The Kennel Murder Case

The Kennel Murder Case

Studio: Gotham (dba Alpha) Release Date: 03/29/2007

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Very Nearly the Perfect Murder Mystery
In THE KENNEL MURDER MYSTERY, William Powell as detective Philo Vance gives one of his earlier portrayals of the utterly suave leading man who is always at the eye of a murder hurricane. The thirties was known for churning out genre films like this, a whodunit, and such films put to shame the tripe put out by Hollywood today. Murder mystery films by their very nature are intrinsically plot driven, with little or no emphasis given to round or flat characters. As they enter the way they are, the exit the same way. The joy is watching how the lead pieces together the threads of a crime before gathering the suspects in a room and then announcing, “Ah ha. It was you (the culprit) all along!” Basil Rathbone and Warner Oland were to do much the same in a few years. Here Powell is faced with what appears to be a suicide but he soon deduces is in fact a murder, that unsurprisingly leads to a second one. Along the way, he has great fun interacting with an ensemble of veteran B actors like Eugene Pallette and Mary Astor, all of whom bounce off him in just the right way to produce a sense of omnipotence on Powell’s part. Things run so smoothly that we scarcely note any logical flaws. We are entranced by the magic of Powell’s liquid diction. There is no question that director Michael Curtiz was pointing the audience toward a surprise ending. There was no further question about the legitimacy of Powell’s astuteness at the end. Finally, there is no question that we would gladly see this whodunit once again–even knowing the end. There can be no higher compliment for a film of this type.

5 Stars William Powell outstanding murder mystery
The Kennel Murder Case is among my favorite murder mysteries made better by William Powell’s always steller performance. I’ve watched this more times than I can count and never tire of being entertained by it. Excellent footage is dedicated to various adorable dogs and Powell’s Scotty dog who is entered in a dog show where Mary Aster’s soon to be murdered uncle is competeing. Prior to his death it becomes evident that each character has ample motive to murder the man in a typical suspenseful who-done-it plot. When found dead he is locked in his room without any obvious means of entering the room from outside. The puzzle is did he commit suicide as authorities believe. Only Philo Vance (William Powell) has the intuitive instincts that sees through the obvious. One by one the overwhelmingly puzzling questions are systematically resolved by this superior sleuth. But why a second murder? Ahhh, Philo will not let them down. Excellent performances by Robert Barrat, Eugene Pallette, Etienne Girardot and more. Just love these old gems. I highly recommend it for really old movie buffs, like myself.

5 Stars Great classic murder mystery avoid the Alpha DVD
William Powell is Philo Vance trying to solve the murder of Archer Coe. This is a step way above the rest from this era. The atmosphere, the acting by the great William Powell and his cast including Mary Astor,Ralph Morgan. Powell has a great screen presence as a detective. How he solves the murder and how he was killed was pure genius as far as the story unfolds. A GREAT FILM. A true gem. Offered from Alpha DVD and the Roan Group. The Roan Group print is 100% better as Alpha just cranks them on DVD while Roan Group remasters their prints.. The Roan Group has a Nancy Drew Mystery as a 2nd feature and its really bad,goofy , unfunny and nothing compared to Kennel Murder,which is why I bought the Roan Group’s DVD. 5 stars for the Kennel Murder Case. Now there is one from Marengo films which has British Intelligence which is better than Nancy Drew and the print is as good as The Roan Group - something to look into…

4 Stars “It’s a maze of conflicting clues. Any one of seven people might’ve done it.”
In the annals of pop culture, that famous amateur detective Philo Vance probably won’t register much of a blip, not nowadays. But, back in the depression era, Philo Vance was big noise. S.S. Van Dine wrote the mystery novels, and in 1929, with THE CANARY MURDER CASE, William Powell and his patented pencil mustache brought Vance to cinematic life. Vance was popular enough that he garnered a series of films. THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, coming out in 1933, is Powell’s fourth and final turn as Philo Vance and overall the fifth movie in the series (Basil Rathbone had played Vance in the preceding film, THE BISHOP MURDER CASE). THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is considered to be the best entry in this B-movie franchise. In this one, our refined crime solver runs into his most challenging puzzler yet.

When well-known sportsman and collector Archer Coe is found in a locked room, dead with a gun clutched in his hand, Philo Vance highly doubts it’s a case of suicide. Indeed, further investigations would bear out Philo’s opinion, that this is a complex murder mystery, with many puzzling elements. And, of course, with the victim so unlikable, there’s no dearth of motives and grudge holders. So line up the suspects. Philo Vance is on the case and, with the film only 73 minutes long, he doesn’t take too long to unravel the mystery and nab the killer (okay, so another corpse turns up before Vance solves the thing).

THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is a minor classic, modestly entertaining, and serves as a cinematic time capsule, granting us a peek into a period when coppers and reporters hung out and played cards in smoky rooms and traded in gruff banter. I don’t see that happening much nowadays, do you? Back then, folks like Philo Vance and Nick Charles (more on him in a bit) are so well respected by the law enforcers that they’re allowed to casually saunter onto a crime scene or into a police precinct and throw their weight around. Never mind that they hold no official standing. This whodunnit also keeps within the cherished guidelines of the 1930s murder mystery genre. So, here, the amateur sleuth and the reporters crack wise, the flatfoots are befuddled, and the upper crust acts all snippy. However, one genre device isn’t utilized as Vance fails to gather all the suspects in one room for the big denouement.

Minor gripe: It bugged me a bit that so many of the male characters here sport thin mustaches. For a while, I had trouble placing who was who.

Michael Curtiz, who would later direct classics like The Adventures of Robin Hood (Two-Disc Special Edition) and Casablanca (Two-Disc Special Edition), helms this one and he mostly maintains a no-nonsense pace. I say mostly, because at times the film does bog down in excessive exposition. Vance’s solving of the original murder is one of the most convoluted explanations I’ve ever heard, but pretty absorbing. THE MALTESE FALCON’s Mary Astor shows up as the love interest (but not Powell’s love interest), while old reliable Eugene Pallette grumbles and fumbles as Detective Sgt. Heath. I also dig Etienne Girardot, the cranky physician who keeps getting his meal plans interrupted as bodies insist on surfacing (”I want food! And if you got any more corpses, bring ‘em out now, will you?”). And, as mentioned already, an abundance of the cast strolled around in their thin mustaches and confused me.

My dvd copy comes from the Alpha Video folks, who produce a lot of public domain movies. As such, the film quality could be better. The film looks washed out and scratchy in places, and the audio at times was a bit tinny. Of course, this movie is pretty old, coming out in 1933.

William Powell is my favorite actor in classic Hollywood. Dude may actually be my favorite actor of all time. William Powell has never been less than witty and debonair and engaging. His THIN MAN (Nick and Nora Charles) series is justifiably more celebrated (his screen partner Myrna Loy has something to do with that), but Nick Charles owes something to Philo Vance, who paved the way on film. There’s even a foreshadowing of Nick Charles’s wonder dog Asta here, as Vance gets a minor assist from his Scottie terrier.

At least nine actors have played S.S. Van Dyne’s sophisticated amateur sleuth, but concencus states that William Powell is the definitive Philo Vance. Didn’t make much sense that in 1940, for this or that reason, THE KENNEL MURDER CASE was remade as the inferior CALLING PHILO VANCE, with some guy named James Stephenson as Vance. C’mon, really, how do you improve on William Powell?

4 Stars Stylish Mystery poorly served on DVD
Michael Curtiz’ delightfully stylish mystery is poorly served in this DVD presentation, which suffers from poor audio, especially toward the end of the film, when the sound intermittently drops out. The print used for this public domain disc is, unfortunately, also not up to par, as it is filled with scratches and pops. (A far superior print has shown on Turner Classic Movies, and was issued by Turner on laserdisc).

The film itself is as fresh and fun as ever, as Philo Vance (a perfectly-cast William Powell) investigates an apparent suicide that he believes is a case of foul play. The supporting cast is a virtual who’s who of 30s character actors. Mary Astor (7 years before her performance in “The Maltese Falcon”) gives a strong supporting performance, and Eugene Pallette adds his unique comic presence to the proceedings.

Curtiz, who established himself in Hollywood (after a brief career in Hungary) as one of Warner Bros.’ most consistent and reliable craftsmen, has the opportunity to show off some stylistic touches that pre-date what Hitchcock was doing in England (the editing transitions are reminiscent of Hitchcock’s cutting in “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, from the following year).

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The Kennel Murder Case

The Kennel Murder Case

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Very Nearly the Perfect Murder Mystery
In THE KENNEL MURDER MYSTERY, William Powell as detective Philo Vance gives one of his earlier portrayals of the utterly suave leading man who is always at the eye of a murder hurricane. The thirties was known for churning out genre films like this, a whodunit, and such films put to shame the tripe put out by Hollywood today. Murder mystery films by their very nature are intrinsically plot driven, with little or no emphasis given to round or flat characters. As they enter the way they are, the exit the same way. The joy is watching how the lead pieces together the threads of a crime before gathering the suspects in a room and then announcing, “Ah ha. It was you (the culprit) all along!” Basil Rathbone and Warner Oland were to do much the same in a few years. Here Powell is faced with what appears to be a suicide but he soon deduces is in fact a murder, that unsurprisingly leads to a second one. Along the way, he has great fun interacting with an ensemble of veteran B actors like Eugene Pallette and Mary Astor, all of whom bounce off him in just the right way to produce a sense of omnipotence on Powell’s part. Things run so smoothly that we scarcely note any logical flaws. We are entranced by the magic of Powell’s liquid diction. There is no question that director Michael Curtiz was pointing the audience toward a surprise ending. There was no further question about the legitimacy of Powell’s astuteness at the end. Finally, there is no question that we would gladly see this whodunit once again–even knowing the end. There can be no higher compliment for a film of this type.

5 Stars William Powell outstanding murder mystery
The Kennel Murder Case is among my favorite murder mysteries made better by William Powell’s always steller performance. I’ve watched this more times than I can count and never tire of being entertained by it. Excellent footage is dedicated to various adorable dogs and Powell’s Scotty dog who is entered in a dog show where Mary Aster’s soon to be murdered uncle is competeing. Prior to his death it becomes evident that each character has ample motive to murder the man in a typical suspenseful who-done-it plot. When found dead he is locked in his room without any obvious means of entering the room from outside. The puzzle is did he commit suicide as authorities believe. Only Philo Vance (William Powell) has the intuitive instincts that sees through the obvious. One by one the overwhelmingly puzzling questions are systematically resolved by this superior sleuth. But why a second murder? Ahhh, Philo will not let them down. Excellent performances by Robert Barrat, Eugene Pallette, Etienne Girardot and more. Just love these old gems. I highly recommend it for really old movie buffs, like myself.

5 Stars Great classic murder mystery avoid the Alpha DVD
William Powell is Philo Vance trying to solve the murder of Archer Coe. This is a step way above the rest from this era. The atmosphere, the acting by the great William Powell and his cast including Mary Astor,Ralph Morgan. Powell has a great screen presence as a detective. How he solves the murder and how he was killed was pure genius as far as the story unfolds. A GREAT FILM. A true gem. Offered from Alpha DVD and the Roan Group. The Roan Group print is 100% better as Alpha just cranks them on DVD while Roan Group remasters their prints.. The Roan Group has a Nancy Drew Mystery as a 2nd feature and its really bad,goofy , unfunny and nothing compared to Kennel Murder,which is why I bought the Roan Group’s DVD. 5 stars for the Kennel Murder Case. Now there is one from Marengo films which has British Intelligence which is better than Nancy Drew and the print is as good as The Roan Group - something to look into…

4 Stars “It’s a maze of conflicting clues. Any one of seven people might’ve done it.”
In the annals of pop culture, that famous amateur detective Philo Vance probably won’t register much of a blip, not nowadays. But, back in the depression era, Philo Vance was big noise. S.S. Van Dine wrote the mystery novels, and in 1929, with THE CANARY MURDER CASE, William Powell and his patented pencil mustache brought Vance to cinematic life. Vance was popular enough that he garnered a series of films. THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, coming out in 1933, is Powell’s fourth and final turn as Philo Vance and overall the fifth movie in the series (Basil Rathbone had played Vance in the preceding film, THE BISHOP MURDER CASE). THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is considered to be the best entry in this B-movie franchise. In this one, our refined crime solver runs into his most challenging puzzler yet.

When well-known sportsman and collector Archer Coe is found in a locked room, dead with a gun clutched in his hand, Philo Vance highly doubts it’s a case of suicide. Indeed, further investigations would bear out Philo’s opinion, that this is a complex murder mystery, with many puzzling elements. And, of course, with the victim so unlikable, there’s no dearth of motives and grudge holders. So line up the suspects. Philo Vance is on the case and, with the film only 73 minutes long, he doesn’t take too long to unravel the mystery and nab the killer (okay, so another corpse turns up before Vance solves the thing).

THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is a minor classic, modestly entertaining, and serves as a cinematic time capsule, granting us a peek into a period when coppers and reporters hung out and played cards in smoky rooms and traded in gruff banter. I don’t see that happening much nowadays, do you? Back then, folks like Philo Vance and Nick Charles (more on him in a bit) are so well respected by the law enforcers that they’re allowed to casually saunter onto a crime scene or into a police precinct and throw their weight around. Never mind that they hold no official standing. This whodunnit also keeps within the cherished guidelines of the 1930s murder mystery genre. So, here, the amateur sleuth and the reporters crack wise, the flatfoots are befuddled, and the upper crust acts all snippy. However, one genre device isn’t utilized as Vance fails to gather all the suspects in one room for the big denouement.

Minor gripe: It bugged me a bit that so many of the male characters here sport thin mustaches. For a while, I had trouble placing who was who.

Michael Curtiz, who would later direct classics like The Adventures of Robin Hood (Two-Disc Special Edition) and Casablanca (Two-Disc Special Edition), helms this one and he mostly maintains a no-nonsense pace. I say mostly, because at times the film does bog down in excessive exposition. Vance’s solving of the original murder is one of the most convoluted explanations I’ve ever heard, but pretty absorbing. THE MALTESE FALCON’s Mary Astor shows up as the love interest (but not Powell’s love interest), while old reliable Eugene Pallette grumbles and fumbles as Detective Sgt. Heath. I also dig Etienne Girardot, the cranky physician who keeps getting his meal plans interrupted as bodies insist on surfacing (”I want food! And if you got any more corpses, bring ‘em out now, will you?”). And, as mentioned already, an abundance of the cast strolled around in their thin mustaches and confused me.

My dvd copy comes from the Alpha Video folks, who produce a lot of public domain movies. As such, the film quality could be better. The film looks washed out and scratchy in places, and the audio at times was a bit tinny. Of course, this movie is pretty old, coming out in 1933.

William Powell is my favorite actor in classic Hollywood. Dude may actually be my favorite actor of all time. William Powell has never been less than witty and debonair and engaging. His THIN MAN (Nick and Nora Charles) series is justifiably more celebrated (his screen partner Myrna Loy has something to do with that), but Nick Charles owes something to Philo Vance, who paved the way on film. There’s even a foreshadowing of Nick Charles’s wonder dog Asta here, as Vance gets a minor assist from his Scottie terrier.

At least nine actors have played S.S. Van Dyne’s sophisticated amateur sleuth, but concencus states that William Powell is the definitive Philo Vance. Didn’t make much sense that in 1940, for this or that reason, THE KENNEL MURDER CASE was remade as the inferior CALLING PHILO VANCE, with some guy named James Stephenson as Vance. C’mon, really, how do you improve on William Powell?

4 Stars Stylish Mystery poorly served on DVD
Michael Curtiz’ delightfully stylish mystery is poorly served in this DVD presentation, which suffers from poor audio, especially toward the end of the film, when the sound intermittently drops out. The print used for this public domain disc is, unfortunately, also not up to par, as it is filled with scratches and pops. (A far superior print has shown on Turner Classic Movies, and was issued by Turner on laserdisc).

The film itself is as fresh and fun as ever, as Philo Vance (a perfectly-cast William Powell) investigates an apparent suicide that he believes is a case of foul play. The supporting cast is a virtual who’s who of 30s character actors. Mary Astor (7 years before her performance in “The Maltese Falcon”) gives a strong supporting performance, and Eugene Pallette adds his unique comic presence to the proceedings.

Curtiz, who established himself in Hollywood (after a brief career in Hungary) as one of Warner Bros.’ most consistent and reliable craftsmen, has the opportunity to show off some stylistic touches that pre-date what Hitchcock was doing in England (the editing transitions are reminiscent of Hitchcock’s cutting in “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, from the following year).

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