THE GREENE MURDER CASE (1929)

Detective Philo Vance's next case after THE CANARY MURDER CASE finds William Powell once again taking on a murder mystery that the police appear to be stumped on.  The scene of the crime is a mansion full of Greene family members and their servants.  During the night, two of the family members were shot, one fatally.  The police believe it's just a robbery gone bad, but Powell thinks there's more to it than meets the eye.

Although TGMC was made the same year as TCMC everything about it is an improvement.  The acting is better, the sets look nice, the pace is quick, the mystery is pretty light-weight, but still enjoyable enough.

I can't imagine that modern day audiences would have any interest whatsoever in something like THE GREENE MURDER CASE, but if you do then it's worth checking out if only to see an early talkie of William Powell, Jean Arthur and Eugene Pallette.

THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929)

Very rough around the edges early talkie mystery starting a pre-THIN MAN William Powell as detective Philo Vance.  Apparently a stage performer by the name of the Canary has her hooks into the son of a wealthy banker.  She plans on blackmailing him and when his father goes to talk some sense into her she winds up very dead.  Around the same time a whole slew of wannabe Canary fuckers were hanging around her crib, so now it's up to Philo Vance to figure out who all was there and who did the killing.

Sounds exciting, but it's not in the least.  Powell might have been at the top of his game in the mid-30's, but here with this script he's pretty dull.  But not as dull as those around him!  My Satan, it was torture getting through this...and I love old movies.  If it hadn't been for my curiosity to see a young William Powell and Jean Arthur I probably would've never made it through.  And speaking of Jean Arthur: she has like one minute of screen time.  Louise Brooks doesn't have much more.

Watch it if you want, but I'll never watch it ever again.

MY MAN GODFREY (1936)

[Update 02/07/2021: really need to update and fix this review.]

Two spoiled socialite sisters are out on a scavenger hunt. To win they need a "forgotten man" a.k.a. homeless person. They go to a dump down by the river and see scruffy William Powell sitting outside his shack. They offer him $5 to play along, but he doesn't like the idea of being used like a piece of meat so he causes the one sister the fall into an ash pile. The other sister thinks that was grand and tells Powell so. He takes a liking to her and she even more so to him. He comes along with her, she wins and offers him a job as their new butler.

The next morning he shows up and soon realizes the entire family is spoiled as fook and totally crazy. He stays on as the butler anyway.  The family starts to take a liking to him they realize he's not quite who he seems to be...

The majority of professional critics love this movie, probably because he has a deep social commentary going on beneath the surface, but I'm not a professional critic, just a suicidal idiot who likes his screwballs comedies to actually be funny. I enjoyed MY MAN GODFREY, but I didn't laugh at all. It just wasn't funny. Other Powell screwball comedies of the time like LIBELED LADY or LOVE CRAZY are funny, light-hearted and delightful, but MY MAN GODFREY is kinda a downer with all the homeless people and nonstop talk about money and poverty.  It's still worth a watch (Carole Lombard is worth the piece of admission alone), but it not nearly as knee-slappingly funny as you've been lead to believe.

An odd bit of trivia you might not know: Powell and Lombard had been married in real life, but got divorced in 1933 and from what I've read Powell actually recommended Lombard for the role.

That is not William Powell. Must be a stunt double.