utgard14 Philo Vance (Warren William) investigates a cursed swimming pool. It's called the dragon pool because there is supposedly a killer dragon in it! Extremely interesting idea elevates this murder mystery. Nice cast too. Warren William is good. It's amusing to me how there seems to be little consensus on Philo Vance's character in these films. He seems to change personality depending on who is playing him. This is probably why he's one of my least favorites of the classic mystery film detectives. But I do enjoy Warren William so I enjoyed this. Eugene Palette reprises his role as Sgt. Heath and he's always fun. Also returning is Etienne Girardot as the coroner Doremus. I love this actor. He's hilarious! The lovely Margaret Lindsay appears as one of the suspects, as does character actor George E. Stone. Lyle Talbot plays a half-Indian apparently. He doesn't look it but they keep referencing it so I thought I'd throw that in there. Short runtime helps keep the pace tight. Good old school detective flick. Fans of them will enjoy this one.

robert-temple-1 This is the seventh Philo Vance film, the first after the retirement of William Powell from the lead role, and the first and only one starring Warren William as Vance. William is very insouciant and droll, more so than Powell was. (Powell had not yet fully found himself, as he had not become the future Powell of the Thin Man films. But then, he had not found his Loy yet either, with whom he was later to create his ALL-LOY of magic, fusing his silver with her gold.) William also has greater warmth and manages a far better rapport with Eugene Palette as the idiotic Sergeant Heath. When Palette keeps boasting of 'my knowledge of criminality', William genuinely grins sympathetically and teases him very gently like a friend. This works very well, since in previous films, Palette had been floundering around like a stranded fish and over-acting to an embarrassing extent, and Powell never engaged with him. On the other hand, this film lacks the effectiveness of the coroner's grumbling except with exasperation. In the previous film (THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, 1933, see my review) we saw him (played by Etienne Girardot, who despite his French name was born in London and in his films is 'as American as apple pie') being interrupted at his meals and rushing off to examine bodies, but this time that standing joke is taken for granted, no screen time is given actually to showing his frustrations, which are merely referred to in occasional lines of dialogue, and hence that comic sub-plot does not work nearly as well. The story line of this film is however a superior and unusually mysterious one. It concerns a sinister and mysterious pool behind a large house which they call 'the Dragon Pool'. People swim in it all the time, treating it as a swimming pool, but it is a natural feature, not an excavated pool, and it has bizarre features. It links to extended sink holes beyond, and is said to contain a mysterious aquatic dragon who comes out at night and occasionally eats people who dare to swim after dark. This is said to be an ancient Indian legend, and the pool was reputed to have been regarded by the Indians with awe and fear. The film concerns the disappearance and presumed murder of one of the characters who dove into the pool one evening and never reappeared. The pool is drained but nothing is found. An eccentric rich man lives in the house, whose sitting room is full of identical fish tanks (a low budget prevented these from being properly effective, and they look cheap and unconvincing) which contain rare and exotic fish. There are several scenes where the man and his visitors watch 'Japanese fighting fish' killing one another in tanks. That certainly sets a sinister tone at the very beginning of the film. This is definitely a superior Vance film, and the story is so unusual that it could be remade as a very effective modern film if the right people realized its possibilities.

BaronBl00d S. S. Van Dine's sophisticated, witty, "gentleman" detective Philo Vance is back once again in this murder mystery about a group of rich people who have hidden/outward dislikes for each other attending a party and then deciding to take a dip in a naturally-made pool called the dragon pool. One man goes in and never comes out, and soon, with a host of suspects, Philo Vance, the district attorney, and the ever affable, blunderbuss of a policeman - Sergant Ernest Heath(Eugene Palette) arrive to take aim at cracking the mysterious disappearance and later death that is discovered. As mysteries go, this one really is not that bad, it has some real red herrings laced throughout and never gives too many obvious indications of just who the guilty party is. Warren William plays Vance and I thought he was adequate, though not in the league of previous Vance William Powell(who is?) or Basil Rathbone even before him. As with most Vance film, the best lines go to Eugene Palette who never seems to tire of making wonderful wisecracks and not thoroughly thought-out observations. The things that caught my attention more than anything else was the fish room in the palatial house with all of its aquariums. It really showed how the fish-keeping hobby had been started(through wealthy men tracking down different species abroad and bringing them back here). The collection was most impressive. A good period mystery all in all.

MartinHafer In the 1930s and 40s, there were a long series of detective films such as THE SAINT, CHARLIE CHAN, BOSTON BLACKIE and many others. One of the lesser series that never really seemed to hit its stride was the Philo Vance series. Much of the reason the series never really caught on was perhaps because several different actors played Vance (such as William Powell, Paul Lukas, Basil Rathbone and several no-name actors). In this early Philo Vance film, Warren William plays the sleuth. As a result, it seems very much like one of the Lone Wolf films--another detective series that starred William just a few years later. As a B-movie, its budget was relatively small and the film has very modest pretensions. Unlike some of these style films, Vance had no sidekick but there was, of course, a stupid detective--this time in the form of the wonderful character actor Eugene Palette--who was wonderful as the befuddled and slightly daffy cop. In addition, Robert Warwick played a cute small part as a coroner with some of the best lines in the movie!As for the mystery, it's not one of the better ones in the genre because I figured out who the murderer was before it even occurred. This is NOT a good sign for a detective film! By the way, I didn't figure it out because I am some genius (my kids remind me all the time that I am not), but because it just was too easy to figure out at the onset.Still, despite there not being a lot of mystery, the film moves at a brisk pace and is a decent and watchable film of the genre. If you're a fan of this style of film, then this is a must-see--otherwise, there is better entertainment out there if you look!