The Panther's Claw

Anthony Abbot's fictional detective, Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt, inspired only two little known Columbia features, 1932's "The Night Club Lady" and 1933's "The Circus Queen Murder," so after a decade's passing, Poverty Row's PRC took a crack at the character with "The Panther's Claw," intended to be only the first in a new series that came to naught. Replacing two-time Colt Adolphe Menjou with dependable Sidney Blackmer (an excellent choice), the often comic story is derived from Abbot's 1940 short story, "About the Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry." In keeping Digberry (Byron Foulger) at the forefront, Blackmer's Colt is reduced in stature, conducting a too leisurely investigation as other annoying suspects get an abundance of screen time until he comes on strong at the end. Sadly missing from this PRC Colt are his faithful assistant Miss Kelly, delightfully portrayed by Ruthelma Stevens, and his unique lip reading abilities, which at least made him stand out from his inspiration, Van Dine's Philo Vance. Speaking of which, this would be the screen finale of Thatcher Colt, just as PRC also brought Philo Vance to his end, in a three picture series from 1947. Both characters suffered the same fate on television, as neither were ever revived for small screen incarnations. In hindsight, I believe that PRC was not only better than Monogram with mysteries (Charlie Chan), but also the horror genre, as their stories usually wasted no time getting underway; feel free to disagree.

No need to recap the well-reviewed plot beyond that grabber opening scene.

Is it possible that the meekest character actor in Hollywood, Byron Foulger, is actually a slick and clever murderer. Anyway, it looks that way in Claw, even as his Digberry (great name) fumbles around with the cops in scene after scene. From the way he looks and acts, could it be that he's guilty of anything more than an overdue parking ticket. But then, it turns out in the first part he really is the Black Panther or should I say the white kitty. It's a clever premise, using addled actor Foulger as chief suspect as events unfold. In fact, he gets more screen time than even top-billed Blackmer. There should be a special place in Hollywood heaven for unheralded talents like his.

Anyway, it's a generally entertaining little flick from budget-minded PRC. Blackmer turns in a faintly bemused turn as the police commissioner and I like the way he's nagged by the lynch-minded DA (Rawlinson) that sets up an unusual and well-handled conflict. On the downside are a number of plot holes (as others point out), along with an embarrassing turn by Edwards as a hammy Italian, and Mitchell as a stereotypically silly Black of that comedic period. Nevertheless, there's enough imagination and upper-billed acting to lift this little flick beyond the strictly ordinary.

When people start getting letters instructing them to leave money in public places ( or else!), the police get them together to figure out how to catch "the panther". Sydney Blackmer is Commissioner Colt, and the cops spend a LONG time bugging Mister Digberry (Byron Foulger), even putting him in a police line-up, when there is no witness. They realize he is yet another citizen falling for this scheme, like opera singer Nina Politza, played by Gerta Rozan. Check out Rozan's trivia on imdb... she had an interesting response when her part was cut from a film. The story is pretty slow, light-weight and linear. no surprises, no depth to the characters. Another very long scene between the singer and Enrico Lombardi, a minor, upper-class character who may or may not be involved in any of this. They seem to spend a lot of time on scenes that aren't important to the plot; they should have spent more time on developing the plot rather than filming all these minor scenes that have nothing to do with the story. As usual, in the old black and white films, the police are chasing their own tail rather than find the right suspect. Rick Vallin and John Ince play supporting roles as coppers. Ince was one of the three Ince brothers, all successful stars in holly-weird. Picture quality is just terrible, but it'll do. Directed by William Beaudine, who had directed a bunch of the Bowery Boys films. this one is very okay. meh.

The war years saw a lot of "pretty good" movies, relatively innocuous stories, usually good entertainment, the sort one would rat 4-7, with a few poorly directed slow moving ones a little less.

And it's unfortunate that movie makers post 1965 sought to emulate the slow pace dull ones. It would take 30 years for film makers to learn their mistakes. Such was their incompetence. A man on the street could have done better than 98% of producers, directors, and writers from 1965-1995; it was truly the error of "rich kids and children with the silver spoon" at the reins.

But these war years were full of fairly safe vehicles. Some were smartly done, like this murder mystery.

We have a mystery here that begins with the comedy and affable personalities first, then goes into the plot, and that's what makes the atmosphere style murder mystery work.

This is expertly done, and could be used for a film class to show how to make a film. It is "Entertainment".

"The Panther's Claw" is a B-movie from tiny PRC--a tiny studio that made a ton of cheap low-budgeted Bs. While this film isn't that much different from the norm for PRC, it is, inexplicably, more enjoyable than most of their output. Now I am NOT saying it's an especially well made film--it's full of plot holes and the ending is one giant plot hole! But, despite all this, it is fun to watch and much of it is because of the inexplicable choice for a main suspect in this murder mystery.

When the film begins, a very mousy man, Everett Digbury (Byron Foulger) is caught climbing over the wall from the cemetery. According to Digbury, he HAD to go to the place to drop off extortion money from an unknown person who calls them self 'The Panther'. However, the cop insists on taking Digbury downtown and he's treated like a criminal! Fortunately, the Chief of Police isn't as stupid as the rest of the cops and he feels sorry for Digbury and feels that he is a victim of a crime--not some evil perpetrator. However, over time, this confidence is shaken as several times murders occur and all the evidence points to poor old Digbury!

As I mentioned above, seeing one of the meekest men in all of Hollywood playing a guy who MIGHT be a multiple murderer and extortionist is pretty funny. Additionally, despite a few plot holes, the script actually is pretty good--particularly when it comes to snappy dialog. Although this is far from a great film, it is entertaining and fans of old B-mysteries would surely enjoy this one.