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Paramount Pictures
Philo Vance Collection
Who was guilty of one of the most baffling crimes ever committed?
Philo Vance investigates when a murderer preys upon members of a wealthy family on New York's Upper East Side.
CinemaSerf
Jun 2, 2024 · via TMDB
This all starts with a sort of roll-call where a lawyer checks the presence of the "Greene" family at the bedside of their mother. A condition of their late father's will is if they don't all live together for fifteen years after his demise, then they don't get a sou. Not surprisingly, they don't exactly see eye to eye so when one of them is shot, it's hardly a shock. The police - the instantly recognisable Eugene Palette as "Sgt. Heath" - duly arrive and enlist the help of detective "Philo Vance" (William Powell) who quickly discovers that any one of them could have done it. Thing is, the killer isn't content with just the one - and when the family start to drop like flies, the investigators must get a move on in case it is just them who are actually left at the end! It's very stage-bound, this, but the pace is break-neck and there are a few characters - not least the bed-ridden and grumpy mother (Gertrude Norman), to keep the investigation moving along until it's slightly unexpected conclusion. It's a bit of an hybrid of other "Dark House" style stories, but Powell and Pallette deliver simply and quite well here.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
William Powell
Philo Vance
Florence Eldridge
Sibella Greene
Ullrich Haupt
Dr. Von Blon
Jean Arthur
Ada Greene
Eugene Pallette
Sergeant Heath
E.H. Calvert
John F. X. Markham
Gertrude Norman
Mrs. Tobias Greene
Morgan Farley
Rex Greene
Brandon Hurst
Sproot
Marcia Harris
Hemming
Harry Strang
Policeman (uncredited)
Travis Banton
Costume Design
Adolph Zukor
Presenter
Jesse L. Lasky
Presenter
Frank Tuttle
Director
S.S. Van Dine
Novel
Louise Long
Screenplay
His Princess from Nowhere
A Time to Kill
Philo Vance's Secret Mission
The Hidden Hand
Night of Dark Shadows
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
The Night Visitor
Fog Over Frisco
The Plot Thickens
Philo Vance's Gamble
Dream House
Lady in a Cage
All Good Things
Braid
The Death Kiss
Flagrant désir
The Sphinx
Before I Go to Sleep
Frozen Run
Eversnow
Rear Window
Witness for the Prosecution
Gaslight
Shadow of a Doubt
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Murder She Said
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Clue
A Shot in the Dark
Murder Most Foul
Miss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors
My Cousin Rachel
Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery
The Blue Gardenia
The Verdict
Ten Little Indians
Lady in the Lake
The Mirror Crack'd
The Kennel Murder Case
Murder in Three Acts
Aug 11, 1929
May 21, 2024
Blu-ray
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What’s Tops
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1987 · 14 wins
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2008 · 14 wins
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2000 · 12 wins
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2019 · 11 wins
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