Tonight's Movie: The Benson Murder Case (1930) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

After watching THE BENSON MURDER CASE (1930) today, I've now watched my way through all of the enjoyable Philo Vance Collection from Kino Lorber.

The first two films reviewed were THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929) and THE GREENE MURDER CASE (1929). They were somewhat "creaky" but enjoyable thanks to star William Powell and short running times.

I thought THE BENSON MURDER CASE was the best of the group, a mystery with a fairly lengthy setup as we're introduced to several people who might have reason to kill stockbroker Anthony Benson (Richard Tucker).

The suspects all converge on Benson's country home on the proverbial dark and stormy night, and by coincidence Benson is also visited by his neighbor, District Attorney Markham (E.H. Calvert), and Markham's good friend, Philo Vance (Powell).

Benson is unexpectedly shot, with his body dramatically rolling down the stairs toward the living room where Vance is sitting. It's then up to Vance to figure out whodunit, along with Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette).

It's an engaging 65 minutes from the brisk opening at a stock exchange, as characters are revealed while fortunes are rapidly lost as the market crashes.

It's amusing watching unfaithful Adolph (Paul Lukas) whining while trying to placate his wealthy wife (May Beatty). The always-striking Natalie Moorhead (seen at right) is another suspect. In all, it's the typical good fun I've found in this mystery series.

THE BENSON MURDER CASE was directed by Frank Tuttle and filmed by Archie Stout from a script by Bartlett Cormack. Costumes were by Travis Banton.

Kino Lorber's print of THE BENSON MURDER CASE is from a 2K restoration. It looks and sounds extremely good for a film of this vintage.

The film has a commentary track by Jason A. Ney.

The three films in this set were all released by Paramount Pictures. Powell and Pallette would return to their roles again in THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (1934) for Warner Bros. THE KENNEL MURDER CASE was Powell's final outing as Philo Vance, while Pallette would play Sergeant Heath one more time after that, in THE DRAGON MURDER CASE (1934) with Warren William as Philo Vance.

THE KENNEL MURDER CASE and THE DRAGON MURDER case may be found in the six-film Philo Vance Murder Case Collection put out by the Warner Archive Collection. Vance was played by a different actor in every film in the set, with the other actors portraying Vance being Paul Lukas, James Stephenson, Edmund Lowe, and Basil Rathbone.  

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

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