During the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood produced a long string of B-detective films such as Charlie Chan, the Falcon, Boston Blackie and Sherlock Holmes. One of these series that never seem to catch on despite many films in the series were the Philo Vance films. Now a few of them were very good and the series seemed to be going very well at first but unfortunately there was never a single actor to carry the films--and there were many different Philo Vances which confused the public and prevented their acceptance. As I said, it started well and those with William Powell were excellent, but after several films the studios replaced him with a wide variety of stars that never quite had the elegance and charm of Powell. Warren William (also of the Lone Wolf series), Grant Richards, Basil Rathbone, William Wright, Edmund Lowe and many others tried to fill his shoes, but with only indifferent results.
About the strangest of the stars to play the role, though, was Paul Lukas. Now Lukas WAS a good actor but unfortunately he was also Hungarian and sounded much like Bela Lugosi!! This was definitely NOT the Philo Vance the public had come to expect, as he'd always been played by Americans or Brits! As a result, no matter how much Lukas tried, the film was bound to fail and I think it's among the worst of the Vance films I have seen. Now not all of this was due to Lukas, though he was pretty poor. The studio also managed to waste poor old Eric Blore who usually is a great supporting character who infuses some needed humor into a film. Here, he simply wasn't given a chance to get laughs or contribute much to the film.
The plot itself wasn't bad, and the conclusion worked very well because I loved the bad guy's maniacal laugh as well as the way that Vance arranged for this guy to be killed, not captured! These interesting and off-beat aspects of the film manage to help the overall effort to be watchable, but that is all.
FYI--Watch and listen to a young Rosalind Russell showing off her British accent. Before she was an established American star, she often used a British accent and sounded so convincing I really thought she might have been from the UK. Good job Roz!
About the strangest of the stars to play the role, though, was Paul Lukas. Now Lukas WAS a good actor but unfortunately he was also Hungarian and sounded much like Bela Lugosi!! This was definitely NOT the Philo Vance the public had come to expect, as he'd always been played by Americans or Brits! As a result, no matter how much Lukas tried, the film was bound to fail and I think it's among the worst of the Vance films I have seen. Now not all of this was due to Lukas, though he was pretty poor. The studio also managed to waste poor old Eric Blore who usually is a great supporting character who infuses some needed humor into a film. Here, he simply wasn't given a chance to get laughs or contribute much to the film.
The plot itself wasn't bad, and the conclusion worked very well because I loved the bad guy's maniacal laugh as well as the way that Vance arranged for this guy to be killed, not captured! These interesting and off-beat aspects of the film manage to help the overall effort to be watchable, but that is all.
FYI--Watch and listen to a young Rosalind Russell showing off her British accent. Before she was an established American star, she often used a British accent and sounded so convincing I really thought she might have been from the UK. Good job Roz!