Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

robert-temple-1 This is the eighth Philo Vance mystery film, and the only one starring Paul Lukas as Vance. Under the influence of the first 'Thin Man' film, which came out the year before, the Philo Vance series here has undergone a drastic image 'makeover', to try to emulate the new William Powell series and compete with it. Suddenly everybody has a butler and there are lots of servants running around, grand surroundings, and an air of opulence previously entirely lacking from this series. The producers realized that William Powell's new series enjoyed popularity partially because of these factors, which provided audiences with an enjoyable fantasy of affluence in the wake of the horrible Great Depression. The producers obviously had not previously considered this factor, and were forced to raise their budget to accommodate better sets. This Vance film suffers from the replacement of Didier Girardot as the coroner with a truly irritating grumpy old man (Charles Sellon), so that the comic elements of the character of the coroner are entirely lost. Another ill-advised replacement was eliminating fog-horn-voiced Eugene Palette as Sergeant Heath and replacing him with an oafish actor (Ted Healy) who makes that character also lose his effectiveness by becoming completely ridiculous, and the whole thing is entirely misjudged as far as those two regular characters are concerned. Clearly, the 'freshening up' exercise and its 'new broom' were entirely destructive there. Paul Lukas is always a very congenial and watchable actor, and it is good to have a Vance film with him in it. He is very sophisticated and his slight Hungarian accent, which goes unexplained in the story of course, adds that touch of cosmopolitanism which always benefits characters such as Philo Vance. Lukas is a much warmer Vance than Powell, Rathbone, or William were, but less mischievous than Powell and less humorous than William. The plot of this film is immensely complex, with numerous red herrings. People keep getting killed, but how and why? The poison cannot be detected in the internal organs in autopsies, and yet people are being poisoned. This is eventually explained by the poison being mandragora administered in eye drops. Beat that! However one victim is not poisoned. Is it suicide or murder? The plot thickens, and thickens, and thickens, until it ends up as clotted cream. The film is very stylish and amusing, has a challenging plot, and is a successful Vance film. It is a pity that Lukas vanishes in the next one. All these Vances, who can keep up with them? This film is greatly lightened-up by the sparkling appearance of Rosalind Russell as the female lead. She always added that something extra to any film she was in. She and Lukas go for each other in a big way, and this is a conscious production decision to inject some romance into the series. Alison Skipworth swings her great bulk about with great authority as a domineering matriarch in this film, and is most amusing, though one wouldn't want to be related to her. When she turns around, it is like an ocean liner being pulled by tugboats. Leo G. Carroll appears as a rather silent and dour butler, whom one is meant to suspect as one of the many potential villains in the story. He retains an impeccable air of ambiguity to facilitate this false lead. This film perhaps marks a slight ad-Vance.

bkoganbing Something new and a bit jarring was added to the Philo Vance series, a Philo Vance with an accent. In his one and only time playing S.S. Van Dine's fictional detective Paul Lukas plays a continental Philo, as charming as ever with a mind like a steel trap. Not quite William Powell or Warren William the best of the Vances.The reason why so many actors played Vance is that the estate of S.S. Van Dine sold the novels one at a time to various studios. Paramount, Warner Brothers, MGM, and last the B picture studio PRC all filmed various Vance stores of varying quality.Lukas gets himself involved with the Llewellyn family when he receives a note saying that Donald Cook will be killed at his uncle's casino that night. In fact he is poisoned, but survived. The same cannot be said for some other family members and friends. It takes a while, but Vance has to work through a maze of false clues before solving this one.One of the near victims is Rosalind Russell who said that this B film marked the first time she was given star billing in a film. She wasn't particularly fond of The Casino Murder Case, but in fact it did lead to better parts for her.Some of the others in the cast are Ted Healy as the garrulous Sergeant Heath, Louise Fazenda as a nosy maid, Isabell Jewell as an alcoholic daughter, Allison Skipworth as the family matriarch, Arthur Byron as the casino owner and Skipworth's brother, Leo G. Carroll as the butler, and Eric Blore as Lukas's valet. We see too little of him in The Casino Murder Case. The cast all perform as typed.Charles Sellon plays the Medical Examiner Dr. Doremus. He's a particularly important character in this film. It's all in the how here.

Neil Doyle PAUL LUKAS stars as Philo Vance in this trifle designed to entertain audiences with an intriguing murder mystery laced with comedy. The comedy is just so-so and the mystery is weighed down by some heavy-handed explanations involving "heavy water", a most curious plot device and one that Agatha Christie mercifully never thought of as a poison.ALISON SKIPWORTH is a wealthy eccentric woman whose murder prompts the arrival of Philo Vance on the scene. ISABEL JEWELL overacts in her usual style as the woman's daughter, while ROSALIND RUSSELL does considerably better as another household relative. LEO G. CARROLL handles his butler role efficiently and LOUISE FAZENDA is just slightly annoying as an eaves-dropping maid assigned most of the comedy relief.The mystery elements are handled in okay fashion but the use of "heavy water" as a plot device seems totally far-fetched. PAUL LUKAS does rather nicely as Philo Vance but it takes awhile to get used to him in the role often played by more debonair types.Nothing special, but passes the time pleasantly.

blanche-2 Philo Vance has been played by a number of actors over the years, everyone from Wilfred Hyde-White to William Powell, who portrayed the detective the most. In "The Casino Murder Case," it's Paul Lukas' turn to have a go at it. This is a light mystery concerning some murders within a family. Rosalind Russell is the young woman here, and she does a fine job.I'm not familiar with Philo Vance in the books so I can't comment on Lukas' portrayal in comparison. However, I suspect that normally, the role is approached with a lighter touch. Lukas is a wonderful and very likable actor, but I think that in the hands of someone like William Powell, the humor would have been mined a little bit more. Lukas isn't heavy-handed in any way, it's just that this type of role isn't a perfect fit for him. All in all, entertaining.