Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Rainey Dawn Suicide or Murder? When the much hated Archer Coe turns up dead and is believed to be a suicide, Philo Vance and Detective Heath steps into the scene to find out why a rich man would consider suicide as an option. Things become a bit stranger when Archer Coe's brother, Brisbane, turns up dead in a closet. Vance and Heath enlist the help of poor Dr. Doremus who never seems to get a chance to eat while this investigation is going on. It must be murder - but who and why?! A film I really enjoyed watching! It's a mystery film that is peppered quite a bit with comedy. Detective Heath is the funniest - and has an outstanding speaking voice! Dr. Doremus is very funny as well! Two of my favorite characters in the entire film.8.5/10

utgard14 A man has been killed in a room locked from the inside. The police are baffled so they call in Philo Vance (William Powell). Easily the best of all of the Philo Vance films. This is due to the direction of Michael Curtiz and the star power of William Powell. Curtiz's direction is much more polished than the previous Philo Vance movies, which were early talkies and therefore creaky. William Powell reprises his role as Vance from the first three movies. He was absent in The Bishop Murder Case. His personality is a large part of why I enjoyed this one. I'm not crazy about Philo Vance compared to many of the other movie detectives from the '30s and '40s. But he's entertaining with Powell playing him. More due to Powell's personality shining through than the appeal of Vance as a character. It's a very entertaining murder mystery with a terrific supporting cast. I particularly enjoyed Eugene Palette's police detective and Etienne Girardot's coroner. If you are a fan of classic detective films you will definitely love this one.

MARIO GAUCI Detective thriller movie franchises – inspired by their literary counterparts – were a common occurrence in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, from Bulldog Drummond to The Whistler. I own a good many of these but, curiously enough, have not had the opportunity to watch as many as I would like; suffice it to say that that the only such series I have gone through in its entirety is that of "The Thin Man" (also because it is one of the shortest if most successful).Having mentioned the latter, which gave William Powell his signature role, it is to be noted that he also assumes the lead role in the movie under review as yet another popular fictional sleuth i.e. Philo Vance. In fact, this was his fifth and final appearance in the part, not to mention the only one made by Warner Bros. (the others were produced while the actor was still under contract to Paramount, whereas his entire stint as Nick Charles was done over at MGM!). Anyway, KENNEL is universally considered the best of the Vance films (as for myself, it served as my introduction to him): the main reason for this was a combination of Warners' snappy 1930s style (practically half the film's 73-minute running time shows the entire cast on the phone at some point!) and the deft handling of director Curtiz (who showed his mettle in practically every genre throughout a long and distinguished career).The case – the title is misleading, because it does not revolve exclusively around doghouses and, yet, a number of canines (including Vance's own colourfully-named "Captain McTavish") figure prominently in it, one of which even exposes the guilty party at the climax! – is quite an elaborate one, though seemingly contrived (given that so many of the principal characters happen to reside in the same street!). The supporting cast of characters is peppered with familiar faces (notably Eugene Palette in his fifth of six turns as Police Sergeant Heath – who basically served the same function as Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade in the later Sherlock Holmes films – and scene-stealer Etienne Girardot as an elderly mortician forever bemoaning the interruption of his repasts by the call of duty), two(!) sets of love triangles, and the obligatory sinister butler and foreign cook. One of the downsides here with respect to "The Thin Man" films is that Vance is not given much of a social life, whereas Nick Charles' tipsy relationship with wife Nora (played by Myrna Loy) was seminal in 'humanizing' the detective archetype that would see its full flowering with the onset of the film noir trend a decade on. P.S. Being fluent in Italian, I bemusedly noticed that a telegram supposedly cabled in that language shown in two scenes is littered with mistakes – such as the writing of "transsione" (instead of "transazione") and "authorizzare" (which should be without an "h"), while a specified amount of money is bafflingly left in English!

gridoon2018 "The Kennel Murder Case" is often regarded as the best of all the Philo Vance films, but having seem many of them in the last few months I don't think the quality gap between "Kennel" and most of the others is that big; in fact, I think "The Casino Murder Case" is just as good as this film, if not better. That does not mean, however, that "Kennel" is not a clever and engrossing whodunit - it is. (Heavy spoilers follow - do not read if you have not seen the film) The idea of two killers separately plotting the murder of the same man and having their plans interrupted by each other is a unique one, especially for the time, and the mystery is a real head-scratcher. The ending, however, is not as strong as the rest of the movie: after describing in perfect detail the "how" and "when" of the crimes, Vance admits that he has no idea as to the "who" - and yet, a few seconds later, he pulls the killer's identity out of his hat and devises a not-so-foolproof plan to expose him. A better idea might have been to have all the suspects assembled and have the dog, with whom the killer had a previous encounter, sniff him out. The entire (large) cast is solid, and Michael Curtiz's direction features some advanced camera work. *** out of 4.