The Dragon Murder Case

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.

Philo Vance (Warren William) investigates a cursed swimming pool. It's called the dragon pool because there is supposedly a killer dragon in it! Extremely interesting idea elevates this murder mystery. Nice cast too. Warren William is good. It's amusing to me how there seems to be little consensus on Philo Vance's character in these films. He seems to change personality depending on who is playing him. This is probably why he's one of my least favorites of the classic mystery film detectives. But I do enjoy Warren William so I enjoyed this. Eugene Palette reprises his role as Sgt. Heath and he's always fun. Also returning is Etienne Girardot as the coroner Doremus. I love this actor. He's hilarious! The lovely Margaret Lindsay appears as one of the suspects, as does character actor George E. Stone. Lyle Talbot plays a half-Indian apparently. He doesn't look it but they keep referencing it so I thought I'd throw that in there. Short runtime helps keep the pace tight. Good old school detective flick. Fans of them will enjoy this one.

At one of those closed gatherings of suspects so popular in murder mysteries where a whole lot of the guests have good enough reason to do the victim in, George Meeker dives into a swimming pool and does not emerge. The disappearance is enough to call in the District Attorney, Robert McWade who just happens to be out on the town with famous private detective Philo Vance in this film played by Warren William.

One thing about the Philo Vance series that I always found amusing was that the District Attorney and the police in the person of Sergeant Heath, Eugene Palette, never are too proud to accept and be grateful for the help that super sleuth Vance gives them. They were anticipating Adrian Monk by a couple of generations.

Of course the body is found later on with the appearance that he may have been done in by something terrifying and unknown. The pool is not a pool in the usual sense, it's a dammed up stream and legends have it that a monster lived down there back in the days when the Indians were the only ones around.

Philo Vance was getting into science fiction it seemed. But of course he does solve the case and the culprit is quite human with some very human motives for the crime.

S.S. Van Dine for reasons I can't explain sold his various novels piecemeal to different studios. Which is why there are so many Vances on the screen. Warren William is one of the best of them.

This particular Vance is not one of the best, but it's still a pretty good mystery though fans of mystery films I think will figure out early on who the murderer is.

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.

Not bad at all. This is an interesting tale, although the characters are strictly stereotypes and all of them used as red herrings to leave the solution nowhere in sight until you start thinking about how the story started. Then--a glimmer of light--and you've guessed it.

WARREN WILLIAM makes an affable, bright, know-it-all Philo Vance, who seems to have a background in everything, including exotic fish from the orient. But how he reaches his scientific answer to the crime is a bit implausible--as is the whole plot involving the legend of a deadly dragon living in the dragon pool.

MARGARET LINDSAY looks lovelier than ever in the film's leading femme role, LYLE TALBOT is well cast as her love interest, and EUGENE Palette gets to do some comedy relief that's a welcome contrast to Vance's superior attitude. GEORGE E. STONE does his usual schtick as one of the wealthy guests at the mansion where all the action takes place and ROBERT BARRAT is interesting as one of the suspects.

Summing up: Pleasant programmer passes the time in an entertaining way.

Trivia note: The IMDb processor refuses to let me spell Eugene Palette's name correctly. There should be two "ll"s in his last name.