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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
S.S. Van Dine (by)
Robert N. Lee (screenplay) ...
more
Release Date:
28 October 1933 (USA) more
Tagline:
GREATEST OF ALL THE PHILO VANCE MYSTERIES! more
Plot:
Archer Coe has been found dead in his locked bedroom. The cops consider it suicide, but Philo believes otherwise... more | full synopsis
User Comments:
It Was All In The How more (34 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast)| William Powell | ... | Philo Vance | |
| Mary Astor | ... | Hilda Lake | |
| Eugene Pallette | ... | Detective Heath | |
| Ralph Morgan | ... | Raymond Wrede - the Secretary | |
| Robert McWade | ... | District Attorney Markham | |
| Robert Barrat | ... | Archer Coe | |
| Frank Conroy | ... | Brisbane Coe | |
| Etienne Girardot | ... | Dr. Doremus | |
| James Lee | ... | Liang - the Cook | |
| Paul Cavanagh | ... | Sir Thomas MacDonald (as Paul Cavanaugh) | |
| Arthur Hohl | ... | Gamble - the Butler | |
| Helen Vinson | ... | Doris Delafield | |
| Jack La Rue | ... | Eduardo Grassi (as Jack LaRue) |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
73 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
USA:Approved (certificate not issued at release) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Approved | USA:Approved (PCA #2578-R: 24 August 1936 for re-release) | Spain:13
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
William Powell's last appearance as Philo Vance. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: The desk Sergeant taking the call at the station house about Archer Coe is wearing stripes, but has a patrolman's badge on. The Sergeant's badge is a different shape and larger. more
Quotes:
Dist. Atty. Markham:
Haven't you got any ideas, Vance?
Philo Vance:
Markham, it's a maze of conflicting clues. Any one of seven people might have done it.
Detective Sgt. Heath:
We couldn't convict seven people, Mr. Vance.
Philo Vance:
You couldn't convict one with the evidence you've got.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in La très très grande entreprise (2008) more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (34 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Kennel Murder Case (1933)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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Related Links
| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| IMDb Mystery section | IMDb USA section | Add this title to MyMovies |

William Powell's final outing as Philo Vance occurs in The Kennel Murder Case where the murder of a championship show dog leads to two more murders and one attempt of the human kind. It's all in the figuring out of how that leads to the who and why.
The Philo Vance murders by S.S. Van Dine were most popular at the time and the clever Mr. Van Dine figured out a way to sell his books one at a time to the highest studio bidder. This is why you see so many Philo Vances and so many studios putting them out. Had Bill Powell not gone on to greater fame with MGM as Nick Charles of the Thin Man series, he would have been known as the greatest of Philo Vances.
It turns out that Powell had entered his little terrier Captain in the same contest where the murdered dog was entered and then another rival owner became the first murder victim. As usual Powell shows up Eugene Palette as Sergeant Heath whose biggest contribution to the proceedings was using his bulk to break down the locked from the inside door where the first murder victim was found.
I did say locked from the inside and it was an upper story so it was in figuring out the how. Powell has a lovely group of suspects, as extensive as what normally is in a Thin Man mystery. People like Paul Cavanaugh, Helen Vinson, Ralph Morgan, Mary Astor, fill their cast roles well.
Warner Brothers liked this version so much that in fact they remade it again in the Thirties with James Stephenson in his one and only outing as Philo Vance. It doesn't hold a candle to this one.
As this is the only Powell Philo Vance that is out on VHS or DVD by all means see this one or acquire it if you can.