his films is 'as American as apple pie') being interrupted at his meals and rushing off to examine bodies, but this time that standing joke is taken for granted, no screen time is given actually to showing his frustrations, which are merely referred to in occasional lines of dialogue, and hence that comic sub-plot does not work nearly as well. The story line of this film is however a superior and unusually mysterious one. It concerns a sinister and mysterious pool behind a large house which they call 'the Dragon Pool'. People swim in it all the time, treating it as a swimming pool, but it is a natural feature, not an excavated pool, and it has bizarre features. It links to extended sink holes beyond, and is said to contain a mysterious aquatic dragon who comes out at night and occasionally eats people who dare to swim after dark. This is said to be an ancient Indian legend, and the pool was reputed to have been regarded by the Indians with awe and fear. The film concerns the disappearance and presumed murder of one of the characters who dove into the pool one evening and never reappeared. The pool is drained but nothing is found. An eccentric rich man lives in the house, whose sitting room is full of identical fish tanks (a low budget prevented these from being properly effective, and they look cheap and unconvincing) which contain rare and exotic fish. There are several scenes where the man and his visitors watch 'Japanese fighting fish' killing one another in tanks. That certainly sets a sinister tone at the very beginning of the film. This is definitely a superior Vance film, and the story is so unusual that it could be remade as a very effective modern film if the right people realized its possibilities.