THE DRAGON MURDER CASE (1934)

Director: H. Bruce Humberstone

Writers: F. Hugh Herbert, Robert N. Lee, Rian James, based on the novel by S.S. Van Dine

Producer: unknown

Cast: Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Lyle Talbot, Eugene Pallette, Robert McWade, George Meeker, Robert Barrat, Dorothy Tree, Helen Lowell, George E. Stone, William Davidson, Arthur Aylesworth, Etienne Girardot, Robert Warwick, Charles Wilson, (and uncredited cast) Henry Otho, Wilfred Lucas, Milton Kibbee, Sam McDaniel, Bruce Mitchell, Cliff Saum, Eric Wilton, Hedwiga Reicher, Eddie Schubert 

During a house party at the Stamm estate, the guests join Bernice Stamm (Margaret Lindsay) for an evening swim in the outdoor pool. After diving into the so-called “dragon pool,” Bernice’s fiancé, Monty Montague (George Meeker), never resurfaces. Old, dotty family matriarch Mrs. Stamm (Helen Lowell) blames the dragon of North American Indian legend that was supposed to inhabit the river which supplies water to the dammed-up portion making the Stamm’s swimming pool. Police Sgt. Heath (Eugene Pallette) brings District Attorney Markham (Robert McWade) along to answer the call from the Stamm estate. Wealthy intellectual and amateur detective Philo Vance (Warren William) tags along to assist in the investigation. Draining the pool does not reveal the missing Monty’s body, only a series of huge, three-toed tracks in the pool’s clay bottom. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

Under the penname S.S. Van Dine, art critic Willard Huntington Wright wrote a series of a dozen mystery novels published from 1926 to 1939. These featured the erudite, amateur sleuth Philo Vance. While the novels were not critically acclaimed and their hero was often derided as a snob, Philo Vance proved to be very popular. Beginning at the end of the silent-film era in 1929, the Vance character was adapted for the movies. During the 1940s, Vance was the basis for three different radio programs. As late as 1974, an Italian television mini-series adapted the first three Philo Vance novels. 

1934’s The Dragon Murder Case was the sixth film in the series and based on the seventh Philo Vance novel. Many considered the novel to be inferior to those before it, and the film adaptation is not often well regarded. Perhaps many Vance film fans missed William Powell who had established himself in the role (which he did not care for) in four of the five previous films. None other than a pre-Sherlock Holmes Basil Rathbone had also played Vance in one film.

This morbid movie fan has always had a soft spot in his black heart for this Philo Vance flick. Although the mystery and its solution is not as complicated as some previous Vance films, I like the weird menace angle it teases us with. It is also rather unique in that half the movie is over with before the body of the murder victim can be located.

In The Dragon Murder Case, the very popular ’30s film actor Warren William plays Philo Vance the same year that he would become the first actor to portray writer Erle Stanley Gardner’s defense attorney hero Perry Mason. He would play Mason in four consecutive films. William would also star as a detective alongside Bette Davis in Satan Met a Lady (1936), the loose and comedic second adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon. William would return to the role of Vance in the mystery-comedy The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939). From 1939 to 1943, William would star as The Lone Wolf in nine films of that detective character’s series. Horror buffs will remember William in the supporting role of Dr. Lloyd in 1941’s The Wolf Man.

While the Philo Vance of the novels could be rather off-putting in his snobbery, the Vance of the films seems a bit more appealing. That is probably not due particularly to any change of the character’s personality for the films, merely that the medium of the novels would spell out Vance’s attitudes in much more specific detail. Warren William’s relaxed confidence and refinement seems to be quite suited to the role.

Like many amateur detective heroes, Philo Vance is given plenty of autonomy by the authorities and can be pretty rash in his tactics. If anything had gone wrong during his reenactment of the Monty Montague disappearance, Vance could have been charged with manslaughter or, at least, reckless endangerment. I guess Vance’s already proven crime-solving genius earned him one helluva lot of trust with the authorities.

With dullards like Sgt. Heath around, rash action is welcome. Eugene Pallette portrayed the clueless cop five times, more than any single film actor would play Philo Vance. His character seemed pretty typical for its time. The guys actually on the payroll to solve crimes are usually outclassed in every way by the sleuths outside of the police department. This trope has held true from Sherlock Holmes to Batman. Despite Vance’s reputed snobbery, here he seems pretty tolerant of Sgt. Heath, even as he gently mocks Heath’s tendency to jump to conclusions.

As the featured ingénue that seems to be a major impetus in the plot, Margaret Lindsay does not have much to do. Like just about everyone here, her character of Bernice Stamm is just one piece in this crime-puzzle cast. Nevertheless, she manages to be pleasant and likable without ever getting too angsty about her less-than-ideal, impending marriage to Monty Montague. As a Warner Bros. contract player in the ’30s, Lindsay was kept mighty busy. Her favorite role would be alongside George Sanders and Vincent Price in Universal Pictures’ gothic-flavored The House of the Seven Gables (1940).

Third-billed Lyle Talbot’s Dale Leland is the lovesick guy that has an obvious motive for killing Monty Montague, the fiancé of his true love, Bernice. While he gets plenty of screen time, this seemingly passive role probably had Talbot relishing the times he was loaned out from First National Pictures/Warner Bros. to play the energetic leads in the low-budget crime thrillers The Thirteenth Guest (1932) and A Shriek in the Night (1933).

George Meeker is one of those guys that you inevitably run across in movies of the ’30s and ’40s. He was a very busy actor that wound up usually being cast as the unprincipled supporting character or an outright villain. Actually, his role here as the ill-fated Monty Montague seems a bit less unpleasant than usual, until we find out just how he managed to hook up with Bernice Stamm. Once we learn what his character is about, there is no love loss felt about his fate.

The Stamms really seemed to be begging for trouble when they drew up the guest list for their house party. They not only invite bride-to-be Bernice Stamm’s passed-over sweetheart, they also invite Ruby, an old flame of the ill-fated Monty. Dorothy Tree plays the sexy, blonde Ruby. This macabre movie junkie remembers her best as a vampire bride in both the Bela Lugosi-starring classic Dracula (1931) and the simultaneously produced Spanish version.

I suspect that a lot of the appeal to most of the depression-era audience for films like this was to vicariously experience the lavish comfort of the upper class that they envy, while they can also gloat over strife among the well-to-do and the nasty fates some of them suffer. (Works for me.) Having that ingenious snob Philo Vance crash the party to try solving this whodunit or whatdunit just for the hell of it makes me glad that I attended this sinister soiree called The Dragon Murder Case.