The Casino Murder Case

Plot synopsis:
Gentleman detective Philo Vance (Paul Lukas) begins an investigation when he receives an anonymous letter stating that society man Lynn Llewellyn (Donald Cook) will be in danger when he appears at the casino owned by his uncle, Kinkaid (Arthur Byron). Vance visits the Llewellyn estate, which is run by Mrs. Priscilla Kinkaid-Llewellyn (Alison Skipworth), the matriarch of the household, and stumbles into one of the family's many quarrels. At the end of the bitter quarrel, which involves Mrs. Llewellyn's son Lynn and his wife Virginia (Louise Henry), Virginia announces that she has decided to leave the house and go to Chicago. During the tiff, Vance and Doris (Rosalind Russell), Mrs. Llewellyn's secretary, are introduced to each other and Doris immediately takes a liking to Vance.
Vance takes Doris to his home, where he and District Attorney Markham (Purnell Pratt) show her the mysterious letter. Doris immediately recognizes the return address as being that of the Llewellyn's townhouse in Closter and notices that the letter was typed on her typewriter. Vance assigns Sergeant Heath (Ted Healy) to help stake out the casino that night, but their presence does not prevent Lynn from suddenly collapsing at the card table. At the same time, Doris informs Vance that Virginia has died at the Llewellyn house. Markham begins his investigation of the murder by questioning Mrs. Llewellyn, who recalls having quarrelled with Virginia before she was poisoned, and Amelia (Isabel Jewell), Mrs. Llewellyn's daughter, who admits that she too had a spat with Virginia. Meanwhile, Doris finds Mrs. Llewellyn's recently altered will, in which she disinherited Kinkaid, making it apparent that Lynn and Amelia would be the only ones who would benefit from Mrs. Llewellyn's death.
Other clues begin to surface, including Kinkaid's unusual collection of books on chemistry and poisons, and a loaded gun found in Virginia's bedroom. Soon after Lynn's recovery, Mrs. Llewellyn is found dead of an apparent suicide with a note, bearing her signature, in which she confesses to Virginia's murder. Not convinced that the mystery has been solved, Vance pursues his theory that Mrs. Llewellyn may have been poisoned by heavy water, which leads him to Kinkaid's secret laboratory, where he and Doris are captured and held at gunpoint by Kinkaid. Vance and Doris escape, but Vance does not believe that Kinkaid is the murderer, thinking instead that he is merely one of many decoys set up by the real killer to lead the investigation astray.
The real killer turns out to be Lynn, who has lured Vance and Doris to the Closter townhouse to kill them. But before Lynn completes his "perfect crime," Vance reads from a letter he wrote earlier in which he detailed his theory about the killings. In it, Vance names Lynn as the murderer, calling him a rich, ego-maniacal weakling, who, being tired of his wife, poisoned her and threw the blame on his uncle, whom he despised. After hearing Vance's summary of the murder plot, Lynn tells his captors that he has arranged to pin Vance and Doris' forthcoming murder on Kinkaid. However, when Lynn shoots Vance, Heath and others emerge from behind a door where they have been recording Lynn's confession and arrest him. After thanking Becky, Mrs. Llewellyn's maid (Louise Fazenda), for loading Lynn's gun with blanks, Vance resumes his romance with Doris.

Tags: mystery, murder, flashback

Review:
In the wake of the success of The Thin Man, the studios began to churn out scads of little mystery movies that are really more like screwball comedies than problems in deduction or thrillers.
This is a pretty good sample of the type, with Rosalind Russell showing a flair for the genre that would be exploited in His Girl Friday.
It even takes about 15 minutes or so before anyone gets murdered.Paul Luckas is fine as the sleuth in the picture.
Any resemblance between him and the Philo Vance depicted in the series of novels by S.S. Van Dine is a coincidence.
This Philo is charming, polite, and doesn't mind when Roz complains that his mystery stories are wordy and complicated.
And shouldn't come as a surprise that this Philo is more seems more interested in Roz than the mystery at hand.
An absurd unfolding murder mystery and a miscast Paul Lukas is offset by some nice comic relief..
As good an actor as Paul Lukas is, his accent destroys the illusion that he's the great American detective, Philo Vance, and I was conscious of that throughout.
The murder mystery gets off to a good start, but then falters when Vance speculates that perhaps it was "heavy water" that was used as the poison, since it was not known if that substance was poisonous.
And Charles Sellon is the coroner always complaining about the inconsiderate murder victims getting bumped off just when he's trying to sleep.
Paul Lukas as Philo.
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.
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.
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.
Rosalind Russell saves this movie from being just another '30s mystery out of the mystery machine.
Paul Lukas, despite his panache is not a good Philo Vance because of his accent.
This is more of a romantic "screwball comedy" type of film than a mystery, but taken in that aspect, it's pretty good.
The chemistry between the unflappable Russell and Mr. Lukas is really neat, although in the novels romance never got in the way of a good murder.
The Casino Murder Case is worth viewing if for nothing but to watch Rosalind Russell on top of her game..
With a traditional murder-mystery detective plot, clearly written as a pulp novel before being transferred to the screen, this film abounds with idiosyncratic characters and overly dramatic actors.
Not to mention a delectable performance by Rosalind Russell.The factors all come together for this film, and if you take it for its backdated surface value, you won't be wasting your time.
All played Philo Vance in the movies up to 1935 when Lukas took his turn as the urbane, suave American detective Philo Vance.
I really like Lukas as an actor, but I must agree with a previous review that stated how distracting his accent was and how much it affects his character's credibility.
This time around, Vance gets a note warning him that a member of a rich family is going to be killed at a family-owned casino.
Russell is really quite good as she has an excellent tough for light comedy - which this is undoubtedly more so than a mystery.
The mystery at times almost seems to be in the way of some cute comedy sketches between various secondary characters only to be explained with some hugely wild plot contrivance dealing with hard water!
While Lukas and the mystery are not up to what I usually expect from a Philo Vance film, the film is saved because the end resolution is at the very least interestingly inventive and there are some really fine character performances by Russell, William Demarest,Louise Fazenda, Isabel Jewell, Ted Healey, Leo G.
Carroll, and two that really stand out for me - Charles Sellon as the always put-upon coroner(he keeps busy in this one) and the ever impregnable Eric Blore( a master of sophisticated comedy for man-servants)..
Thus spake Paul Lukas during an uncharacteristic serious moment in this very entertaining, almost light-hearted entry in the Philo Vance canon, this one by MGM.The play's the thing, right?
There were lots of red herrings and the screenwriters take a few liberties with our credulity, but I thought that, on balance, this was one of the better murder mysteries to come out of Hollywood in the 30's, or any other period for that matter.William Powell spoiled the Philo Vance character for us.
And Paul Lukas is a pale imitation, to be sure, try as he might.
But MGM surrounded him with some of the best supporting and character actors available, among them Rosalind Russell, Donald Cook, Isabel Jewell, Eric Blore and the incomparable Allison Skipworth.
Not bad mystery enhanced by Rosalind Russell's presence.
One of many films with Philo Vance as the protagonist but the only one with Paul Lukas as the famed detective.
As for the mystery it's not terribly hard to figure out but it's stylishly shot with a good supporting cast..
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.
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.
Heavy-handed explanations don't help this Philo Vance yarn....
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
This film is greatly lightened-up by the sparkling appearance of Rosalind Russell as the female lead.
This film perhaps marks a slight ad-Vance..
Paul Lukas was memorable in The Lady Vanishes and some other films, but not playing Philo Vance.
The Casino Murder Case is an enjoyable melodramatic murder mystery with three problems: his European accent, and the fact there's not much casino in the story and no murder there either.
Did they have Bela Lugosi audition for the part too?!To the background of some incongruous opening music Vance gets called in to protect a man threatened with an "awful tragedy" at a casino, when there finds the murder of the man's bitchy wife takes place at their home.
Lukas also found a spunky sidekick in Rosalind Russell and had some nice patter with her  but her snooty British accent jarred a little as well!
In bit parts William Demarest was perfect as a shyster auctioneer and Leo Carroll was fascinating to watch as a slapstick servant, but Eric Blore as Vance's gurning butler was sadly underused here.
Favorite bit: Lukas and Russell on the phone as the tragedy unfolds.If you don't like detective potboilers from the '30's my advice is to Skip It. For those of us that do, it must be a lot better if you don't know your Vance, but it's an excellent watch even if you do.
Unexciting entry in the Philo Vance series.
Considering the previous entries in the Philo Vance series had interesting plots, this one is a big step down on that front.
Paul Lukas plays Philo and, as you might expect, is woefully miscast.
I've been critical of Philo Vance films before because the character doesn't seem to have distinct personality traits all his own like most of the other great movie detectives of the '30s and '40s.
Apparently he does in the original books but in the films his personality changes to match whatever actor is playing him that time.
Vance was played by many actors so the series lacked consistency on his characterization.
At no point did I get into the film or root for Vance and that was in large part due to Lukas' disconnected performance.There are problems with the rest of the cast, as well.
Rosalind Russell seems to be trying to channel Myrna Loy but it doesn't work.
Eric Blore's butler shtick has worked much better in other films than it does here.
Also missing is Etienne Girardot, who played coroner Dr. Doremus and provided great laughs in the last two Vance films before this.
Just not a great cast or film.
Really Bad. Casino Murder Case, The (1935) * (out of 4) Paul Lukas takes over the role of Philo Vance and gets involved with a strange family whose members keep getting poisoned.
Lukas is incredibly boring in the lead and I'm not just saying this because he isn't as good as the men who played the part previously.
Even on his own Lukas brings nothing to the role and he actually makes Vance quite boring and dull.
The supporting cast isn't any better and they all come off with very poor performances including Ted Healy (with his Stooges).
Rosalind Russell once described this movie as "A real bomb!
Paul Lukas came off a distinct second best in all comparisons with William Powell's interpretations of Philo Vance (and of course in Powell's 1930 "Benson Murder Case", Lukas plays one of the principal suspects).
High-grade mystery, despite an arguably miscast Philo Vance.
A complicated mystery that keeps you in the dark but plays fair with the attentive viewer, an above-average cast (Isabel Jewell is especially memorable), and some clever jabs at the "long-winded" speech patterns of Vance himself make this one of the best films featuring this fictional detective that I've seen.
It's true that Paul Lukas' rather heavy foreign accent makes him an odd choice for the role of Philo Vance, but his performance is otherwise quite good, and combined with the film's other strengths, that's enough to overcome this particular handicap.
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.
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.
. as for some reason THE CASINO MURDER CASE shares its #646 rating number with something called MOLLY MOO-COW AND THE BUTTERFLIES.
Like the fiasco in Flint, there turns out to be TWO toxic agents at work during THE CASINO MURDER CASE.
However, viewers need not worry that this film is as political as Flint's Sad Saga, since the movie fatalities are NOT Poor People, and their demise does not involve a self-proclaimed "Businessman Bean Counter Governor," Emergency Managers, or top state health officials trying to hide a man-made epidemic coming out of public water taps as the Death Toll continues to rise.
(Some of the middle managers are facing criminal trials right now, but the masterminds are getting off as Scot Free as a Saudi Prince.) Rather than lead and Legionnaire's Disease, the suspect agents in THE CASINO MURDER CASE turn out to be "Heavy Water" and purposely tainted Eye Wash, though crass mercenary considerations are as much of a motive here as they'd later prove to be in Flint.
However, in These Trouble Times, perhaps MOLLY MOO-COW AND THE BUTTERFLIES would be a more soothing watch then THE CASINO MURDER CASE..
Even the Book of the Month Club honored some books as "selections." The first book THE BENSON MURDER CASE was never filmed under that title, but then several books in succession found their way into cinema history.
The last book THE WINTER MURDER CASE was unfinished at the time of Wright's death.
The absolute joke of the series was THE GRACIE ALLEN MURDER CASE with the real life Gracie Allen as a character leading "Fido" (played by Warren William) around by the nose.
Anyway, this film under review with Paul Lukas and Roz Russell is more in the THIN MAN vein, as opposed to the more respectable THE KENNEL MURDER CASE.
Many reviewers here have talked about Lukas and his European accent (the Vance of the novels was a pure WASP, but even more intelligent, educated and insufferably arrogant than can be imagined -- a true wish fulfillment figure for the author), and others have commented on the absurdity of the plot where the murderer turns out to be a raving lunatic.
But instead of repeating what has already been noted, I want to single out Eric Blore who plays "Currie" -- Vance's man servant.
Blore is one of those little noticed supporting players who took up only a few minutes in every film he was in, but still managed to make an impression.
Can't recommend the film as a mystery; but as a time server with seeing Russell (not looking all that glamorous, admittedly) before her step up the movie ladder, it may be worth the while.