Philo Vance Returns

It's an okay Vance programmer at a time when crime films would soon turn to noir. So who's knocking off all the good-looking babes. There were so many I couldn't keep them straight-- such a pickle. Then too, I kept yelling at them to stay away from the lipstick cause it ain't Revlon. Seems handsome rover Blendon keeps marrying them one after another, using his big inheritance as inducement. But now they're headed for the morgue in mysterious fashion. So, in good detective tradition, it's up to Vance and his comic Russkie helper Alexis to figure things out. Good thing the guys don't use lip brightener.

Journeyman director Beaudine films in straightforward fashion, few close-ups, little moody lighting. The guessing game itself is pretty good as the suspects keep accumulating then dying off. However, I do wish ditzy Alexis had more scenes with Choo-Choo Divine, such a great name. Then too, she's played by that great movie floozie Iris Adrian. In my little book, their one goofy scene's the movie's highlight.

All in all, the flick's an entertaining time-passer, with one of the best distaff casts since the Miss America Pageant.

This Philo Vance film was shot over at PRC studios on Poverty Row and has Alan Curtis as the urbane detective who gets a call from his old friend mucho married Damian O'Flynn about to take the marriage plunge again. His current fiance is murdered. By the time Curtis arrives on the scene O'Flynn has also been murdered.

This guy wrote a will where he was asking for it. He makes generous bequests to all the ex-wives and even to Iris Adrian, a fan dancer he almost married. And if they die the survivors get a bigger share.

So the bodies start dropping and it's poison cleverly administered. In fact finding the how inevitably leads to who.

This might have rated better at a major studio which had previously doing the Philo Vance films. And the murderer is very obvious.

Damian O'Flynn gets engaged and brings the girl home to grandmother, Clara Blandick. He's taking her home when she gets shot. Granny suggest he call his friend, Philo Vance (William Wright). As Wright is on the phone with O'Flynn, he hears two gunshots. He rushes to O'Flynn's house, where the cops are already and one of O'Flynn's ex-wives falls out of a closet.

Like the other PRC Philo Vance movies, this is an inexpensive programmer with a good mystery story. What it has that the others don't is some relation to the S.S. Van Dyne character. Vance looks to be a wealthy fellow who solves mysteries. In addition, there is some good humor in the show, mostly provided by Leon Belasco, who "assists" Wright as ex-wives start falling out of closets everywhere, and director William Beaudine's lackadaisical handling of matters.

Beaudine had started out at Biograph as an actor, moved behind the camera, and peaked in the late 1920s and early 1930s. By the end of the latter decade, it was a job for him, and while he turned out competent work, without a budget he looked upon it as a day job. He was famously said to have responded to a front-office request on how a shoot was going: "You mean someone actually wants to see this crud?" He retired in the late 1960s, having directed over 350 and died in 1970 at the age of 78.

This one is an okay little movie to check off the list.

Larry takes his newly-betrothed girlfriend home to meet his granny. Granny is a sweet old dear who sleeps in a darkened room, waiting for her grandson to return. She shows Larry's latest a rogue's gallery, as she puts it, of Larry's past wives and girlfriends hanging on the wall. All of them stand to gain from Larry's will and their share goes up as others drop out. Larry's latest is shot dead and while Larry is phoning Philo Vance, he too is killed. I enjoyed the humor in this and it has to be my favorite story of the three PRC Philo Vance mysteries. The killing method is pretty clever and the body count is rapid. Iris Adrian is great as one of Larry's ex-wives. She is a fan-dancer calling herself Choo-Choo Divine onstage. Her testing out lipstick scene is very funny. Also I like Clara Blandick as granny. Clara was the Auntie Em of Wizard of Oz fame.

"Philo Vance Returns" is one of three Vance mysteries made by PRC, an ultra-cheapo production company specializing in mostly craptastic B-movies. Occasionally, they accidentally made a decent film...and this happens to be one of them. So, despite the horrid production company and mostly unknown actors, it manages to entertain and is worth seeing.

Larry is an idiot. He's been married many times and was engaged several times as well. Soon after introducing his latest fiancee to his grandmother, the young lady is killed. Soon, Larry is also killed...and one by one his exs all start getting killed as well! Fortunately, Philo Vance is on hand to investigate...though he isn't quick enough to stop many of the murders.

The film's biggest asset is that the murderer is an interesting choice but there also are enough red herrings and twists to keep you watching. Worth seeing...though I have no idea if PRC's other Vance films are worth your time or not.