The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Director - Michael Curtiz
The Plot
Murder is not the word one would normally connect to The Long Island Kennel Club, but amateur detective Philo Vance (William Powell) is hot on the canine trail in search of a killer responsible for more than one death among the Depression era rich and famous.
Film Notes
Woof Woof
The Kennel Murder Case has a number of things going for it - a good cast, solid director and a story based on a successful mystery novel by S. S. Van Dine.
Though it doesn't pack the visual punch of the Warners' gangster films of the same era, The Kennel Murder Case has its moments. Silhouetted urban streets and buildings offer up an contrasting shadowy landscape to the bright drawing room of the rich. The camera looks through windows that darkly frame the motives hidden within high society.
Crimes Among the Upper Class
Eleven movies resulted from popular books written by S. S. Van Dine. His Philo Vance mysteries lay somewhere between Agatha Christie and G. K. Chesterton and Dashiell Hammett's Casablanca.
Hungarian Goulash - Not Gourmet But...
The name Michael Curitiz is never found on lists of great film directors. And yet among his directorial efforts can be found: Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Adventures of Robin Hood and White Christmas. His personality tended toward the dictatorial end of the spectrum, actors despised him, and his visual style was perhaps more the result of the great Warner Brothers production crews. But this Hungarian director turned out quality film after quality film that managed to also be successful at the box office.
A Case of Trivia
- Late in his career (1958), Michael Curtiz directed King Creole, one of Elvis Presley's few good films. How a director who started his career in 1917 drew out a fine performance from the Tupelo Mississippi Flash is a Hollywood mystery.
- Ralph Morgan was the older brother of Frank Morgan the wizard in The Wizard of Oz.
-- Ed Schneider
Cast & Production Credits
| William Powell | Philo Vance |
| Mary Astor | Hilda Lake |
| Eugene Pallette | Sgt. Ernest Heath |
| Ralph Morgan | Raymond Wrede |
| Helen Vinson | Doris Delafield |
| Etienne Girardot | Dr. Doremus |
| Jack LaRue | Eduardo Grassi |
| Paul Cavanagh | Sir Thomas MacDonald |
| Robert H. Barrat | Archer Coe |
| Henry O'Neill | Dubois |
| Robert McWade | District Attorney John F.X. Markham |
| Frank Conroy | Brisbane Coe |
| Spencer Charters | Snitkin |
| Charles Wilson | Hennessey |
| Jimmy Lee | Liang, the Cook |
| Produced by Warner Brothers | |
| Michael Curtiz | Director |
| Robert R. Presnell, Sr. | Producer / Screenwriter |
| Robert N. Lee | Screenwriter |
| Peter Milne | Screenwriter |
| S.S. van Dine | Book Author |
| William Rees | Cinematographer |
| Leo F. Forbstein | Musical Direction/Supervision |
| Ed N. McLarmin | Editor |
| William L. Nemeth | Special Effects |
