The Garden Murder Case (1936)

Director:

Edwin L. Marin

Writers:

Bertram Millhauser (screenplay)
S.S. Van Dine (book)

Release Date:

21 February 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery

Plot:

Someone has shot and killed Lowe Hammle and everyone at his 22 room apartment is a suspect. The reasons are as varied as the number of people there...

Plot Keywords:

Horse | Murder | Nurse | Steeplechase | Python

Cast

Edmund Lowe	...	Philo Vance
Virginia Bruce	...	Zalia Graem
Benita Hume	...	Nurse Gladys Beeton
Douglas Walton	...	Floyd Garden
Nat Pendleton	...	Sergeant Ernest Heath
Gene Lockhart	...	Edgar Lowe Hammle
H.B. Warner	...	Major Fenwicke-Ralston
Kent Smith	...	Woode Swift
Grant Mitchell	...	District Attorney Markham
Frieda Inescort	...	Mrs. Madge Fenwicke-Ralston
Henry B. Walthall	...	Dr. Garden
Jessie Ralph	...	Mrs. Hammle
Charles Trowbridge	...	Inspector Colby
Etienne Girardot	...	Dr. Doremus (coroner)

Runtime:

61 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1956) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Santa Anita Race Track, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

First film of Kent Smith.

Movie Connections:

Follows The Casino Murder Case (1935)

Soundtrack:

(The Man on) The Flying Trapeze

Good entry for the Philo Vance series

S.S. Van Dine must have been a shrewd businessman in dealing with Hollywood. Most of the film series' from the studio days were usually confined to one or two studios. But apparently Van Dine must have sold his rights to each book about Philo Vance one at a time. Note that Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, and more all released Philo Vance films. Only Tarzan seemed to get around Hollywood more.

MGM produced the Garden Murder Case and starred Edmund Lowe as the fashionable detective. Of course MGM had the screen's original Philo under contract at the time, but Bill Powell was busy doing The Thin Man at the time and I guess Louis B. Mayer decided to concentrate him there.

Edmund Lowe is a pretty acceptable Philo Vance. Lowe had started out pretty big at the tail end of the silent era with What Price Glory and then with a string of films with Victor McLaglen with their Flagg and Quirt characters. But after McLaglen got his Oscar for The Informer, Lowe seemed to fade into the B picture market.

The Garden Murder Case involves three separate victims, Douglas Walton, Gene Lockhart, and Frieda Inescourt. The sinister atmosphere around the perpetrator kind of gives it away, the mystery is really how all the killings are connected and how they are accomplished.

I will say this though. Vance takes a very big chance in exposing the villain and the last 15 minutes are worthy of Hitchcock.