PHILO VANCE RETURNS
US, 1947, 64 minutes, Black-and-white.
William Wright, Leon Belasco, Clara Blandick, Ramsey Ames, Damian O' Flynn, Iris Adrian, Ann Staunton, Vivian Austin.
Directed by William Beaudine.
Philo Vance was literary character, an amateur detective, suave in manner, created in a series by author, S.S.Van Dine. He was incarnated on screen in the late 1920s and into the mid 1930s by William Powell – something of a preliminary to his taking on the role of Nick in The Thin Man series.
Three films were made in 1947 for the return of Philo Vance. In two of them Vance was played by Alan Curtis. In this one he is played by William Wright. (Wright was being built up as a comparison to Clark Gable but died of cancer two years after this film at the age of 38.)
The film opens with a playboy who has been divorced four times and has his eye on a glamorous singer, Ramsey Ames. He is in conversation with her manager, a Russian-born entrepreneur-cum-conman, played by Leon Belasco (himself born in Russia). The playboy proposes to the singer and she accepts.
On a visit to the playboy his old and sometimes crotchety aunt, the singer is shot dead. Soon after the playboy himself is killed. He had phoned his friend, Philo Vance, to help with an investigation. Prowling in the house is the entrepreneur – who then becomes Philo Vance’s sidekick throughout the film providing some comedy (for those who warm to the actor and his character) or some irritation.
The key to the story is that the playboy’s will, his estate to be divided amongst his four ex-wives, a considerable amount of money. Clearly they are suspects – but first one, then another, is also murdered.
Is the murderer one of the other wives? One of the former wives works at an institution, with the doctor, who has one of the wives living there, suffering from a nervous breakdown. Is it her husband who needs money and runs an antique shop?
As it emerges, none of the above. The audience may be a bit suspicious of the crotchety old aunt – and rightly so, she doted on her nephew but did not approve at all of his divorces considering him weak. She certainly did not like all the women. So, when the first wife kills the playboy, she goes to work murdering or attempting to murder the rest. It was Formerly a chemist (which the murdered antiques dealer new from his mother, her best friend, and was trying to blackmail her) putting poison into make up or glasses of hot milk.
The plot is rather better than the execution but the performance by Clara Bandick as the old aunt certainly commands attention. Philo Vance and his offsider less so.
