gridoon2024 Review of Philo Vance Returns

Philo Vance Returns (1947)

Clever plot, but too much Leon Belasco

[5/10 · 24 November 2013]

I have now seen all three Philo Vance films that were made, on a very tight budget and schedule as well, in 1947. I think "Philo Vance's Gamble" is the best of the three, while "Philo Vance Returns" is the weakest. The plotting here is again pretty clever, especially in the way it fools you about the motive behind the murders, but a little too much screen time is awarded to the mostly unfunny, and occasionally crass (after finding a woman dead in her bathtub: "At least that's a clean way to die"), "comic relief" character of a Russian musical agent who becomes Philo Vance's sidekick; Frank Jenks was more successful in a similar role in the other two Vance films of the same year. This guy leaves little time for other supporting characters; second-billed Terry Austin, who shone in "Philo Vance's Gamble", has only two short scenes this time! Further down the cast list, Iris Adrian steams up her one and only scene: her stage name may be "Choo Choo" but after seeing her legs you'll be going "Woo Hoo"! ** out of 4.