A Casa do Crime

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.

William Powell returns as Philo Vance, this time under the direction of Frank Tuttle. The Greene family -- matriarch Gertrude Norman, daughters Florence Eldrege and Jean Arthur, sons Lowell Drew and Morgan Farley, are required to meet every year to satisfy the will of Miss Norman's late husband; after seven years, any survivor inherits, and the library goes to the New York Police Department. But following the latest get-together, they are murdered one by one. Sergeant Eugene Pallette calls in Powell to help him investigate.

Unlike the earlier entry in the series, this was planned as a talkie from the beginning. Because of the still-primitive sound equipment, it is a visually dull movie. Like most mysteries so constrained, it is very talky. The cast, composed of former stage actors, offer restrained performances under Tuttle. While the mystery is a good one, there are too many clues offered after Powell has made his conclusion. Its principal interest is in the performers themselves, several of whom would become important stars in sound films.

As a life long fan of murder mysteries in general and William Powell in particular, I was thrilled to finally get a chance to see this early sound Philo Vance mystery. A follow-up to Paramount's THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929), this was adapted from "SS Van Dine's" third Philo Vance novel(originally published in 1928 to runaway business) and also stars the wonderful Eugene Pallette as Sergeant Heath and a young Jean Arthur in the ingenue role of Ada Greene.

The intricate plot finds gentleman detective Philo Vance assisting his old friends District Attorney Markham and Sergeant Heath in a case of multiple and attempted murders at the Greene Mansion in New York's Upper East Side. It seems that someone is killing members of the Greene family, ostensibly for a stake in the large inheritance left by the long dead patriarch, Tobias Greene, whose fortune was accumulated (we come to suspect) by less than honorable means.

I'll admit that, although anxious to finally see this film after reading about it for years, I wasn't expecting much. I had heard that the film was talky, creaky, and static, as many early sound productions seem to modern sensibilities. Perhaps it was because of these lowered expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the great stuff found here. The film abounds with wonderfully creepy atmosphere and a real sense of menace, and the climax, set in the rooftop garden of the formidable Greene mansion (a fantastic set, by the way), is thrillingly shot, with trick photography and a last minute-in the nick time-rescue.

The screenplay is a faithful simplification of the Van Dine novel (the book's first two murder victims, for example, are compressed into one and the character of Julia Greene is jettisoned) and Powell's Philo Vance is much more likable than his literary counterpart. The identity of the murderer, while possibly surprising to the relatively innocent audiences of 1929, is fairly easy to spot by the more jaded modern viewer raised on scores of mysteries and taught to always suspect the least likely. This does not detract from the fun.

Playing the part of Philo Vance was a huge boost to Powell's career, and allowed him to move from villainous heels to debonair man-about-town roles. After a parody appearance as the detective in 1930's PARAMOUNT ON PARADE, Powell played Vance twice more [in Paramount's THE BENSON MURDER CASE (1930) and Warner Bros. THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (1933)] before moving to MGM and forever being associated with the role of Nick Charles in THE THIN MAN series (an even BIGGER boost to his career!)

Yes, the film is invariably hampered by the limitations of the early sound era, but once the modern viewer accepts these limitations, there's a lot to enjoy here.

The wealthy and dysfunctional Greene family are forced to gather annually to fulfil the stipulations of the late patriarch's will - the family is ruled by the resentful and ailing Mrs Tobias Greene (Gertrude Norman), who holds little affection for her children, Rex (Morgan Farley), Chester (Lowell Drew), and daughter Sibella (Florence Eldridge). The children despise each other, while adopted daughter Ada (Jean Arthur) is excluded from the inheritance due to her non-blood relation.

The tension within the household becomes palpable, with suspicions surrounding Sibella's indiscreet affair with the family's doctor, Arthur Von Blon (Ullrich Haupt Sr), and rumours that Mrs Greene's infirmity may not be as severe as it seems. The Greene family's servants, including butler Sproot (Brandon Hurst), housekeeper Gertrude Mannheim (Augusta Burmeister), and devout Hemming (Marcia Harris), also harbour their own doubts.

When members of the family start being murdered, District Attorney John Markham (EH Calvert) enlists the help of amateur detective Philo Vance (William Powell), who, alongside Sergeant Ernest Heath (Eugene Pallette), must sift through the animosity and hidden motives to unmask the killer.

Green Murder Case sees Philo Vance tackle another difficult case where two Greenes get shot, one dies and one gets injured- three minutes apart. Seen as a burglary, Vance thinks otherwise. William Powell is at the top of his game, his Vance is analytical and observant.

It's a decent mystery, the sound is primitive, but the tale is much sharper, and engaging and less stilted than the Benson Murder Case. The finale is very good - there's a nice view of the rooftops as another murder is about to take place.

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.