Tonight's Movie: The Greene Murder Case (1929) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

THE GREENE MURDER CASE (1929) is one of three films in the new Philo Vance Collection just released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

The other movies in the set are THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929), which I reviewed a few days ago, and THE BENSON MURDER CASE (1930). All three films star William Powell as the famous detective Philo Vance.

THE GREENE MURDER CASE was a fun little 69-minute mystery about deaths within a warring family. Someone is bumping off their siblings to enlarge the share of the estate they will one day inherit. Potential suspects include snooty Sibella (Florence Eldridge) and sweet-tempered Ada (Jean Arthur), who was adopted.

As was the case in the previous film, District Attorney Markham (E.H. Calvert) and Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette) welcome the assistance of Philo Vance (Powell) solving the mystery.

The screenplay by Louise Long and Bartlett Cormack, based on a story by S.S. Van Dine, is on the creaky side, but the story moves along pretty quickly and Powell is once again enjoyable in the leading role.

As I've noted previously, including in my review of THE SILVER HORDE (1930), the bland Jean Arthur of this era bears no resemblance to the charming star she would become in just a few years' time; she had not yet developed either her "star" appearance or the somewhat whimsical persona we're used to in so many wonderful films. It's rather fascinating watching her early films, given how significantly she would change.

THE GREENE MURDER CASE was directed by Frank Tuttle and filmed by Henry W. Gerrard. Costumes are by the great Travis Banton, but they're not noteworthy here.

Kino Lorber's print is a new 4K restoration. It's on one disc with the other two films in the set, which has a nice cardboard slipcase. The print and sound quality aren't perfect but are more than adequate for a film of this vintage.

The lone extra for this film is a commentary track by Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw.

Update: Here's a review of the final film in the set, THE BENSON MURDER CASE (1930).

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

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